Issue 3 - Febraury 2017/March 2017

For Everything LGBT+ Under the Sun

We’re Affiliated!

Welcome to the latest edition of SOLAR. I am proud to say that PLEXUS became an officially affiliated Group within the Students Association on the 28th January 2017 by the Vice-President Administration ratifying our constitution – you can view the video here.

It has been a busy couple of months for the whole Committee ensuring that the process of affiliation is complete and we are ready to move the next stage of our journey. What does affiliation mean? Put simply, we’re recognised by the OU Students Association within their operation as a support network for students who define as LGBT+ or not. We as a Group are proud of the fact we are inclusive and only restrict voting and policy making to LGBT+ Students of the Open University. Furthermore, PLEXUS will be provided with opportunities to sit on the Inclusion Committee, have an opportunity to observe a Central Executive Committee meeting and even have a space and exhibition at Conference. Although conference isn’t until June 2018 so we have some time.

In this edition of SOLAR, we are going to celebrating the LGBT History Month and continuing throughout February, there will be discussion boards within the Forums so please check them out here and a couple of chats on our Facebook Page here.

We’ve decided to look at our history and look at some of the positive steps the LGBT+ community has been able to achieve whilst recognising that some LGBT+ people are still persecuted just because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. While we are trying to keep this edition light, if you feel affected by any of the content, please do drop a message in the forums, or contact Switchboard on 0300 330 0630 or Nightline 020 7631 0101.

The PLEXUS Committee will be attending National Student Pride in London between 24th and 26th February. This is a great opportunity for us to meet other students and start creating our network that will enable our members to participate in activity within a in their local area. The Committee will also be hosting a meet up early evening on Saturday 25th February as part of the Association’s Big Feb Meet up, we’ll post the details soon.

I hope you enjoy this edition of SOLAR and remember if you want to submit an article for the next edition we want to hear from you! A special Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to write for this edition.

Graham Chair of PLEXUS

SOLAR is a publication brought you by PLEXUS the LGBT+ Group of the OU Students Association. For any enquiries regarding the publication, please contact [email protected] LGBT+? Where to stop with the alphabet soup

Meg-John Barker

I was delighted to be asked to contribute to the special edition of SOLAR for LGBT History Month, and to be able to celebrate the newly formed OU student LGBT+ group. As an activist- academic who has dedicated much of my life to thinking and writing about gender and sexual diversity, I thought it might be interesting to reflect a bit on this acronym LGBT+.

My excellent OU psychology colleague Prof Darren Langdridge often recalls his own involvement with student politics, and the huge battle he had to get the B included in the then LG student group. Back in the 1990s such biphobia amongst gay activists was sadly very common, meaning that many bi students had the experience of discrimination when they came out to straight friends, and then found just as much discrimination when they turned to the lesbian or gay community. Such double discrimination and bi erasure isn’t completely a thing of the past, although LGBT charities like Stonewall are doing much better at bi inclusion these days. With 43% of young people saying that they fall somewhere between ‘exclusively homosexual’ and ‘exclusively heterosexual’ according to YouGov it definitely needs to be a priority.

What about the T? That was an even more recent addition to the acronym than the B, partly because of arguments over whether marginalised sexual and gender groups should be considered together or separately, and - again sadly - a good deal of transphobia from certain LG folk. There’s certainly a great deal of overlap between homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, with many LGB people being attacked for their gender expression as much as their sexuality. Trans itself is a big umbrella. For example, I’ve just finished working with some colleagues to produce guidance on how to be inclusive of non-binary staff and students here at OU.

In recent years we’ve seen moves to add further initials to the LGBT list. A for asexual, I for intersex, Q for queer or questioning, U for unsure, or a plus sign to indicate all of these things and more. Some have argued for the umbrella term ‘queer’ to be used instead, or a less loaded term like GSRD (gender, sexual and relationship diversity). There’s no ‘right’ answer to these debates, but I think the queer concept of heteronormativity can be helpful here. According to this, our culture sees the ‘right, natural and normal’ way of being as being born male or female, remaining a man (if you’re male) or a woman (if you’re female), being attracted to the ‘opposite’ gender, and forming a coupled monogamous relationship with somebody of that gender, with whom you have PIV (penis-in-vagina) intercourse. In this way, anybody who falls out of that normativity is marginalised in our society, and could be included together in our acronym, which would then need to be: LGBTQQUIANB A (aromantic) NM (non-monogamous) BDSM (bondage and discipline, dominance and submission) and sadomasochism), S (single), +. Something to think about!

Meg-John Barker is a central academic in the school of psychology who primarily writes self-help books and OU materials on counselling and psychotherapy. They’re the author of the comic book Queer: A Graphic History and The Bisexuality Report, among other things.

Websites: www.rewriting-the-rules.com, www.megjohnandjustin.com. Twitter: @megjohnbarker. FLAGS OF PRIDE

Within the LGBT+ community there are many variations of sexual and or gender identity. There are also, just like in the hetrosexual community different communities for example, ‘Bears’ and ‘Lipstick Lesbians’.

As PLEXUS celebrates LGBT History Month, we wanted to share the story behind some of these. During the war a number of symbols were created by the Nazi’s to identify those who had imperfections just as disabilities, religion or sexual oritentation. Most famously are the yellow Star of David and inverted . The original eight striped flag was created in 1978 by Gilbert Barker with each of the colours having a different meaning. The flag since been adapted to the remaining six colours with have today symbolising PRIDE and PEACE.

LESBIAN BISEXUAL TRANSGENDER The has been traditionally Created in 1998 to provide the Created in 1999 symbolising associated with , the lesbian Bisexual Community their own remembrance, transgender was created to demonstrate the symbol and sense of visability and diversity, it is commonly love and solitude of gay women or seen on Transgender Day of lesbians. A variation of the flag depict within the community and Remembrance in November lips for those who are ‘lipstick lesbains’ society as a whole.

BEAR BROTHERHOOD ASEXUAL PANSEXUAL Unlike other flags within the Asexual people are those who have Sexual attraction is not a community the bear flag represents no or little sexual attraction to anyone. fluid as L, G or B. Pansexuals a subculture, specifically gay and is not a form of celibacy as bisexual men who celebrate secondary those who are celibate are sexually have romantic attractions sexual attractions e.g. body and facial attracted their preference but choose and relationships to those of hair. The colours represnt the different not to engage different genders and sexualities ‘furs’ of animals There are a number of other flags that represent the LGBT+ Community, these are but a small selection LGBT Hero or a Scientist Dear Readers,

Dr Turing. What can I say about Dr Turing? Genius? Father of Computer Science? Accidental LGBTQ Hero? Personally one of my heroes; I have a great amount of respect for him and his work. He is most famous for the work he undertook during the war at Bletchley Park (I must admit this is a fantastic place to visit, I can thoroughly recommend it and it is just a couple of miles away from the OU Campus). You often see photographs around the internet that say if you could meet any famous person from history who would it be? I can say without a doubt that it would be Dr Turing.

Then there is the Turing test, I can guarantee that if you have ever filled in a web form you have passed the Turing test. Do you remember the annoying puzzles that prevent spam on website forms? Well this is called a CAPTCHA (this stands for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart). Remember every time you have to complete this annoying puzzle you can accredit to Dr Turing. But think about it, how many companies have been spared multiple false accounts created by “bots” because of Dr Turing.

If you ever have the time, I recommend you read his Doctoral Thesis entitled “Systems of logic based on ordinals” (here is the link: http://www.dcc.fc.up.pt/~acm/turing-phd.pdf ).

On a parting note I would also recommend that you take a look at the Dr Turing Society for which I am Chair (here is the link https:// www.drturingsociety.org.uk).

I would like to thank PLEXUS for allowing me to write this short article about Dr Turing.

Regards,

Richard Duffy

Dr Turing Society Chair Computing & IT Undergraduate

On Tuesday 31st January 2017 Royal Assent was awarded to the Policing and Crime Bill, better known as ‘Turing’s Law’, pardoning all those convicted of being in consensual same-sex relationships prior to the decriminalisation in 1967. Although it is worth mentioning that the law only affected gay and bisexual men. There has never been a law against women being in same-sex relationships, it was consider taboo and unknown. Although pardons remove the criminal record from those convicted some feel that this is not enough and an apology should be given by the UK Government. As we celebrate LGBT History Month we should remember those in countries where homosexuality is still illegal and in some countries punishable by death.

Members Way to contact Only PLEXUS Forums Empowering LGBT Women As part of the LGBT+ history issue, I couldn’t wait to talk about one of the women (out of many) that has truly encouraged and empowered me in my LGBT+ journey of self-discovery. Of course, Frida Kahlo may be most famously known for her artwork and her eyebrows, but she also represents a powerful movement in the individual liberation of our body and souls.

If you haven’t heard of her already here is a very brief summary: Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was born and raised in Mexico City and was the third of four daughters. Frida was sent to a prestigious prep school at 15 where she became known for her bravery and outspoken intellectual views on politics and current affairs, it is here she chose a career in the medical profession and began working towards this. When she was 18 however, Frida was involved in an accident between the streetcar she was in and a bus; leaving her severely injured requiring months of rehabilitation and surgery which kept her bedbound. To alleviate boredom during her painful recovery, Frida began painting self-portraits, and with her parents’ encouragement she developed a refined skill in the art, leading to her moving away from applied medicine to medical art. In 1928 Frida met her husband Diego Rivera whom was a highly respected artist at the time, but he was involved in politics and was a renowned womanizer and so began a long and tumultuous marriage that was not approved of by her parents. Rivera was known for having multiple affairs with women throughout their marriage and to seek revenge she would seduce his mistresses into bed as well as having numerous affairs with both men and women herself, being open about her sexuality as she did so. Frieda also began to define herself by cross dressing, this was noted during a number of family occasions and political events that she attended, and allowed her to open the barrier to freedom of self-expression in both her everyday life and her artwork. Frida continued to paint various still life works as well as self- portraits and she opened up her own exhibition in New York City shortly before her death in 1954.

The reason I love Frida Kahlo, is because she was educated, moved in high bohemian circles of the 1920s and 1930s and was generally just a badass! Not afraid to express her opinion on her bisexuality or any other aspect of her personality and able to defend her rights over how she used her body. Frida has taught me that it is ok to feel alone and unusual at times, to not be so sure of yourself all of the time, but to also embrace who you are and what you want to do regardless of other people’s thoughts and opinions. Frida helped me learn that sexuality is not a thing to be feared and most of all…that my life is my own and I should do whatever (and whoever) I want! This is especially true if life is not going as originally planned, like it did for her Barriers are obstacles that prevent or completely block individuals, groups and cultures from having access to and participation in the society that surrounds them and the social constructs that exist within it. These barriers can and do deny individuals and entire groups access to vital aspects of their community. Things like bullying in educational institutions, discrimination in the workplace and poor provision of or limited access to important services such as sexual health and mental health are all examples. With just these examples in mind I am sure any one of us could easily imagine a seemingly endless list of ways that individuals and collective groups that make up the LGBT+ community could be denied access to or participation in things which we all have a right to.

Barriers are faced by us all and inevitably they disproportionately impact on the vulnerable or marginalized groups that exist within a society. They present and display themselves in the forms of social attitudes, stigma, discrimination and a variety of other things. They exist as obstacles that prevent us from being recognized and having our human rights respected in a way that allows us to live as equal citizens whose intrinsic value is recognized by those around us. They are of particular interest to PLEXUS because of the nature of diversity that exists within the LGBT+ community. The variety of genders, sexualities, cultures, races, religions, personal values and life experiences of the entire LGBT+ community means that a variety of barriers have been faced, overcome, partially broken down, identified as still significant and inevitably will continue to be identified as time goes on and society develops and evolves.

Breaking these barriers is often a long and hard fought process but is also something that the LGBT+ community has a proud history of. In recent years laws across the globe that have restricted the sexual expression of gay love have been repealed and new laws that protect LGBT+ individuals created. Some countries even further and allow the expression of gay and lesbian love in the form of same sex marriage. These changes are all examples where barriers have acted as obstacles to members of the LGBT+ community and those barriers have been broken or at least diminished. These changes have by no means been delivered at any speed or without massive effort and on an international scale LGBT+ individuals and groups in every continent the world over still face laws that prohibit the expression of their sexuality, gender and other aspects of their identity. The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) last year identified 74 countries still having laws that prohibit and criminalise same-sex sexual contact. Punishable by death in 12.

Here in the UK the LGBT+ community enjoys quite a strong level of protection under the law with inclusion in anti-discrimination laws, same sex marriage (with the exception of Northern Ireland), and access to NHS therapies for trans individuals. An important thing to note, however, is that even in a setting where this is the case LGBT+ individuals in the UK still face various social barriers. Social attitudes towards transgender people are one example with transphobia being identified as quite a horrifyingly frequent form of discrimination. The first parliamentary committee report to tackle this issue was published only last year and identified transphobia as a barrier to trans people’s “careers, incomes, living standards and mental and physical health”. It said that two thirds of transgender adults attempt suicide as do half of gender variant young people. The attention being brought to these issues is a sign of the foundations of these barriers starting to crumble but the fact that they exist provide us with just one example of the vast array of barriers the LGBT+ community still faces even in a developed democratic state like the UK.

Health is another area where the LGBT+ community has faced and still faces barriers. The lack of awareness around HIV and how it is spread acted and still acts as a barrier to HIV positive individuals, effectively isolating them in terms of their personal relationships, family life and many other social settings. Having transphobia and the social status of HIV positive individuals as my last two examples brings another area of interest to mind. Barriers that are faced within the LGBT+ community that are internal to the community and not imposed on it by others. Transphobia, poor levels of awareness about HIV and stereotypes of bisexuals are all examples of barriers that exist within the LGBT+ community itself and that need to be broken in the same way as any other barrier that prevents any LGBT+ individual from being treated with respect no matter what their gender identity, sexuality or HIV status.

The barriers that LGBT+ communities still face negatively impact upon the individuals within them. I already mentioned the suicide rates within the trans community and when we consider other aspects of mental health which are more frequent in the LGBT+ community like self-harm and how these areas affect the individual groups within the community we can begin to imagine the scale of the issue. Why is mental health such an issue in the LGBT+ community? Bullying and stigma are examples of barriers faced that contribute to individuals feeling invalidated and hopeless. These reasons and various others lead to a community where mental health issues are prevalent and that again need to be broken down in order to enhance the quality of life of individuals within it.

Due to the negative impacts of the barriers that the LGBT+ community still faces the act of breaking these barriers is essential and concentration on this a priority for PLEXUS. I suppose this leaves us in the position where we must consider how we go about breaking the barriers that we face. After a fair bit of thought I realized that the values that make up the acronym PLEXUS are actually a great place to start. Pride, Learning, Equality, no eXcuses, Unity and Safety are all values that work toward the breaking of such barriers. Having these values make it no surprise that PLEXUS will have Breaking Barriers as its focus at this year’s Pride events and quite rightfully so.

James Murray

PLEXUS Community Representatives NOTICE OF OPPORTUNITY Have you ever considered being more involved with PLEXUS? Now is your chance! Although the formal Officer posts are elected every two years - we’re really excited that our first elections will be taking place later this year, we have a number of Community Representatives who are are co-opted onto the committee to support PLEXUS in representing and obtaining the particular opinions of their community. There are currently a vacancies for a BLACK & MINORITY ETHNIC and TRANS* REPRESENTATIVE. We are currently looking for enthusiatic individuals who will join the committee and to help PLEXUS continue with its development. To apply you need to send a short letter of application to the Chair by emailing [email protected] detailing why you would be the ideal representative according to the role descriptor below. Role Descriptor 1 Represent the views of the Black and Minority Ethnic Caucus within the Group 2 Hold meetings within the Caucus and report to the wider committee on activity, engagement and any issues 3 Work alongside the wider Committee to achieve the Mission, Aims and Objectives of the Group

You will lead discussions within the virtual learning environment for your particular community thread. STUDENT VOICE Hi PLEXUS Members! My name is Samantha Harding, and I am the new Head of Student Voice at the Student Association. I am so pleased that your group is now officially affiliated to the Association and I look forward to working with you all in the future. I have joined the team at such an exciting time, and I would like to tell you about what I will be focusing on over the next few months: Our first ever Student Voice week will be taking place in March 2017, and I am so enthused about the opportunities for student to be involved in the activities. We will have a packed schedule of engaging events for everyone to take part in – on campus and online. You should be able to see these via our website in February - so watch this space!

I am really looking forward to taking part in the Student Consultation events held over March and April, and talking to students over the nations about issues that really matter to them. One of the topics that will be covered during the consultations is how we build a strong student community, and I am excited to hear how we can further support LGBT+ students at the OU. If you haven’t had a chance to sign up to these great events, then you can find more information out via our website.

As we continue to recruit our Central Representatives and Learner Experience Reporters (our current volunteer roles) we are looking to further diversify our team of students, we want more students to get stuck in and help shape our work. We would thoroughly welcome students from various communities to get involved and help us really get academic representation on the map at the OU.

I really look forward to sharing ideas and our research with you in the future, and hopefully meeting some of you very soon!

Samantha Harding Head of Student Voice WOMEN IN SCIENCE

When famous women from the LGBT community are mentioned, usually most people think of artists and activists, rather than scientists. Few people can even name more than one female scientist, so here are three:

Sara Josephine Baker (November 15, 1875 – February 22, 1945) was an American physician who made significant contributions to public health. Early in her career, Baker helped twice to catch Mary Mallon, known as ‘Typhoid Mary’, and most of her career was spent fighting the damage that ignorance and unsanitary conditions in urban areas did to children. She was also the first woman to graduate from New York University Medical School with a Doctorate. While she never publicly came out, Baker had a long and well-documented relationship with Ida Wylie, a novelist and screenwriter who identified as a ‘woman-oriented woman’

Lynn Ann Conway (born January 2, 1938) is an American computer scientist, electrical engineer, and transgender activist. Her work was one of the major contributions to developing the modern microprocessor. In 1968, she was fired by IBM after revealing the intention to transition. After completing her transition, Conway entered ‘stealth mode’ with her new name in order to safely live and find work. Under legal constraints then in place, she was also denied access to her children after transitioning. She went on to continue work on chip design at other companies, making several contributions to new design methods. In 1985 she became a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan.

In 1999, she began coming out as a trans woman to friends and colleagues, and her story is on her website in her own words (http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/RetrospectiveT.html). After going public, she became a transgender activist and an advocate for transgender people in the technology industry, and aided numerous other transgender women going through transition.

Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was an American physicist, astronaut and educator, and is best known for being the first known LGBT person to go to space. (At least to me!) In 1983, she was the first American woman in space, and the third woman overall to go to space. She was also a professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego, and the director of the California Space Insti- tute. She worked in science outreach, with a particular focus on get- ting more girls to study science. She was extremely private about her personal life, but her obituary revealed that her partner of 27 years was Tam O’Shaughnessy.

Ana Jejina Earlier we mentioned the pardons of those gay and bisexual men who were convicted of sexual LGBT+ AROUND offenses prior to the decriminalisation in 1967. THE WORLD We thought it would be useful to demonstrate where LGBT+ equality differs around the world

Greenland

Europe 16 States 17 States

Norway Sweden Iceland Finland Russia Canada Estonia Denmark Latvia Ireland UK Lithuania NL Belarus Poland BE Germany CZ LU LI Slovakia Ukraine Kazakhstan Europe 42 States and 13 entities CH AT HU MD Mongolia France SI HR Romania USA Italy BA RS Bulgaria Georgia Uzbekistan Corsica Kosovo Azerbaijan Kyrgyzstan North Korea Spain AL MK Portugal Andorra Sardinia AM Turkmenistan Greece Turkey Tajikistan Sicily Tunisia Cyprus SY China South Korea Japan 23 states Malta Iraq Afghanistan Morocco IL LB Iran Gaza Algeria KW Bhutan Coahuila Libya Jordan Pakistan Nepal Qatar The Bahamas Western Sahara Egypt Bahrain Dom. Rep. UAE Mexico Saudi Arabia Taiwan Cuba Virgin Islands India Myanmar Puerto Rico Mauritania Sudan Laos Jamaica Mali Oman Bangladesh Belize Haiti AG Niger Federal KN Cape Verde Thailand District Honduras DM Senegal Chad Eritrea Guatemala VC LC Yemen Vietnam Philippines Nicaragua GD GM El Salvador BB Burkina Djibouti Cambodia Panama TT Guinea Bissau Guinea Nigeria Costa Rica GH Somalia Venezuela Sierra Leone Ivory South Ethiopia Guyana TG Central African Maldives Palau Coast Sudan Aceh Brunei Liberia Benin Cameroon Republic Sri Lanka Colombia SR GF Province Malaysia Equatorial Guinea Uganda Ecuador Congo Singapore Indonesia Nauru Sao Tomé & Principe Gabon D.R. RW Kenya Kiribati Palembang Papua New Congo BI Guinea Solomon Tanzania Seychelles South Islands Samoa Brazil Sumatra Tuvalu Peru Comoros Timor-leste Angola Malawi Cook Islands Zambia Nothern Bolivia Vanuatu Mauritius Australia Zimbabwe Mozambique Queensland Fiji Namibia Tonga Botswana Madagascar Paraguay Norfolk Island Chile Western Australia Swaziland Australia Lesotho New South Wales Argentina South Africa South Australia Australian Capital Territory Uruguay Victoria New Zealand

Tasmania

The data represented in this map, and the three accompanying separate maps CRIMINALISATION Death penalty PROTECTION RECOGNITION Marriage on Criminalisation, Protection and Recognition, are based on State-Sponsored ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAWS Homophobia: a World Survey of Sexual Orientation Laws: Criminalisation, IMPRISONMENT RECOGNITION OF SAME-SEX UNIONS Protection and Recognition, an ILGA report by Aengus Carroll. The report 76 countries and 85 entities 73 countries and 5 entities Imprisonment 14 Y - Life 47 countries and 65 entities Equal (almost equal) and these maps are available in the six o cial UN languages: English, DEATH PENALTY Includes employment, Constitution, other substitute to marriage Chinese, Arabic, French, Russian and Spanish on www.ilga.org. This edition of non-discrimination protections, hate crime JOINT ADOPTION the world map (June 2016) was coordinated by Aengus Carroll and Renato 13 States [or parts of] Imprisonment up to 14 years 27 countries and 28 entities Sabbadini (ILGA), and designed by Eduardo Enoki and hate speech. Clearly inferior substitute to ([email protected]). Death penalty not known SECOND PARENT ADOPTION marriage Promotion (‘propaganda’) laws to be implemented NO SPECIFIC LEGISLATION 17 countries and parts of Italy limiting freedom of expression Morality laws (religion-based) that Laws penalising same-sex sexual acts limit LGB freedom of expression and No penalty speci‹ ed decriminalised, or never existed association How bona to vada your dolly old eek!

Does that sound like jibberish to you?

Well it doesn’t to me. Introducing you to Polari, a language of sorts lost in time that is being fought to be kept alive. This is how I greet one of my oldest friends, in translation it means ‘How nice to see your old face’.

It’s not a language, or is it? I’m not going to write an essay on that, as I’m studying two modules at once, I’ve had enough writing two TMAs in quick succession!

It’s more of a ‘coded lexicon’ (oh how nice is it to write something without a reference!), a coded slang language used predominantly by gay men in the mid 20th century. A way to ogle, a way to speak in private, a way to identify other gay men, a language of billingsgate (bad / crude language), a language of protection in a time when homosexuality was criminal.

Not just the reserve of gay men, Polari was adapted from other secret subculture cants/slangs such as Sailor Slang and Thieves’ Cant and it thrived in major English cities within the gay subculture until the 1960s when it began to decline.

Recently there have been attempts to revive the language, including the creation of the Polari Bible, a bible translated into Polari. Which recently hit headlines as the translation was used in a Church of England theological college in a special service to mark LGBT history month. Sadly, this has not gone down well with the Church. I could write a lot more on this topic, but for now I won’t. What I will do is give you some tips on using Polari and a few of my favourite words (well, the clean ones!).

Firstly, it’s a camp language, think Kenneth Graham, you can’t do Polari without flair, it’s not just the words, it’s the way you say it, the nuance in your gait, the flourish of you hands, the steely knowing eyes…

OK, so here we go: aunt nell listen fortuni gorgeous, beautiful bat, batts, bates shoes funt pound bona good handbag money bona nochy goodnight lacoddy body buvare a drink; something drinkable lallies (lylies) legs cackle talk/gossip naff awful, dull, hetro clobber clothes oglefakes glasses cove taxi ogles eyes dally sweet, kind omi man dinari money omi-palone homosexual dorcas ‘one who cares’ oven mouth doss bed palare pipe telephone ecaf face (backslang) paline women eek face (abb. of ecaf) palone-omi lesbian fantabulosa Fabulous/Wonderful scarper to run off farting crackers trousers schlumph drink flowery lodgings/accomodation sharpering omees police

So the next time you see a friend, say ‘bona to vada your dolly old eek’! And if you want to know more download this handy Polari app www.polariapp.com - Alex Phennah ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!’

This was the request, or demand, if you prefer, that New York-based LGBT group Queer Nation made during their demonstrations during the 90s. It could certainly be said that we’ve been given that ‘honour’ in this day and age; people do seem more ‘used to it’ that LGBT is here, and here to stay. But why stop there?

Do we really want everyone to be ‘used to’ us? I am ‘used to’ my red wine hangovers. I’m ‘used to’ the sound of my cat whining to get into my room. I’m used to waking up at a ridiculous hour to pee every night. I’m used to all of these things but that doesn’t mean to say I like them. Queer Nation had the right idea, but what we should be demanding now is that people accept and, dare I say it, love us for who we are, instead of just seeing what we are. Thanks to television programmes like RuPaul’s Drag Race, I am Cait, Transparent, Orange is the New Black and, to an extent, Modern Family, LGBT has been given much more visibility as these programmes have a large straight following as well. What is really heartening to see is that most of the programmes mentioned feature trans issues heavily.

As recently as my college days, which were a mere - ahem – seventeen years ago, we had an ‘LGB’ awareness support group, which is all well and good, but where’s the T? The shade of it all…

In the last few years, we have seen some wonderfully strong trans role models stepping into the spotlight, which can only go more towards promoting acceptance of all LGBT people. One day, maybe we will see trans and gay actors in films and television programmes without there being some ‘see how diverse we are – we’re using a queer storyline’ aspect, but until that day, I think we can accept the visibility queer issues are receiving, even if it is just a ratings thing. The hope for all of us, I believe, is that there is a future which doesn’t involve ‘coming out’, everyone just accepts that there are gay, straight, bi, cis and trans people that make up the world and that is never going to change.

The important thing for all of us underneath that big ol’ LGBT rainbow, along with our wonderful friends and family that make up our allies, is to stick together, keep true to ourselves and show the world that we are no different to anyone else just because of who we love or how we present ourselves.

Until the time that the world comes to love us, we must ‘get used to’ the fact that it’s going to be a long road, but a road that will ultimately be worth it.

Barney Jones

As part of the PLEXUS Book Club we invite members of PLEXUS and the Write Club Society to submit pieces for sharing or feedback. If you would like to feature in our next edition, please submit your pieces to Alex Phennah - [email protected]

For more information about the Write Club please visit their Facebook Group by clicking here. Write Club Turns 2 This Month

Write Club the OU Creative Writing Society for all past and present OU students and staff is turning 2. This February we hit our second birthday and to celebrate we are asking all members to tell us what they would like to do to celebrate. We want to know what you would like to see more of, what you want less of, and what we could do to engage you more.

Now you are probably wondering what that has to do with you here at PLEXUS. Well, the thing is Write Club and Plexus work together to make sure that we are best supporting all of our members, and there is quite a cross-over between our membership bases. People who love to write may also identify as LGBT+ or are supportive of Plexus’s goals, and of course self-identifying LGBT+ students may also have an interest in writing, and sharing that writing.

What Write Club are looking to do this year is get together a great bunch of stories, poems and the like form our members and are looking at the possibility of publishing the best of these in an anthology. There are a lot of hoops to jump through to get this off the ground, but we do believe that with the right support and guidance this can be something that we manage to get off the ground.

So if you have any ideas for Write Club then let us know. If you are not already a member, please consider doing so if you love to write and share insight into yours and others’ writing. For and additional information, please email us as [email protected] or join us on Facebook or Twitter. Or you could have a look at our video to find out more about what we do, you can find it here: YouTube.

Cin McGuigan Deputy Chair Write Club

#LetsTalkAboutSex

The 3rd Annual National Student Pride will be taking place 24 - 26 February at the University of Westminister in London. The PLEXUS Committee will be attending and this will be our first event we will be attending representing the Students Association and the Open University. We’re really excited that we have been given this opportunity to attend and tell everyone we are here and we want to work other student organisations across the UK to provide a support mechanism to our members.

#LetsTalkAboutSex - well that is certainly a hashtag! What does this mean? National Student Pride will be hosting a debate about the need of LGBT relationships being included in Sex and Relationships Education in Schools. Why? The age of coming out as LGBT is increasingly becoming younger. Currently young people have no avenues to which they can turn to ask for advice and support.

Other focuses will include safer sex, and enabling LGBT+ people to be themselves by tackling mindfulness and how the LGBT+ Community should come together to support each other.

National Student Pride have organised an array of employers and exhibitors to showcase their organisation and provide links to employment opportunities and LGBT staff support networks post- graduation.

Throughout the weekend PLEXUS will go live to provide our members with updates on discussions and how this will benefit our members now and in the future. Check out out Facebook now www.facebook. com/ouplexus. Join the conversation using the hastag #PLEXUSPride2017.

We will give you an update about National Student Pride and our Pride Calendar 2017 in our next edition! Upcoming Events

Saturday 25th February 2017

Keep a look out on our facebook wall The Students Association are hosting a variety of meet ups on Saturday 25th February. You can find out about events in your area by visiting the Students Association website. The PLEXUS Committee will be attending National Student Pride representing the entire University.

They will be attending one of the many events across the weekend at the University of Westminster also at G-A-Y @ Heaven on the evening of Saturday 25th.

We’ll post more information on our social media platforms shortly.

Editorial team Graham Rimmer, Alex Phennah and Cin McGuigan Contributors: Meg-John Barker, Alex, Phennah, Joshua Gledhill, Ana Jejina, James Murray, Jenna Whistlecraft, Barney Jones, Richard Duffy, Samantha Harding, Cin McGuigan