Upcoming demonstration to defend trans rights at UCL
UCL Students’ Union LGBT+ Network are planning a demonstration in support of the trans community at the institution.
The UCL LGBT+ Students’ Network, alongside supportive students, have announced plans to protest outside of a meeting with Michael Spence, UCL’s Provost. At the time of the scheduled demonstration: 3:30-5:00pm on Wednesday 16 February, Spence will be meeting with members of the Network.
UCL decided to sever its links with Stonewall, the UK’s biggest LGBTQ+ charity, due to the Academic Board’s concerns over “academic freedom”. The decision to withdraw from Stonewall’s Diversity Champions Programme and the Workplace Equality Index was announced on 16 December 2021. It was made despite opposition from bodies such as UCL’s SU and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, resulting in significant backlash from staff and student groups.
High profile academics, such as leading queer feminist postcolonial theorist, Sara Ahmed, have publically expressed academic solidarity against UCL’s decision. Ahmed tweeted about her decision to “boycott UCL & any other university that leaves the Stonewall schemes on spurious grounds of ‘academic freedom’ as they are basically using the rhetoric of, and agreeing to, a campaign of harassment directed against trans people and trans inclusive organisations”.
UCL’s Writers’ Society have also resisted the decision, writing an open letter which condemns the university’s “blatant transphobia”. Additionally, a petition was created calling for the institution to rejoin Stonewall. It has accumulated over 6,500 signatures, suggesting widespread dissatisfaction about the decision.
Staff and students have expressed outrage in response to UCL cutting ties with Stonewall. Pi Media talked to Jenna Ali, a student involved in the upcoming demonstration, who explained that the “demonstration provides the opportunity to stand in solidarity with those hurt by the decision to leave Stonewall as well as protest this decision and more broadly the institutional transphobia it reflects”.
She hopes that “Michael Spence will be worried” by the protest and that “UMC [University Management Committee] will be worried that they may actually have to face some consequences for their betrayal of the trans community. Continuous demonstrative action and negative press will eventually lead to [UCL] rejoining Stonewall.”
The upcoming demonstration in support of reaffiliation to the Stonewall scheme is evidence that UCL students and staff will continue to resist this decision. Ali emphasised that those who would like to show their support can gather between 3:30-5:00pm in UCL’s Main Quadrangle this Wednesday. She urged students to “Join the demonstration, first of all! And encourage others to join! You should also vocalise your dissent elsewhere, such as on your social media. Keep up the momentum, don't let your anger fade away.”