About Us
Welcome to Bradford MSGI. MSGI stands for Minority Sexual and Gender Identities and mainly represents Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) students, but is also inclusive of all other minorities (asexual, queer, polyamorous, BDSM, etc.) Please let us know if there's any way we can assist you.
Bradford MSGI is a society with three aims:
- To create a social space for students to meet and enjoy themselves in a safe environment. See our events for more.
- To provide pastoral care to suit the needs of our students, such as organising trips to sexual health clinics and information on coming out. Specific links are on our Issues pages.
- To campaign on issues that affect MSGI students, such as civil partnerships, discrimination, and phobic bullying. See our current campaigns.
We meet every Thursday during term-time at 7:30pm. Please email one of the executive if you are interested in coming and and we will have someone meet you.
See the events page for all the details of what we're up to.
Starting at Bradford in Sep 2008?
Contact us via ku.gro.tbgldrofdarb|ofni#ku.gro.tbgldrofdarb|ofni with any questions etc.
We can also arrange to meet-up discreetly during Freshers' Week if you are not comfortable coming to any events. Just email us.
Latest News
Hi all,
I hope you are all enjoying the holidays!
Just thought I would give you an update of what has been happening in the society this year (just in case you are new to the mailing list, or was particularly sleepy during meetings)
The most obvious change is that we have changed from Bradford LGBT to Bradford MSGI (Minority Sexuality and Gender Identities). We voted on this at our farewell BBQ, in order to ensure Queer inclusion to the society. We also welcomed in our new exec late this semester, lets hope their as good as the last lot.
We have changed the meeting place for next year to be Meeting Room 1 (MR1) in the Students Union, and we have so fabulously painted the door purple to make it lovely for you. MR1 is now the home of the Robbie Ross Liberation Library, which is our library on LGBTQ issues.
We now have our new website, which is constantly improving www.bradfordlgbt.org.uk The site is a wiki, so if you choose to become a member, you can alter things and help us add resources, etc. I will be sending you all an invite to join the site, so if you get something from me that looks like spam, don't be scared!
We now have LGBT and Christian, Islam, Sikh, Baha'i and Earth-based religion resources on the site, due to our recent LGBT and Faith campaign, that got kicked off with the LGBT and Islam talk. We now have a fledgling trans and queer resources page, as well as sexual health info, interviews with lgbt activists, and info about our social events on there.
Besides LGBT Faith, we have done work on other campaigns. Last month we got into the Telegraph and Argus and on the local radio to discuss our Donation not Discrimination campaign and our really successful demo. Jess also got on the Radio at another time to discuss the society. We also sent a strong delegation to the NUS LGBT conference to discuss NUS liberation policy. Members of our society put in motions on civil partnerships, asexuality, polyamoury, bdsm solidarity and queer inclusion. We also sent a group down to London to protest the (what we thought would be imminent) deportation of LGBT asylum seeker Mehdi Kazemi to Iran, where he was facing execution for simply being gay. Mehdi has been given (not indefinite) leave to remain in the UK, so at the moment he is relatively safe but not out of the water. The deportation of Mehdi Kazemi, as well as the recent deportation scares for other LGBTQ asylum seekers such as Pegah Emambakhsh and Prossy Kakooza has definitely left an impression on us; LGBT asylum will be one of our campaigns next year.
We have created the Northern Network to increase solidarity between student groups in the north working with LGBTQ students. The facebook group can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17926436805&ref=ts I urge you all to join! We are also thinking about hosting some Northern Network events in the coming year.
We are also having a strong hand in organising Bradford Pride this year, especially since the University is hosting the event. We have managed to get them to move the date of Pride to October so we can all attend, and indeed host events. We are looking to have an exhibition of LGB/TQ history and Queer art in the Gallery 2, as well as hosting discussions and other events.
Socially, we have been out strong this year. We have film nights every Monday, join the Equity centre drop in on tuesdays and off to the Sun after for the pub quiz, on Wednesdays we all meet for High Tea - our alternative meeting for those who dont do politics! at the Treehouse at 2.30 and sometimes even manage to get to Club Candy for their student night, on thursdays we have our meeting proper at 7.30 then usually off to the courtyard and then to out in Leeds or Bradford. We have also kept up with having a monthly Allsorts, our own LGBTQ party in the SU every month, and manage to get off to Homo at Mission in Leeds, The Cockpit and Suck My Left One on a semi-regular basis. We have also had our roadtrip to Brighton (we didn't quite get to Amsterdam!) which was truly fabulous.
We are all planning to meet at Manchester Pride this summer, so if you are going, drop us a line, and we'll arrange to meet up.
Well, that seems just about it. That just leaves us to thank Danny for being a great President this year, and Gavin for being a respectful leader of the community as always, and a great LGBT officer in the Union.
In Pride,
Jess
Bradford MSGI Society
http://www.bradfordlgbt.org.uk
facebook group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2233217113
myspace http://www.myspace.com/bradlgbt
Facebook group supporting Prossy Kakooza : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=15442634010&ref=ts
The Northern Network Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17926436805&ref=ts
The T&A's report of the Blood Donation not Discrimination demo, spot the mistake: http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/search/display.var.2258293.0.students_call_for_end_to_blood_ban.php#comments