NUS breaks ties with gay student group

THE National Union of Students (NUS) has cut its ties with the biggest gay student group after accusing it of being run by “cis white gay men” and not being inclusive enough.

Noorulann Shahid and Beth Douglas, the NUS LGBT+ campaign officers, attacked Student Pride, which they said had abandoned its “radical beginnings” and now allows big corporations to “cash in on the ‘pink pound’.”

The officers said that Student Pride, a campaigning group which runs an annual conference and careers fair for LGBT+ students, “has become less and less about queer representation and more about profits”.

Ms Shahid added that Student Pride was “unrepresentative”, as “most of their ‘board’ is cis [people whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth] white gay men”.

There is “no way for queer students to feed into Student Pride and shape the events they want to see”, the activist added.

The statement from the NUS officials came after Student Pride announced a “break in ties” with them.

For the past 11 years, the NUS and Student Pride have marched together at the London Pride event, but this year there will be no such joint presence.

On its corporate links, Harriette Smart, the National Student Pride chairman, said sponsorship was “a vital accessibility decision”, as it enables students to attend their annual conference free of charge, as well as funding political campaigns and other events.

She said: “As an organisation that protests by creating a conversation; we see our careers fair as just one of many activism routes to create dialogue, enabling us to influence international firms’ LGBT+ policies.”