Selwyn JCR

Sexuality (including Sexual Health and Sexual Orientation) and Gender Identity information
See also the ***Gender Equalities*** and Welfare pages, and Links page for useful links to more information.

Sexuality affects everyone - for example, some of your friends and family may come out to you, and you may want advice on how you can help support and reassure them, and resources you can point them towards. Everyone has a sexuality and gender - encompassing sex, sexual health, sexual orientation, and gender identity - which can change over time. The LBGT officer is here to offer information and support on all of these aspects of sexuality and gender - hence, everyone should feel able to talk to the LBGT officer without any assumptions being made by anyone about their sexuality or gender, or feeling that they have to label or define themselves at any time. Please contact the LBGT Officer if you have any questions about or want to discuss any issues surrounding sexuality and gender. The SeLBGT officer for 2011 is Lewis Bartlett - I am here to represent everyone, and gladly welcome any suggestions, comments, and ideas you have about how I can best serve the needs and interests of the whole JCR, and my contact details are below.

Anyone can come to the LBGT Officer for confidential support, information, and advice on any aspect of your welfare, whether related to sexuality and gender or not. The Male and Female Welfare and Gender Equalities Officers are also all able and willing to offer support on any welfare issues, such as mental, emotional, and sexual health - their contact details are on the Committee section of the website. You should feel able to come to any of us you feel comfortable talking to about any issues you have at all. One of my roles is to make sure that everyone feels completely comfortable and at home in Selwyn. If you would feel more comfortable talking to someone outside of Selwyn, completely confidentially and anonymously, you can contact the CUSU LGBT Welfare officer, Ben Vincent, by emailing lgbt-welfare@cusu.cam.ac.uk.

I have found Cambridge to be a safe, tolerant, and accepting place to live in. That said, any possible instances of discrimination are taken seriously by College and the University and will be followed up. Selwyn has a friendly, welcoming, and supportive community of LGBT+ students, called SeLBGT, and Cambridge has a small but vibrant LGBT+ community. SeLBGT holds open, all-inclusive events which welcome everyone, regardless of sexuality - don’t feel you have to narrowly define yourself as LGBT or otherwise to come along! We also hold closed, safe space events which are only advertised on the mailing list, so that people who feel more comfortable coming to such events can do so.

One of the LBGT Officer’s roles is to represent the views of Selwyn’s LBGT+ community to the JCR, College, and the wider University. If you have any issues/comments/stuff you would like me to pass on to the JCR, College, or the CUSU LGBT committee, please do contact me.

General information, resources, and advice on sexuality and relationships for questioning/unsure and LGBT+ people
I think I might be gay: A guide (The Student Room) - http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/I_think_I_might_be_gay_:_A_guide
Channel 4: http://www.channel4.com/health//microsites/0-9/4health/sex/index.html
Being Gay Is OK: http://www.bgiok.org.uk/
BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/advice/sex_relationships/relationships_gay
AVERT’s pages for questioning and LGB youth: http://www.avert.org/young-gay-lesbian.htm

http://www.avert.org/gay-lesbian.htm
http://www.avert.org/gaylesbianhelp.htm
YouthNet’s TheSite: http://www.thesite.org/sexandrelationships/sexuality
Queer Youth Network: http://www.queeryouth.org.uk/community/
The Gay Youth Corner: http://www.thegyc.com/
Gay Youth UK: http://www.gyuk.org.uk/
LGBT Youth: http://www.lgbtyouth.org.uk/home.htm

See also: Other unis’ websites on the Links page.

Everyone should also feel comfortable and able to discuss and debate any interesting issues relating to sexuality and gender openly in College and the wider university community. There are many of them, some examples being:

• Is the lifetime blanket ban on blood donation on all men who’ve had sex with men fair, although they can donate their organs and bone marrow, and women who’ve had sex with such men, and other high-risk groups such as prostitutes and injecting drug users are only banned for one year?
• What can we do to tackle homophobic bullying in schools, which causes much misery and many suicides every year?
• How can we best raise awareness amongst everybody about HIV/AIDS, which is spreading fastest between straight people?
• How are people of all sexualities around the world perceived by different cultures?

Contact details
Feel free to contact me confidentially by any of these methods:
Email me at: jcrlbgt@sel.cam.ac.uk
Visit me in room: Room 6, 23 West Road
Leave a note in my pigeonhole: L. Bartlett

Mailing list
I run a mailing list, on which I send out weekly emails discussing what I can do for you as SeLBGT officer, details of events happening in Selwyn, the University, and town, and interesting current affairs, resources, and campaigns related to sexuality and gender. You can join the mailing list anonymously here. No-one can know you are on the mailing list unless you post an email to it, so you can keep aware of what’s going on anonymously.

Mailing list members are very welcome to post to the mailing list to discuss and respond to each others’ emails. N.B. The mailing list email address is selbgt-chat@srcf.ucam.org (i.e. this is the address you email to send a post to the whole mailing list). The SeLBGT Officer’s email address is different (jcrlbgt@sel.cam.ac.uk) and is not the mailing list – it is regular, private email. I welcome any ideas and suggestions you have - you can let me know of them via the mailing list, or via the SeLBGT officer’s email.

Women’s issues
If you would feel more comfortable speaking to a woman about anything, you can contact last year’s SeLBGT rep Taz (tr306@cam.ac.uk), the Gender Equalities Officer Clare Rivers Mohan (crm55@cam.ac.uk), the Female Welfare Officer Imogen Bishop (jcrfemalewelfare@sel.cam.ac.uk), or the CUSU LGBT Women's Officer Rei Haberberg (lgbt-womens@cusu.cam.ac.uk), who will all be happy to listen to and support you.

Prospective applicants/students
If you'd like to talk about anything to do with sexuality and gender, or what Selwyn and Cambridge are like in general before you apply or come up, feel free to email me. Selwyn is an equal opportunities college and welcomes everyone.

Events calendar
See here for socials in college and with other colleges, for example formal and informal swaps, trips to cafés and restaurants, film nights, drinks parties, and clubnights, and important occasions. See the ***this section of the links page***link to Events section*** for a summary of regular events, and sign up to CUSU LGBT Listings (see below) and SeLGBT mailing list (see above) for more details.