NUS candidate’s posters destroyed in homophobic attack

A homophobic student ripped down posters of a UEA candidate for NUS National Conference – because he is openly gay.

Daniel Wrigglesworth, the Union’s LGBT+ officer, described how his friend Sam Jones came across a fellow UEA student destroying his election posters outside the Shop on Monday.

Jones said: “I was walking from the Shop, back to the pub, when three guys walked up to me, and asked me what the posters were for. One guy was quite tall, brown haired with a strong accent, which I found out was Ukrainian.

“I said they were for the NUS, and I started to explain what the NUS was, as he was obviously a foreign student, but he was like, “But this guy is gay?”

“I said yeah, but that’s not why he’s running. He said, “Yeah, but he’s making it like it’s normal to be gay.”

“I told him it was normal and asked him where he was from. He said Ukraine.

“I explained it was normal to be gay here. He said: “No, it’s disgusting”, and then he ripped two of Daniel’s posters down.

“I told them he couldn’t do that, and two of his friends were like, “Sorry about him, he’s just being a dick”.

“I went back inside to tell the bouncer, but they’d run off.”

Jones added: “They weren’t threatening at all. He just seemed angry that an openly gay person should be allowed to run.”

The homophobic vandalism is thought to have taken place at around 8:30pm-9pm on Monday evening.

Wrigglesworth later took to Facebook to issue an impassioned statement about the incident.

When asked for further comment, he told The Tab:

“My campaign in all honestly just got bigger. I think when things like this happen you have to just embrace it. Like I said in my statement, I own my sexuality.

“So I urge everyone to listen to the song ‘Everyone is Gay’ as they vote for me.”

The incident is now under investigation by the Union.