OUSU has elected its first ever Trans Officer at the most recent meeting of OUSU Council.
Elliot Parrot, a second year French & German undergraduate at Oriel College, was elected unopposed as OUSU’s first ever Trans Officer at OUSU Council last Wednesday. The role is one of six part-time executive committee roles that last for the duration of Michaelmas 2015.
The OUSU website describes the responsibilities of the role as working “with the Vice President (Welfare and Equal Opportunities) and the LGBTQ Officer to lobby for the interests of trans students in all areas of the student experience”.
The role is further described as working with The Women’s Campaign, the LGBTQ Campaign, and Oxford University’s LGBTQ society – a group where Parrot is currently Trans Rep.
Parrot told Cherwell, “It’s wonderful that the role finally exists, and I look forward to watching the legacy of all those Trans Officers elected in the future unfold! Hopefully this will also be one of many smaller steps towards persuading the NUS to instate a fulltime Trans Officer to support trans students at a national level, but it is a very big step forward for us on a local level.
“Being the first person in this role is quite daunting, since I have had little direct involvement with OUSU thus far, and so I’ll need to learn how to negotiate all the bureaucratic channels; that said, being the first person ever to come out as trans at Oriel was far more daunting, so I’m prepared! I’m also excited to try to make the job easier for whomever is elected after me by warming the seat for them, as it were.
“My two main plans are to put through a motion at OUSU Council urging all colleges to adopt the most recent version of the University’s policy and guidance on transgender individuals, and to lobby as many faculties as possible, as well as the Bodleian, to install gender-neutral toilets .”
