Why I Voted ‘Yes’.

I never used to feel particularly passionate about newspapers and the presence of certain ones in shops. I used to think boycotts were the responsibility of individuals, and I used to believe the student union’s role wasn’t to do things about newspapers.

Council boycotted The Sun on Thursday

I don’t believe that anymore. And two things happened that made me change my mind.

Firstly, I came to believe that when someone from an oppressed group tells me that something affects them deeply and personally, and asks for subsequent action, it’s my responsibility as a relatively privileged person to listen to them and give their opinion more weight than my own on that issue.

When a woman tells me something I say is sexist, it’s not my place to tell her that it isn’t but to listen and to make sure I’m not sexist in future. And when a woman tells me that not selling The Sun will help them feel less denigrated, and that it will help in the fight against sexism, I give that opinion more weight because it comes from someone directly affected. Of course, there are women who disagree with stopping the sale of the Sun, and I similarly give their opinion more weight on this issue than my own.

The second reason I changed my opinion on boycotts was personal. The Sun has chosen to start running headlines that incited hatred against mentally disabled people – people like me – and to encourage you to be afraid of me. And I became uncomfortable with the idea that my fellow students would walk past a headline that called people like me a murderer, without me being able to answer back and prove them wrong; without me getting the opportunity to prove that mentally disabled people are not “broken people”. Without me getting the opportunity to say that we’re not broken, just different.

That’s the thing about free speech, of course. Some people get more speech than others do.

A student union democratically voting not to sell a publication isn’t the same as David Cameron outlawing the Guardian, imprisoning all the journalists and beating up anyone who dares to read a liberal newspaper. It’s more like me saying I don’t want The Sun in my house, because I don’t believe in what it stands for and I don’t want to give it any free advertising. The student union and all its property are our spaces, and we can say what’s welcome there – and what isn’t.

Ultimately, there are several debates around this issue: whether we should boycott The Sun, whether we have the right to, how democratic union council is and whether a referendum is the right course of action. These discussions are important to have in our student union, especially when some of them concern fundamental questions about how our union is governed. But I think we were right to boycott The Sun, and it is my belief that we also had the right to do so.

I want to finish by saying this: I’ve seen plenty of comments calling those of us who voted for the boycott “hippies”, and calling this an academic decision taken by out-of-touch middle class people. For me, this decision wasn’t academic. It was personal. I have Asperger’s Syndrome and when The Sun incites hatred against mentally ill people, it’s inciting hatred against me.

I voted to stop selling The Sun because its presence scares me. The fact that anyone thinks we should proudly display a newspaper that thinks I’m not a proper human being, or that we should act neutrally while mentally disabled people face stigma and discrimination, scares me. And the idea that The Sun should be allowed to spew its hatred into my face without repercussions disgusts me.

This was the right decision to take. And I will always be proud of my vote, and proud of my union for standing up for oppressed groups.