The association that represents the LGBT community is now officially registered at XJTLU
It took it three years and four unsuccessful attempts to reach this achievement
By Ivy Jiahui Huang, May 17, 2018
On May 16, Seker posted a photo in his WeChat moments saying: “XJTLU finally has its official association for gender equality and sexual minorities!” He had been waiting for this moment since he first established the unofficial student club for the LGBT, – lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community back in 2015. It is not only an achievement for Seker and his team members but also a progress of human rights for all the students and staff in XJTLU.
XJTLU Diversity Association was officially registered on May 16, 2018. The new student association was approved by the Functional Student Council whose voters are leaders of different official student organizations in the university. This is the first time the association managed to get approval after four previously unsuccessful attempts made in the past three years.“We changed our strategy this time,” explained Thomas, a year one student, the first president of the XJTLU Diversity Association. Bethany, an exchange student from the University of Liverpool, also participated in the presentation to the panel of voters. She explained: “We applied to a council that they’d never applied to before, and additionally now that we’re focusing on gender equality as a primary aim and LGBT related issues as a secondary.”
An official policy on university student organizations handbook stated that student leaders who attend the council meeting have the right to vote and the results directly decide if a campus group can be registered officially. According to Thomas, another reason for their success is related to the voters’ positive attitudes. “Compared with previous experience, this time the club leaders are nice and friendly.” Seker, the leader of another unofficial student club called Flagship which focuses on LGBT community, agreed with him, “I went to the previous presentations, and the questions the club leader raised then were sharp. This time, it was much softer.”
Ruotong Jiang, the president of Translation and Interpretation Club, attended their pitch both last time and this time. She voted in favour this time and got a different impression from last time. She said, “Last time they were only focusing on the needs of LGBT, which creates a sense that we have to vote for them simply because they are minorities. This time, however, they emphasize the gender equality and are much more objective. Also, they showed clear organizational structure, comprehensive contents, and critical value.” Zi Yang, the Student Club Support Officer, is in charge of the council meeting for functional organizations in XJTLU. “They did it well, they had a good manner in the presentation and made a strong argument with valid examples such as the similar organization in University of Nottingham Ningbo China.”
Several universities in China also have student associations like this. Fudan University has a student association called Zhihe Society. All of these officially registered clubs focus on both gender equality and sexual minorities issues.
Seker clarified the difference between Flagship, the unofficial student club, and the Diversity Association. “My initial motivation to establish Flagship was to focus on LGBT community, but most of LGBT originations in China held activities on gender equality as well. In XJTLU, DA will focus more on gender equality while Flagship still focuses on LGBT community particularly.” According to Thomas, Flagship actually shared the same core members with the Diversity Association. Seker isn’t willing to apply for an official association for Flagship, “We have more freedom as an unofficial club” he said Flagship will begin to provide HIV/Syphilis rapid test service in May. Currently, there are 14 members in XJTLU Diversity Association. Thomas, the president, is confident and positive about their future, “We are creating our own WeChat official accounts and logos. We’ll begin recruiting and activities next semester.”
(Both Seker and Thomas prefer to use their English names)
Jiahui Ivy Huang 