Trans rights and the supreme court

[lnr]

Unions now have a meeting on Thursday with the Pro-VC, senior HR and EDI people. I'm going to be attending on behalf of UCU, along with our Equalities Officer Amanda. Our main requests are better communication of actual practical support for staff and students, not changing policies without consultation based on the rushed EHRC interim guidance, and asking for them to contribute to the consultation. There's a lot more subtle stuff involved, but that's kind of the absolute minimum.

It turns out I'm now having trouble getting back to sleep if I wake in the night, because I'm too busy thinking about how the hell we communicate this properly, and what our chances of success are in ensuring trans, intersex and non-binary people continue to be treated with dignity and respect and remain safe at work. Because that feels like a really basic thing to be asking for when you put it like that.

My HoD finally got back to me yesterday, to reiterate support, but it's meaningless if it's only said to *me*, and not to all staff and students.

Comments

[lnr]

Unfortunately it was cancelled at 2 hours notice: the pro-VC has done his back in! It's due to be rescheduled in the next couple of weeks.

We'd encourage them to communicate in the meantime, but I'm not sure we trust them to say anything without talking to us first, so we've put out our own brief statement:

https://bsky.app/profile/cambridgeucu.bsky.social/post/3lpual6bbbc27

[vyvyanx]

Your response looks very kind and helpful. However, if I were a current trans CU student or staff member, I might remain unsure about what the union's stance would be in the event that Senior Management decide that trans students and staff should no longer use their bathrooms of choice. ("In the meantime...we will support everyone in using their bathroom of choice" could be interpreted as meaning that the union's support might end at some future point.)

I'm really not trying to be difficult - I know you are completely supportive - I'm just thinking about how those posts might read to someone who doesn't know you!

[lnr]

Argh, yes. You're right that that's not what we meant, but I can see how it could be interpreted that way. I will try and reword for the branch newsletter!