The Priority: 

SU to actively and vocally stand up for trans students and lobby the universities and FX Plus to support, advocate, and create space for our trans students.

Context: 

The 2025 UK supreme court ruling concerning Transgender women left the LGBTQ+ community concerned about their future existence in public life. This led to uncertainty around the safety of our students in their university experience and personal lives and sets a dangerous precedent of the removal of other individual’s rights. Our sabbatical officers proposed this priority to Forum to provide long-term support and show active allyship to trans+ students at a time when they are experiencing feelings of isolation, shock, rage and danger.

From the supreme court ruling, the Equality and Human Rights Commission interpreted the ruling, drafted and published interim guidance which was taken down due to legal objections. There is currently final guidance being discussed and debated in parliament, if not objected to in parliament, this may go into law as soon as the end of June. This guidance will affect how trans+ students access their education.

What has the SU achieved this year? 

Key Outcomes: 

• Sabbatical officers released its position on the supreme court ruling. Emphasising that the SU has and always will be a safe place for all students, and we will continue to stand with and support our trans and non-binary students and allies. That you are welcomed and valued members of our students' union and we are here to listen.
• The Engagement team facilitated several Trans & Non-Binary Students' Collective meetups. This was a student-led space that helped build community and political power. The feedback from these sessions helped inform the SU’s action this year.
• The SU team received specialist training on trans+ inclusion from Intercom Trust. An LGBT+ led charity, dedicated to improving wellbeing and inclusion across the South West. This has helped the SU to better represent and provide a space for our LGBTQ+ students.
• Sabbatical officers wrote to and met with Jayne Kirkham the Labour Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Truro and Falmouth and Perran Moon the Labour Member of Parliament representing the constituency of Camborne, Redruth, and Hayle. The meeting discussed the consequences of the impact the EHRC guidance had had on our students and how they would like to see it changed. Our MPs agreed to support any motion tabled in Parliament 
  objecting to a Code that infringes on human rights standards. Jayne Kirkham met with the Minister for Women and Equalities on are behalf and directly shared the student feedback we’d provided her.
• Sabbatical officers met with the head of Falmouth BID (business improvement district) to discuss how we can hold community venues and spaces to account to respectful and inclusive values and practices.  
• Sabbatical officers attended the Cornwall Pride Inclusion Conference with Pride Soc where we helped codevelop the best practices for LGBTQ+ safety, belonging, and visibility in Cornwall and met Paul Harfleet creator of ‘The Pansy Project’ and planted a Pansy with students to commemorate trans+ loss and reclaim space.
• Attended multiple NUS conferences on trans+ inclusion such as the making our campuses trans inclusive: Members Meeting.
• Working with NUS we have sent letters to the new EHRC chair as part of a national NUS campaign towards pressuring the EHRC to reconsider their proposed code and the harm it would cause.
• Working with the NUS liberation collective we have contributed to national guidance on the best practices for trans+ inclusion in the UK.
• To show solidarity sabbatical officers attended a vigil for Transgender Day of Remembrance ran by NUS.
• The SU proudly raised the trans flag and other LBGTQ+ flags in The SU to 
  physically show their ongoing commitment to the trans community. The SU 
  continues to give away hundreds of free pronoun badges with many SU staff all 
  wearing pronoun pins to create a more inclusive environment.
• Sabbatical officers produced videos and posts for events such as trans visibility day to highlight the important work we are doing and raise awareness.
• Sabbatical officers went all in on LGBTQ+ History month. Decorating the office and placing posters around campus to increase the visibility of this important month. The SU also worked directly with are LGBTQ+ community to ensure that LGBTQ+ History Month events had the greatest impact on the community. Central to all the months activities was an emphasis Trans+ joy.
• Sabbatical officers organised an all-gender make-up tutorial. Through purchases and securing free donations from Lush we were able to give out hundreds of pounds worth of make-up to students for free. We were also very lucky to be able to welcome Pasty Kween from RuPaul's Drag Race UK onto campus to teach the make-up workshops. The event sold out with over 45 students attending. Pasty led a comprehensive workshop covering her own drag journey, drag history, beginners’ make-up, advanced make-up and drag make-up.
• Sabbatical officers hosted key chains and badge making in collaboration with Pride Society. Over 20 students expressed themselves through art and enjoyed the free snacks provided.
• Sabbatical officers hosted Pride Party at the Cornish bank - we celebrated LGBTQ+ joy on scale with over 200 students attending and music provided by local artist DJ Good Doggy, a free professional photo booth and free drinks given out to students it was night to remember!
• Sabbatical officers hosted boardgames and biscuits to wrap up the month’s celebrations. Featuring heaps of snacks, decorations and games ranging from twister to Mario kart.
• Sabbatical officers ran four pop-ups on both Falmouth and Penryn campuses. The pop-ups celebrated historical LGBTQ+ Cornish figures, our students, LGBTQ+ history month and gave out free LGBTQ+ themed freebies.
• Sabbatical officers ran two presentations for students at Pride Society to share  the work we are doing for this priority and gain feedback from students.
• Sabbatical officers raised the need for a working group to inform Falmouth University’s response to the EHRC guidance and questioned what support was being offered to support trans+ students currently. Falmouth listened to these concerns and said they would look into possible actions.
• Sabbatical officers have worked closely with the University of Exeter’s Working Group in Response to the Supreme Court & OfS Ruling. We successfully lobbied for the agenda to have a strong trans+ inclusion and people-first focus, prioritising people over policy. Through extensive research and working close with our trans+ community we were able to positively redirect discussions and inform staff on the breadth and depth of the topic. In this group, we successfully advocated for campus all gender bathroom maps of Penryn, Truro, Streatham and St. Lukes to better support our non-binary+ community.
• Sabbatical officers lobbied the University of Exeter to consider and disregard money saved up for trans+ healthcare and other healthcare as part of success for all fund applications.
• Sabbatical officers have conducted University of Exeter student and staff interviews and discussion groups to address ongoing issues around student name-changing on systems to better understand and map out barriers and gaps in the student journey. Through this research we identified impacted groups and problem areas. We took this feedback to relevant University of Exeter staff and presented the findings at the University of Exeter’s Student Experience Board.
• The University of Exeter have  declared they will use preferred names when calling graduates to the stage during graduation.
• Sabbatical officers have been in talks with numerous staff and departments such as the career zone to ensure a high standard of trans+ inclusion. We have raised staff awareness about the ongoing issues impacting the trans+ community, kept trans+ issues on the agenda and advocated for inclusive practices

By the Numbers:  

• The SU joined the 678 UK Businesses that signed an open letter to the UK Government opposing the EHRC's proposed interim Code of Practice. The open letter which argued that the interim guidance wasn’t workable for businesses was one of the key turning points that led to the interim guidance being taken down.
• The SU Gender Expression Fund provided financial aid to 45 trans+ students 
  a 25% increase compared to last year. We built up a relationship with Spectrum Outfitters which has allowed us to secure 20 free binders to give away to students.
• The SU gave out vouchers for Spectrum Outfitters, a trans+ owned company that specialises in quality, affordable and sustainable gender affirming products.

Why this matters: 

We are currently on the tipping point of massive policy changes driven by the guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on the interpretation of a woman and man being defined by biological sex in law. The implications of the final guidance will be massive and may have wide ranging consequences on student life. We’ve already seen the impact on trans+ people accessing certain youth organisations, conferences, sports, bathrooms, and more, from the interim guidance and anticipate further changes with the release of the final guidance.

The future guidance will impact trans+ people and their friends and family, as well as intersex people, gender non-conforming people, businesses and more.

During this critical time of change it is essential to lobby the universities and the government to ensure that any published guidance and consequential decision-making does not infringe on human rights or hinder people’s ability to participate in public life.

As an SU we champion inclusivity and want any guidance to do so too. The guidance will largely impact our trans+ student communities making it critical to be an active ally. To us that means not only celebrating trans+ joy but also actively working towards protecting trans+ rights and promoting trans+ inclusion both nationally and in our students' union. Through our work we strive to not only help shape an inclusive future but also help connect student communities through solidarity and understanding during an increasingly polarised time.

What’s next? 

The current President team will be passing the baton over to your newly elected 2026-27 President team to continue this crucial work. Please reach out to the team if you’d more information on any of the actions above.

Want to get involved? Here's how:  

1. Stay Updated: Instagram  

1. Make a change: Submit a proposal on Make A Change  

1. Take Action: Vote on proposals through Make A Change or make your own proposal! Talk to your reps, whether that be reps from your course or your SU Presidents - Find My Rep , Presidents. Come to Student Forum, where we discuss ongoing priority work and vote in proposals to either be actively worked on with allocated budget or worked on amongst other issues! If you want to see something changed, why not come have your say?   

Questions or ideas? Get in touch via email at presidents@thesu.org.uk or drop us a message on Instagram - we'd love to hear from you!