Langwith election candidates slammed by LGBTQ committee member

A current Trans* Convenor on YUSU LGBTQ liberation network has discouraged people from voting for two Langwith College LGBTQ Officer candidates.

In her statement, Ashley Reed said: “Alex Talberg and Alice King are running on a platform that I fundamentally disagree with.”

In a Facebook post published yesterday, Ashley encouraged people in Langwith College to either vote for the opposing candidate or to re-open nominations for different LGBTQ Officers.

An extract from Ashley’s post

Her predominant issue with Alex and Alice’s platform was the encouragement of a Gay-Straight Alliance within the LGBTQ community, which Ashley responded to directly, saying: “anyone is allowed to attend [LGBTQ] events… [but] we do not explicitly encourage ‘allies’ to do so”.

She believes “if this GSA policy is introduced in any scale, it will have a detrimental effect on groups marginalised within the LGBTQ community.”

Alex and Alice have since responded to Ashley’s statement, saying “The intentions of our campaign have always been positive, however we think it is important we reiterate that the term ‘Gay-Straight alliance’ was used being it is the precedent having been used successfully in the past.

“However, this does not mean we have any intention to neglect people who do not identify with being either gay or straight. Following messages from others, we instead referred to the policy as a ‘LGBTQ-Straight alliance’ at the Langwith hustings.

“Regardless, the intention has always been to include all LGBTQ members. The critics have failed to actually argue with the benefits this policy could have.

“This idea could encourage potential LGBTQ members who are worried about attending an LGBTQ event to do so by enabling them to take a non-LGBTQ friend along so they have a friendly face with them, and hence the prospect of going to an event, or potentially coming out is less daunting. ”

“Secondly, the idea enables non-LGBTQ people to show their support for LGBTQ.”

Alex and Alice

In defence of her actions, Ashley Reed told The Tab: “Ultimately this drama is a result of Alex and Alice refusing to listen.

“I submitted a complaint to the LGBTQ Officers are they attempted to convince them to change their policies on the basis of what I and others have (privately) said. This was ignored.

“I then got in touch and told them I would come out against them publicly if they didn’t change it. This was ignored.

“I then came out publicly against them. I posted this on their event and they deleted it, leaving only my post on my personal FB. This was unfortunate as I then received several friend requests, all of whom immediately decided to argue with me on my post.

“As it is on my personal page, I feel no need to argue with complete strangers and do not think that removing these people from my friends list is censoring them. The only censorship here was committed by Alex and Alice, who shut down the post on their event page.”

Another member from the LGBTQ committee has told the Tab they “ashamed to be a  part of the network that is encouraging [this level of harassment]”.

A spokesperson for Langwith said: “The college and returning officers cannot comment on individual policies.

“The returning officers work with the college to ensure that the elections are run fairly and smoothly and that appropriate welfare support is in place for all candidates.

“The college also puts a strong focus on equality and diversity as well as the welfare and wellbeing of all members of the community.

“The college will be working with all those elected to the new committee to support them in delivering representative policy that supports all sections of the community in a respectful, inclusive and non-discriminatory manner.”