Pride Week tackles prejudice
Week Seven at Warwick saw what has been dubbed the most successful on-campus celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, undefined and asexual people in recent years.
Students from all backgrounds got involved in a week-long series of events, talks and workshops aimed at highlighting diversity and freedom in sexuality.
With comprehensive support from the Students’ Union, Pride Week attracted prominent speakers covering a large variety of issues not normally dealt with in mainstream culture. Topics included sado-masochism, asexuality, transexuality and polyamory, amongst others.
According to organiser Lev Taylor, the week aimed to “smash prejudice and raise awareness for the Campus community who wouldn’t normally have access to this kind of information”.
Taylor claimed the week “confronted everyone with scary images they would usually be afraid of” to try to eliminate ignorance.
He emphasised the importance of accepting difference in society and spoke of the fact that a great deal of Warwick students “go on a gap year to experience different cultures without realising there are just as many different lifestyles going on a lot closer to home in bars down the street and next door”.
Charlie Cosham, a third year English Literature student felt that the week was “a vital step for increasing acceptance at the university. The debates and interaction that Warwick Pride Week encourages brings pressing issues to the foreground and encourages people from all backgrounds to get involved and have their say”.
The week is seen to have addressed issues important both for gay people and the straight community.
The university’s “Queer Activists” spoke of their encouragement over the high turnout at many of the events during the week, in particular the BBC documentary on asexuality, which “starred” Warwick students.
The majority of the people who attended the events were non-Pride members who believed that “being free about sexuality is beneficial for everyone, straight or gay”.
This dedicated Warwick Pride Week attempts to further the society’s goals of welfare, socials and campaigning for all members of the Warwick community.
It creates a “real chance to give autonomy, pride and social emancipation on campus”, and allows people to “overcome their difficulties and help others get over their own barriers”, Taylor claimed.
To this end, Wednesday 25th November is set to see an increase in activism against the current discrimination of homosexuality;
The National Blood Service will be on campus for the first time in a number of years but does not allow any “man who’s had sex with another man, even safe sex” to give blood.
Warwick Pride are organising a petition against this ban because they consider it to be an example of unfair discrimination.
They hope that this action will “give high hopes if not to end the ban, to make it less discriminatory for gay and bisexual men and women at the University and in the wider community”.
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that the event had been cancelled as a rulset of high security risks and a lack of co-operation from the police that meant they had no choice but to call off the event.Just yesterday, Serbian President Boris Tadic warned against creating an “atmosphere of chaos'” and “threats and violence”. He said: “The state will do everything to protect people, whatever their national, religious, sexual or political orientation, and no group must resort to threats and violence, or take justice into its own hands and jeopardize the lives of those who think or are different.”In a statement, the organisers of the event said a “full security study was commissioned more than three months ago by pride organisers and executed by the university defence department constructing a detailed strategy for all logistical possibilities to carry out pride safely with full instructions for how police would secure pride participants entrance to the parade, their safety during the event and their ability to leave the event unmolested.They added that the “study also made detailed recommendations for preventative measures that could be taken by police in the months leading up to pride to minimise the risk of violence.” But they claim that the “police did not undertake these measures and despite months of meetings with pride organisers and daily meetings in the past two weeks have failed to act on security measures, instead choosing thetactic of pressurising organisers to cancel the event.”