Universities overtaken by trans propaganda

[happydappy2]

As its graduation time, many parents will be visiting their kids Unis and be able to see 1st hand what flags are flying....I was not surprised to see lots of huge trans flags flying at NTU (Nottingham Trent Uni) Trans/pride colours painted on road crossings, local shops decorated with trans flags etc etc. Please share your Uni sightings here-any not supporting this current fad? No wonder our youth are so confused.

We've been visiting a few for open days and I've come to the conclusion they're all overrun with TRAs.

My dc graduated from Surrey a couple of weeks ago. Maybe I'm just really unobservant but I didn't see any flags at all.

We didn't go into the town (Guildford) just the uni campus and cathedral so I don't know what the shops and general area are like for flags, posters, etc.

My dh got ‘trapped’ in the unisex toilets at the York open day because when he came out of the cubicle there was a group of students doing a social media video promoting the free sanitary products in the toilets and he couldn’t get to the exit.

I visited Loughborough a month or so ago and saw their pride parade, ruled out despite having one very (and one quite) sporty child

I wouldn’t rule it out. dS25 did very well at Loughborough and is very GC. He just ignored the TRAs - and much depends on the course. Apparently they weren’t a big presence in the STEM subject he took.

Between the unis I know through work and the ones we’ve visited this year with DS2 you’ll be hard pressed to find one with no TRAs.

At Manchester we were told about the bursaries that women, or those ‘identifying as women’, could apply for. These are bursaries to encourage women to study science.

I agree with you about Loughborough. One of my dds goes there to train for her sport all of the time and the university itself is fine. Probably because it attracts a lot of students with outside interests and more going on in their lives than the average cohort.

If you rule out any town with a pride parade you won’t have many options left…

Ds just graduated. He has pronouns in his email signature which he has every right to do, but I can’t see any sign that he is converted to any form of belief, except a wish that his work makes some kind of contribution that feels worthwhile to him. Tbh I would focus more on the fact that law and policy are far better to the GC viewpoint than they were 5 years ago. Sport rules have been largely sorted out, the SC ruling means that single sex means exactly that where it exists, there is more recognition that statistics should reflect sex as well as gender. If your aim is for your child never to encounter uncomfortable ideas, university is an odd thing to encourage.

It's maddening! You'd think a project connected to science would stick to facts.

It must be hard for anyone studying sport or similar to any professional level, to keep up a pretence that male and female bodies can morph into each other. You might have just arrived on a day when a small minority was making a show/noise (that unfortunately for the University, risks losing it decent applicants)?

Loughborough as a town beyond the University seems a pretty sensible place, possibly because it seems to have a quite stable working class vibe?

Be reassured that many many academics think it’s a load of bollocks. We are more concerned about the barriers to HE for those with physical disabilities and also about class barriers.

Snd academics themselves still see around a 15% sex-based pay gap.

That may now be illegal since it excludes men who don't identify as women?

DS2 has asked to go to the Manchester open day again this autumn as he wasn’t sure about subjects when we went last autumn and we had one of his friends with us as well - a bit disorganised. I will be listening very carefully if we go. If the same thing is said again I will speak to the staff presenter once DS2 is out of sight.

I was enraged by it, quite frankly. A donor has given money to support young women studying science after possibly years of being overlooked - or worse - in school. (My physics teacher made jokes about women scientists. I hope that was left behind in the 80s, but who knows.) And then someone decides that ‘women’ can include people who spent almost their entire school career as male, thus reducing the amount of money available for actual deserving women.

We went to Manchester and the flags reminded me of WW2 era. Felt very oppressive.

Bath University: “cross with pride”.
No idea why this sign is here.

The accommodation has options for over 21, no alcohol, quiet, LGBTQ+ and Single Sex. Later Single Gender was mentioned. Absolutely no idea if women are women or TWAW…. You’d have to tick the box and find out on the day you moved in…?

Reading Uni open day in June was interesting. A group of trans students/TRAs decided to hold a protest march and rally aimed at the university’s toilet policy. Lots of “we are being denied the right to go to the toilet all day. This is inhumane”. Lots of chanting, shouting, flag wearing.

Lots of visiting sixth form pupils from the local colleges looked very uncomfortable. The majority of these were Muslim. I would have thought that the 6th formers wearing hijabs and abayas might have strong views about sharing female spaces with an adult with a penis.

Lots of parents of 6th formers looked very uncomfortable and bemused. Many were muttering about this being neither the time nor the place during an Open Day. The protesting students got what they wanted… attention.

We have been to many Open Days. This was the only protest we saw. Reading will not be on the list of 5 because it all just felt bloody ridiculous.

My DD won’t be at Uni for 6 years but the more I hear the less I’m keen for her to go. It seems that if you don’t tow the party line (trans activism, Palestine etc) it would be a very difficult life to lead. Why can’t people just get a higher education and be left to believe whatever they want

Not witnessed flags or even been there recently, but quite a few students seem to decide they're trans, or non-binary or some other made up thing after spending time at Edinburgh Uni.

DS university it was the Gaza issue on graduation day this year.

Jo Phoenix was (and still is?) employed by Reading after her tribunal against the Open University, so the University itself (as opposed to the demonstrators complaining about it) may be quite sensible. The fact that their toilet policy is deemed demo-worthy might suggest so too.

It was Nottingham pride last weekend OP, there are flags everywhere at the moment.

As.a previous posted indicated - the protest is actually indicative of Reading Uni being one of the few institutions to go early with a statement that single sex facilities mean single sex!

https://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/news/25283191.university-reading-explains-plans-police-new-toilet-policy/

Really? That’s not the case with Uni of Nottingham. But Nottingham Council is captured, sadly.

Yes. Good for Reading.

Yes, Reading has a VC who is very good on protecting academic freedom and female staff. It's probably the best place to be if you're GC.

@BarbaraLSB@GCAcademic@HeggettypegI am sure that you are all correct about Reading and it’s VC. I did indeed wonder if the Uni is getting something right if the TRAs are protesting.

But, and this is the tricky bit to explain, the atmosphere was really off. Open Days are so important for young people to get a feel of a uni and it can be overwhelming. It was a Friday and a number of local colleges/ 6th forms had brought in groups of young students. I would say over half of the young people visiting were with their friends rather than parents. Many of those were Muslim students who looked incredibly uncomfortable at the protesters (who were very loud and in the middle of the main campus at lunchtime when people were queuing for food and drinks).

The protestors undoubtedly saw it as a fantastic opportunity to get their message across and shame the VC to backtrack. But I suspect that many of the visitors were uncomfortable about the protest on what is meant to be a day for 16/17 year olds to get a first look at what their future might look like.

The day felt hijacked and at no point was there any acknowledgment from the Uni both during and after the protest. Not even a follow up email explaining the situation (despite the many follow up emails about courses and clearing etc).

In the days of universities having to fight for bums on seats and funding, I fear that the TRAs turned off a good number of applicants that day.