Universities for GC DDs- Stonewall's influence

[Maverick197]

My DD is starting Uni in 2025, we live in SE England and Southampton Uni stood out as a top choice. We were planning to attend the open day this summer and in the meantime I requested a prospectus. Prospectus arrived, first page states "Our Community" and devotes the page to LGBTQ+ community quoting a non-binary student with they/them pronouns. This is literally on the first page of the prospectus. What really bothers me is that no other student community groups are mentioned, so clearly of secondary importance. The prospectus shows quotes from students, all showing the students pronouns (in all cases the students picture shows that they are obviously male or female, why the need to list pronouns?)

I Googled Southampton's gender identity policy that includes links to Stonewall and states that "We encourage staff and students to share their preferred pronouns, for example in email signatures and during introductions on a Teams call or in person."
Also looks like they are big into unisex facilities and I know that for example their study library does not have female only toilets.

My DD rolled her eyes and asked if all unis are like this. Is Southampton particularly impacted by Stonewall's influence? Does anyone have a list of universities that have not drank the Stonewall cool-aid? My DD is really tired of rainbow flags and pronouns being rammed down her throat especially in education settings. I am noticing a similar feeling amongst her peer group.

My DC’s uni also has no female sex toilets in their library - they have the ‘female symbol’ on the door but also have a sign inside saying they are available to anyone and you shouldn’t challenge anyone in there (I don’t know if the men’s is the same).

@SaffronSpice so basically no female toilets then, that's such a shame for girls who want to use the library and use a female only toilet. What uni is that if I may ask?

I'm starting to worry that going to uni in the UK in this day and age means having to put up with Stonewall's ideology and erasure of female only spaces or else...

Can only speak from experience. My DD is at Warwick, is very GC and has found it easy to avoid. The girls careers org is very terfy, apparently.

I think Reading would be ok as there’s where Jo Phoenix is working now and I think the university has been very supportive of her. I don’t have any experience of it though.

@FragileIsAsFragileDoes glad to hear that your GC DD has been able to avoid the stonewall madness at Warwick and carry on with her studies, which is really what I want for my DD as well.

Thanks @GrandmaMazur ! Reading is actually on our list, I've booked an open day for June. Sounds really positive that they have supported Jo Phoenix, I just found an article that states that Reading Uni has paused it's involvement with Stonewall in 2023, so that sounds very positive indeed!

Also I seem to remember hearing something about Buckingham University (which is a private organisation - not sure what that means in terms of fees, etc) being more geared to critical thinking. Not sure they have a full range of courses but might be worth a look?

I've just done a text search of the prospectus of the uni my younger DD is putting as first choice (2024 entry) and there is NO reference to LGBT at all. Health, well-being and chaplaincy, as well as disabilities. Ironically, she is not GC.

It's worth looking at the actual faculty your dd would be part of. At institutional level my university looks captured in a big way, prospectuses, website all blaring the trans flag etc. but on the ground in my faculty no one mentions it. So the lecture experience wouldn't be impacted at all.

@Arrestedmanevolence that's a really good point, thanks! Maybe we wont write off Southampton just yet then, we will go to the open day and see. My DD finds it difficult to know how much the very obvious pandering to Stonewall's ideology impacts the students day to day life, but good to hear that you have found it not to be the case on faculty level.

I'm hoping that Stonewall's grip on educational institutions will slowly start loosening thanks to the Cass report.

Definitely second you looking at the department and faculty level as university corporate comms is a different beast to lectures and seminars.

Also look at the various groups that students and faculty have set up - many free-speech oriented groups are springing up indicating your DD could find likeminded peers if such a group is present.

Nothing wrong with directly emailing the university and asking outright whether GC views are welcome there. It should be on their radar that parents are worried about this. I would never in a million years for instance send my child to University of Sussex after their treatment of Kathleen Stock.

Also worth quizzing them in emails about the toilet provision - I know there are some good resources on the law around this out there (I think Sex Matters has some) so why not ask the question as a worried parent whether your daughter would be able to access female only toilets?

Thanks @BeyondHumanKenneth good point regarding emailing the uni directly with my concerns, I am curious to hear how they would respond. As you say, GC views should rightly be on their radar as I imagine other parents are also concerned about these issues.

Some good points on this thread, thank you all for your responses!

<nods vigorously>

The VC has defended freedom of speech and, after a trans protest where the university was accused of all sorts, made it clear that no-one has the right not to be offended.

https://www.reading.ac.uk/news/2022/University-News/VC-comment-strengthen-freedom-and-support

My son was asked, “Which pronoun badge do you want?” by the person greeting new students at his college, at Durham University, at the beginning of Freshers’ Week. He wasn’t perturbed by this, but it was literally the first thing that was said when he arrived at university, and it did remind me that the world has really changed.

Oh no, that just shows how infiltrated the trans ideology has become in education, wearing pronoun badges is now considered normal 🙁

Most universities are currently 'captured'. However i) I'm hopeful that this is beginning to change, ii) as previous posters have mentioned, the situation within individual departments can be very different.

If having potential academic allies is important to your daughter she could look at whether an institution has an Academics for Academic Freedom branch and/or signatories of various open letters. (I've been contacted by the mother of a potential applicant due to the later.)

I thought exactly the same as I opened the Southampton prospectus OP - and it produced a massive eye roll from my y12 dc

I wonder how much central marketing teams are to blame? There has been a lot more money pumped into promoting universities and chasing the youth market. They are paying a fortune to marketing agencies that are telling them that DEI representation sells courses. That might work well if they were a fashion brand but unis are slow and clunky and now behind trend.

The rainbow and pronoun promotion is going to age like yoghurt and already is treated as very passé by today's 16 and 17 year olds. If post office vans are now sporting the rainbow, you know that the trend has become mainstream and therefore highly unappealing to young people. And that's without taking GC views into consideration.

Does Southampton recruit students overseas much? I can see it counting against them in some markets.

I've looked on the Southampton website and on a cursory first glance can't see any lgbt information.

So perhaps it is just used as a sales USP in the prospectus rather than being part of the culture? Also less visible to the overseas markets as PP mentioned.

When I was out street flying for Fair Play for Women in 2018 I was approached by a female student from Durham Uni (she was on a day trip to my city accompanied by her mum). She told me that there was a strong push for the ‘best’ toilets in the student union bar to be rebadged as gender neutral, which the female students were staunchly against because they were particularly convenient conveniences and making them anything but female only would result in a take over by pissed up posh blokes after sports fixtures.
She was very pleased to see me and took all the leaflets/resource recommendations I had to give.
Whether the female students of Durham have been successful in preserving their loos I could not say, but as the trans influence is no longer the trendy zeitgeist, I suspect OPs daughter will find the glossy prospectus not particularly indicative of the students en roll in 2025.

Some courses will be probably still be awash with it, but not the majority.

Whatever the ‘thing’ is, fuddy-duddies using the thing in printed brochures signals the thing is rapidly losing it’s appeal to the young!

Prospectus arrived, first page states "Our Community" and devotes the page to LGBTQ+ community quoting a non-binary student with they/them pronouns. This is literally on the first page of the prospectus.

That's terrible.
Quoting someone who's non binary, anyone seeing that will automatically want to be trans too!
They'll catch the trans or gay.

<disclaimer>
eye rolly sarcasm

That is very much not what the poster meant and you know it, despite your disingenuousness.

Let's hope female students in Durham still have their single sex loo!

The last part about fuddy-duddies made me chuckle, I hope you are right!

Glad to hear I wasn't the only one who though the prospectus was disappointing! A prospectus should be neutral and appeal to all, not just to one group of people.

Glad to say that the Uni of Sheffield prospectus had no pronouns in sight!

I think you are right about the pronoun promotion being passé, my 17 year old DD and her friends are tired of it.

I think the ship has started turning, but it will take a while to be reflected in eg prospectuses.

As others say, go and judge it on a ground visit.

Warwick and Southampton is what I heard. But from what you are saying that could be outdated.