Canterbury students’ union launch gender pronoun badges
Canterbury Christ Church students’ union have revealed their new pronoun badges.
Students can collect a free badge with a gender pronoun of their choice at the Church Church students’ union (CCSU) at St George’s Place.
The ‘he’, ‘she’ or ‘they’ badges are to indicate which pronoun to use when addressing the wearer.
Jamie Harris, president of wellbeing at CCSU wants the badges to be a sign of support for transgender and non-binary students.
He said: “It is important that we offer these badges so that we can normalise the sharing of pronouns and everyone can be referred to without the generic grouping of trans and non-binary people.
“We are doing this to show support for our trans and non-binary students as well as raising the awareness of how we can be more inclusive around campus.”
CCSU encourages the use of badges to avoid the ‘misgendering’ of students. Especially those who are gender neutral or transgender.
The Christ Church students’ union also ensures that every member of the student council states their correct gender pronoun before a meeting begins, to avoid incorrect assumptions about a person’s gender.
Student and LGBT+ community member, Luke Chapman is pleased to see the students’ union stepping up to address the issue of misgendering.
He said: “It’s good to see them trying to make a difference towards an issue.
“However, if I was a trans person, it would be quite upsetting to have to wear a badge just to be gendered correctly.
But overall, it’s good that they’re giving people the option to wear one in the first place, that’s crucial.”
Jamie Harris's pronoun badges have arrived and they are now available to pick up from the Students' Union reception at St George's Centre. Get yours now! pic.twitter.com/UW0CwJt0pc
— Christ Church SU (@christchurchsu) October 22, 2018
University student unions around the country introduced pronoun badges during freshers’ week this year.
Edinburgh university made headlines when they handed out the label badges during their 2018 ‘welcome week’ event.
Most have been supportive of the motion stating that it is a step forward towards a more trans inclusive community, others have feared that the ‘labelling has gone too far’.
I am refusing to wear a pronoun badge that the student union is handing out to students which allows others to see what gender we identify with because I refuse to be labelled and refuse to see other people as a label How about just accepting everyone equally for who they are pic.twitter.com/Kj8ifoAwzH
— MacKenzies Miniatures (@MacsMiniatures) August 28, 2018
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