Anyone else work at a Uni?

[Phunkychicken]

Just having a uni wide 'meeting' - much pressure from the LGBTQ+ group about what they are going to do re the SC ruling to ensure trans staff/students are safe - management saying they're seeking guidance on what to do practically going forward. Tentatively posted that some of us welcome the ruling and have had 6 thumbs up - so they're at least 6 of us.

It's so hard not giving myself away but the push back has been insane

Yes me. Haven’t seen the pushback yet (my dept is probably insulated) but noticed posters for ‘mixed gender’ LGBTQ+ friendly sports in the SU this morning

I do. My uni is going to have to change its trans and NB policy as it clearly breaks the law. I work in an all women team and we all supported the SC ruling - though we wouldn't have openly discussed the topic with each other before the ruling.

We had one of those this morning too and a few male colleagues questioned the impact of the ruling. I was rolling my eyes so hard. Well done for raising it in such a public forum.

Slight derail, but how ever did you manage to discover that everyone supported it? (Also, how lucky you are!)

I do, and all very quiet so far. I had a look yesterday to see if any policies had been changed and they are currently 'under review'.

Many of us are being moved to a new building which I think has individual cubicles which neatly gets around at least one of the issues, no good for the students and staff left behind in some really old spaces.

It's just scary how loud the trans and ally voice is and that there's no equivalent women (or biological sex matters) voice as we're all too scared of even outing ourselves to each other, let alone the wider community.

Yes, not a peep out of HR/People team/EDIB department as of yet. They’ve been silent on it.

I do know that there are many, many quietly GC people here that have spoken to me in person about it. So I’m eagerly listening out.

@TwoLoonsAndASprout - at a team lunch.

In a discussion about a 'controversial' upcoming event, I made a sarcastic joke along the lines of 'well at least we know what we are now' and the others laughed and agreed, and we spoke about how we felt about the ruling. We all said how relieved we were that we shared this view and could talk about it together.

Before the ruling, I'm not sure any of us would have shared our views. Which is really sad - especially at a university where you're supposed to challenge and interrogate ideas.

We've received all staff emails saying they are committed to respect/inclusion of everyone regardless of gender identity or sexuality. (Not sex apparently).

STEM department and no mention yet.

Safety is taken seriously here (sat in a building full of chemicals, electronics and workshop machinery) so someone saying they feel "unsafe" would be viewed in that context.

Yup, my university has a note on its LGBTQ-whatever webpages that policy is currently under review. If they persist with the policy as it was, they'll be breaking the law in several ways.

The trans inclusion policy was apparently written by students, so ...

I'm reading all the posts on this thread, and wondering how many of you work at my place! We're extremely captured.

Alternatively, all our posts document how widespread the madness is in the HE sector.

Total silence on it in our place. Almost like it hasn't happened!!

Not working at a University but how long can they keep things "under review"?

Feels at the moment that all the pushback by TRA etc has (temporarily) has almost made the situation worse.

At our place I think as long as it takes for the lawyers to work out the legal position

I work at a university which is totally captured. There’s been a lot of action in the staff intranet, all very anti women. I’ve felt quite upset by it all. I don’t realise that particular individuals were captured.

Some of our documents have been removed from the intranet, but only the ones about trans people.

We have been told we are not changing our policies (sigh) and are holding listening events for LBGTQ+ colleagues. Which I am actually fine with, as I imagine it is a shock being told university policy is one thing and the SC thinks another. I mean, we're not all lawyers and you should be able to trust your institution's policies are legally compliant.

But I asked publicly if our messaging could reflect support for women and my comment was overruled by someone very senior. I need my job and can't challenge :/

@KafkasScooter I'm wondering if we work in the same uni/department!

I'm in a field that fairly predictably leans GC. There's been remarkably little said aloud within the department about this issue over the past few years, to the extent that it feels like an elephant in the room. In the wider university, nothing.

Ours has said nothing at all as I expected but the trans policy is still up with the ' use the facilities you want to ' advice.

@Threeforks Just checked, and ours was co-designed with students too.

My uni put something on the intranet to say they would wait until the full EHRC guidance comes out to respond fully to the ruling.

Ours has policies under review, and only today sent out a carefully worded seemingly neutral paragraph re the supreme court ruling and posted a link to the staff support line.

However the lack of concern for transgender staff and students was noted by a colleague and their suggestion that our department should send something further out was shut down by their manager. We are sending something out about Pride though, which they are seeing as a coded measure of support for trans staff and students following the ruling.

The thing is now it has all been said out loud it could be very costly for them if they don’t comply with the guidance. As others have said - insurance will not cover them as they now know

An Open Letter with all the usual nonsensical claims--Not In Our Name: Feminist Academics and Educators Speak Out Against Transphobia:

docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1UZmaZ4QCXU-b-NcBManyo9-AIZtQlxLDWpTP09goaiY/mobilebasic

I wish there was a GC support network at my university (which is very pro-TQ) but I suspect that the powerful pro-trans lobby would try to shut it down. Isn’t there an ongoing court case brought by a trans person which seeks to shut down such a staff network?

I do like these open letters, they are ever so helpful. My favourite signatory: “Mx Bima Loxley, sex therapist, UK” - I guess that’s a practice-based colleague …?