Dear Ms Flint,
In a recent parliamentary questions you attacked gender neutral toilets, and implied that they are dangerous for cisgendered women. In defence of your statement you chose to cite UEA, where we have implemented gender-neutral bathrooms for the past year.
Though you correctly stated that violations were made on campus, you failed to mention that these offences occurred in places other than gender-neutral bathrooms. We here at UEA are horrified by the actions that the charged individual committed, but given the nature of the offences it can be assumed that the gender assigned to the bathroom would not deter them, gender-neutral or otherwise.
The actions were committed in unisex and women’s, single occupancy stalls by a cisgender man. None of these factors you mentioned in your statement. By incorrectly citing what happened at UEA you are not only providing misleading facts and tarnishing the name of the university and the welfare it provides, but you are also placing transgender students in direct harm.
We at UEA believe people of all genders deserve equal protection from offences of this nature, and UEA students will not stand for a minority group being villainized for the sake of politics.
Below are a list of formal demands that we want you to answer to.
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You apologise for misrepresenting UEA and it’s students
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You recognise and condemn your mistakes when using transgender individuals as scapegoats
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You openly acknowledge that transgender women are in fact women
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You promise to learn from your mistake and educate yourself
Yours sincerely,
Lee Brown, UEA LGBT+ Officer (Transgender and Non-Binary Place)
Sharmin Hoque, UEA LGBT+ Officer (Open Place)
Kieran Burden, UEA LGBT+ Caucus Chair
Jo Swo, UEA Welfare, Community and Diversity Officer
Maëlle Kaboré, UEA LGBT+ Caucus Deputy Chair
Rhys Purtill, UEA Pride Society (President)
Jack Robinson, UEA Pride Society (Vice President)
Georgia Tomlinson-Spence, UEA LGBT+ Caucus Women’s Representative
Jennifer Williams, UEA LGBT+ Caucus Bisexual/Pansexual Representative
Lucy Auger, UEA Pride Society Welfare Representative (Open Place)
Juliet Donaghy, UEA Pride Society Welfare Representative (Students with Disabilities)
Charlotte Stebbing-Boulet, UEA Pride Society Welfare Reprentative (Transgender, Non-Binary, and Intersex)