The Oxford Union has sparked student uproar after secretly voting down a motion to mandate flying the LGBT flag during every Pride month. The Telegraph has the story.
Anita Okunde, the president of the union, made the request after an order requiring the flag to be raised in June was mysteriously removed from the student-run standing committee’s rule book.
The order would make it compulsory for “every union president to fly an LGBT flag clearly and visibly from the courtyard throughout June every year”.
It would also give the president the discretion to waive the requirement “in the event of the death of the Sovereign, or at such other time when public buildings fly their flags at half mast”.
In minutes of the meeting, seen by the Telegraph, Ms Okunde claimed it was not “a new standing order change” and that it had been mysteriously removed from the committee’s rule book.
But her motion was rejected by a vote of seven to four in a secret ballot on May 5th, with critics fearing it would open a “Pandora’s box” of demands for other flags to be flown.
In a meeting at which opposition voices were cautious not to be cancelled, Samy Medjdoub, the third elected member of the committee from Keble College, said that by passing the motion any other individual may make the same request for any other cause and described the scenario as “opening the floodgates”. …
The ruling has ignited a fierce online backlash from students, with one writing that the change was “confirmation that the union is as bad as everyone thinks it is”.
Worth reading in full.
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