Meet your candidates: SU LGBTQUA+ Officer

Meet the candidates running to be your next Students’ Union LGBTQUA+ Officer in this year’s spring elections.

Jacob Gagg

Hello! I’m Jacob, my pronouns are he/him, and I’m standing to be your next LGBTQUA+ officer. I’m a first-year PAIS student here at Warwick, I love all things musical theatre, and I’m currently obsessed with WandaVision. Drawing from my experience as LGBTQUA+ Officer for the Bournemouth Constituency Labour Party, I will work with the Student Council to represent the queer community on campus. I will stand with marginalised groups within the community and tackle stereotypes of what being queer means, push for greater access to LGBTQUA+ specific mental health resources, and work to encourage university-wide pronoun usage.

Why are you running for this role?

As cliché as it sounds, I am running for this role to bring about much-needed change to the university and make it a more inclusive environment for everyone. We’ve all struggled recently, so it’s everyone’s job to make sure we support one another. I want to make sure everyone can get this, particularly those of us in the LGBTQUA+ community who feel disproportionately more isolated than our fellow students.

What, in your opinion, most needs changing at Warwick?

In my opinion, and I’m sure many of us feel the same way, what most needs changing at Warwick is how harassment and sexual assault are dealt with at the university. The pandemic has left many people much more vulnerable to abuse, so the SU and university must be able to provide the right support for victims, hold abusers to account, and tackle the climate on campus that allows this as a whole.

What has been your favourite memory from your time at Warwick?

Spending more than half of my time at Warwick in lockdown has really challenged my own expectations for life at university. So, as simple as it might sound, my favourite memory at Warwick has to be when my flatmates and I organised a movie night in the first term. At the time, I was still really unsure of myself, so just being able to chill out and get to know new friends helped me feel more at home.

Noga Levy-Rapoport and Kirsten Marner-Foley ENE

Hey, we’re Noga Levy-Rapoport (she/he/they) and Kirsten Marner-Foley (she/her), and we’re co-running to be your LGBT+ Officers. Between us, we have extensive organising experience, from representing pride clubs to leading nationwide social justice campaigns.

There is a crucial lack of appropriate education and support on campus for queer people – we need resources for same-sex sexual assault, relevant sex education and a centralised support and information hub. As queer officers, alongside the rest of the Education Not Exploitation (ENE) team, we will fight for the right of queer people to have a fulfilling and inclusive university experience.

Why are you running for this role?

We all have our own stories, often marred by homophobia and transphobia that we have had to overcome. But there is more to our existence than trauma; the difficulties we face aren’t what make us queer – it’s the way we love that should bring us together. As queer officer hopefuls, we want to ensure that everyone has a place to talk about their own experiences, without talking over one another or competing with each other for our own liberation.

What, in your opinion, most needs changing at Warwick?

Queer people at Warwick deserve a caring community that may previously have been out of reach. This is not being delivered. Many of us require a support system that caters to the queer experience, and mental health services are already critically underfunded and overstretched for those who don’t have to suffer queer traumas. It is crucial for the wellbeing of queer students across campus that we urgently build an effective community support network for all those who may be struggling.

What has been your favourite memory from your time at Warwick?

My favourite memory has to be my kitchen’s ‘Taskmaster’ night during the first lockdown. Without all my flatmates taking part in stupid tasks and games edited into a cute video, this pandemic-impeded year probably would have been pretty lonely.  – Noga 

As cheesy as it sounds, my favourite part of this year has been making amazing friends. University has allowed me to find people I would’ve never had the chance to meet, but that I’m so glad I have. – Kirsten

Disclaimer: candidates’ answers have not been edited. The opinions featured here do not reflect the opinions of The Boar.