“Pride Not Prejudice” Sticker Campaign

NUS “Pride Not Prejudice” stickers have been distributed around the country and are going up on campus walls, bathroom doors, bus stops, you get the drift.  At UTS a group of evangelical Christians has been covering over Querelle (queer student mag) posters with heterosexist stickers.  You know the rest.

Would you like stickers for your campus?  Please email me at catherinerose87@gmail.com and I can post some out to you.

See here: http://critical-discipleship.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/evangelism-by-bullying-credo-youre.html

Happy IDAHOT!

Today is International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT), a global day of action to end discrimination and violence against queer people. Uni campuses around Australia are hosting events and actions today: http://www.facebook.com/events/534295923278611

Please take a few minutes out of your day to think about what makes you proud to be a queer student or ally and why you challenge prejudice and queerphobia, and send us a photo or video message at queer@unistudent.com.au

Why queer students lose out from tertiary education cuts

This was written by my friend, she is a queer woman, 21-years old and a student in Sydney. She is on Youth Allowance under the ‘unreasonable to live at home’ provision.

 

The government’s plan to fund Gonski does more than rip money out of universities, although it sure does that. Much of the costs will be directly laid onto those who come to university with the most disadvantage. The Gonski review of the Australian education system concluded that all schools should receive funding at a base level, and then additional funding for schools that teach students from low socio-economic or disadvantaged backgrounds such as Indigenous students, students from language backgrounds other than English and students with disabilities. It argued that $5 billion should be spent on funding schools per annum. This money is desperately needed in the public school system.

But on May 14 the federal government’s budget is set to come down with wide ranging cuts to the tertiary education system in the name of funding these reforms. These cuts include cutting $900 million out of the core operating grant given to universities over 2 years, reducing the threshold of self-education expenses that students are able to claim on their tax return, and converting the Student Start-up Scholarship (a payment of $1025 given to students on Youth Allowance, Austudy or Abstudy each semester), into a loan.

The last point means that students on welfare who study a four-year degree will have an extra $8,200 or so added to their debt. This equates to years more paying off their student debt, which is already worse for those who enter a low-paid professional such as social work, and women, who suffer a significant gender pay-gap.

The Student Start-up Scholarship is something students of low socio-economic backgrounds who are on welfare use, not to buy books or equipment for their courses as was intended, but to pay for everyday expenses associated with living independently. When you have bills to pay, text books are not the highest priority. Youth Allowance is not indexed to the cost of living, so each year the amount students receive looks more and more like a joke for those expected to live on it. The introduction of the Student Start-up Scholarship compensated for this to a degree, but now that it has been converted into a loan it will only entrench the ongoing attack on student welfare.

These change will hit students from the queer community hard. It puts unnecessary pressure on many young queer people who already have to deal with homophobia and its effects on their lives (including from the government). Many queer students are on Centrelink’s welfare payments because an independent income helps them to live away from hostile and homophobic home environments. Homelessness is a known side-effect of being queer. It is already hard enough for queer students to prove to Centrelink that they cannot live at home; being queer and having homophobic parents is not enough. If your parents say you can live with them if you promise to be straight, Centrelink will tell you to go back home. Students who manage despite this to prove that they really cannot live at home then suffer from the unreasonable pressure of being forced to live away from home on a payment that is well below the poverty line. To put them into more debt than those who have the fortune to avoid such problems is deplorable.

What makes it worse is that the government could so easily acquire this funding through other avenues, which would not include attacks on disadvantaged students. The public will have lost $60 billion over 10 years because of the scrapping of Kevin Rudd’s version of the mining tax, money that could have been used to fund welfare and education. Oh and did you notice that Gillard is spending $3 billion on a fleet of drones? That figure is just over what is being taken out of tertiary education.

That the government thinks nothing of such sums but freely attacks students on welfare and funding for tertiary education indicates how little our problems seem to concern them. It will be up to us to reassert what our priorities are.

On May 14 there will be a national student strike held by NUS with demonstrations around the country.

Please join your local action:

Sydney: 1pm, Victoria Park, cnr City & Parramatta Rds

Melbourne: 2pm, State Library, march to Federation Square

Brisbane: 12pm event at UQ, 2pm rally in Queens Square and 5pm, Brisbane Square, top of Brisbane Mall, opposite Treasury Casino

Adelaide: 12-1pm,Ligertwood Plaza, University of Adelaide

Canberra: 12.30pm, ANU Union Court

Hobart: 12:45 pm, University of Tasmania (Sandy Bay Campus)

Perth: 1pm, Edinburgh Oval, Curtin University

Month of Marriage Equality Marches in May

Hey everyone,
Here is something I wrote on behalf of the Queer Department on why the campaign for marriage equality is so important, with a month of protests happening around IDAHOT this month.  Particularly I wanted to take up the conservative arguments around this demand serving “family values”, the denigration of polyamory, and the cynical Conservative politicians who now feel like supporting marriage equality.

Cat

http://www.samesame.com.au/features/9752/Opinion-Lets-make-marriage-matter-all-through-May.htm

Submit your writing!

Our blog is open for submissions by queer students on topics that relate to queer identities, queer issues, or experiences as queer people. We’d love to get a dialogue happening and channeling queer student voices on a national level, so please submit! If you have written a piece or are interested in doing so, please email us at queer@unistudent.com.au

IDAHOT: International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia 2013

IDAHOT is a global day of action against homophobia, transphobia, biphobia and other forms of discrimination, marginalisation and violence that queer people experience. In addition to raising awareness of queerphobia and being a rallying point for people around the world to take action to combat it, May 17th also commemorates the day that the World Health Organisation removed homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases.

During the week of May 17th 2013 queer students, staff and allies around Australia will be holding events and actions at their universities that aim to raise awareness of queerphobia on campuses and challenge it.

More more details check out the NUS IDAHOT Week Facebook event page.

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY (ANU), CANBERRA
Friday 17th May: http://www.facebook.com/events/157832324390610/

DEAKIN UNIVERSITY, MELBOURNE
– Monday 13th May: http://www.facebook.com/events/366740366764279/
– Wednesday May 15th: “Make a Badge and Make a Statement”
The Deakin Allies have organised a badge making machine and everyone is invited to come along and make a badge against homophobia. A photo will be taken of the badge and a collage poster will be put together of all the statements.
– Friday May 17th: “Deakin’s Rainbow Walkway”
Rainbow chalk, fairy floss and popcorn! Contribute to the rainbow walkway in solidarity of the one taken down in Sydney. http://www.facebook.com/events/123661887837542/

EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY, PERTH
– Friday 17th May 11.00am: http://www.facebook.com/events/173039099500816/
– Friday 17th May 12.00pm: http://www.facebook.com/events/347459505350827/
– Friday 17th May 12.30pm: http://intranet.ecu.edu.au/student/news/overview/2013/05/an-invitation-to-attend-the-international-day-against-homophobia-and-transphobia

FLINDERS UNIVERSITY, ADELAIDE
Friday 17th May: http://www.facebook.com/events/450958568329665/

GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY, BRISBANE
Friday 17th May: https://www.facebook.com/events/301826823280552/

LA TROBE UNIVERSITY, MELBOURNE
Friday 17th May: http://www.facebook.com/events/450885005004331/

MURDOCH UNIVERSITY, PERTH
– Tuesday 14th: “Chalk Rainbow day”
Starting around 11:30 in the Queer room, then heading up towards Bush Court to cover both of our locations. http://www.facebook.com/events/520617307995981/
– Thursday 16th: IDAHOT bake sale
If you have any good recipes you’d like to bring along, that would be awesome, if not, just make sure you bring along some friends with a sweet tooth and a fat wallet. https://www.facebook.com/events/319846794804295/
– Friday 17th: “Fight the Homophobia Web Virus”
If you’re feeling supportive, post something on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Tumblr, Instagram, or anywhere else you can that will have a big impact. https://www.facebook.com/events/125333550996425/
– Friday 17th: IDAHOT party http://www.facebook.com/events/277988125671849/

QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY (QUT), BRISBANE
– Friday 17th May 10.00am-3.00pm: Kelvin Grove Campus, outside C Block.
Queer Collective stall featuring performers and visual spectacles.
– Saturday 18th May: http://www.facebook.com/events/130545270472658/

UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE
– Monday 13th May to Friday 17th May: http://union.unimelb.edu.au/queer/international-day-against-homophobia-transphobia-week

UNIVERSITY OF NEW ENGLAND, ARMIDALE
Friday 17th 12.00pm-2.00pm at the Central Courtyard
Free BBQ and poster-making for the “Free To Be Me @ UNE” campaign (all supplies will be provided)

UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND, BRISBANE
– Friday 17th May 12.00pm: Queer Collective meeting, Carden Room.
– Friday 17th May 2.00pm: Visibility Picnic by the lake.

UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA
Friday 17th May: http://www.facebook.com/events/114768045391939

UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY (UTS):
– Wednesday 15th May: http://www.facebook.com/events/157554601084602/
– Friday 17th May: http://www.facebook.com/events/484700818268758/

UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG
Friday 17th May 11:30am-2:30pm on the McKinnon Lawn
BBQ, bake sale, performers and free customised IDAHOT wrist bands to give away. Contact Andy Hogan on 0406904118 or alh804@uowmail.edu.au

(Please email the details of your local events to queer@unistudent.com.au or post on the page below.)