Hey guys!

Hope you’re looking forward to coming/coming back to the University of Birmingham. We are the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer (LGBTQ) association and we aim to represent, support, empower and hopefully entertain self identifying LGBTQ students.

We’ve got a fair amount going on during welcome week! Firstly, we’re going to be holding a Befriending Coffee meeting in the LGBTQ room in the Guild, where you can come and chat to some of the committee in a friendly and relaxed setting.

We’re also going to be running a stall at the Societies fair on Thursday and Friday, which is an excellent place to find out what awesome societies exist at the University of Birmingham, not least the LGBTQ! Come and sign up for our mailing list, steal some freebies off us, or just come for a quick chat!

Another thing you can do at either of the aforementioned events is buy tickets for our awesome FRESHERS BARCRAWL! http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=138352653587#/event.php?eid=156703530361 Thursday nights are by far the best nights for LGBTQ students, as all the major clubs in the Gay Village do drinks offers to suit the student budget. Tickets are going to be £5 and will include entry to Nightingale’s Club and transport into town, and you can’t say fairer than that, really.

Sadly for us committee-folk, it’ll be back to the doldrums the Friday morning after while you’re still enjoying your hangovers. On Thursday and Friday we will be doing a light bit of campaigning on the National Blood Service’s ban on Gay and Bisexual Men giving blood. We’ll send out more concrete details of what we’re doing nearer the time, but we would be very grateful if any politically minded LGBTQ people could lend us a hand if we need it.

On Monday the 28th we’re going to be part of the inter-university “Women’s Night” to Chic’s “Little Miss Mondays”, http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=138352653587#/group.php?gid=39472641310&ref=ts which is shaping up to be a great night whether or not you’re a fresher. We’re also going to be starting up our film nights on the Sunday Night at the end of that week, which are a good opportunity for everybody to get together, watch a film, and talk/discuss/argue/war over it.

If you’ve skipped to the bottom of this long message because I’m rambling, I don’t blame you. All the details of these events should be on the facebook group, http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=138352653587#/group.php?gid=36482000208&ref=ts fan page, http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=138352653587#/pages/University-of-Birmingham-LGBTQ/62445989949?ref=ts or website www.lgbtq.co.uk

We hope to see you at as many of these events as possible,
LGBTQ Committee

The annual LGBTQ Welcome Week Bar Crawl (or fresher’s barcrawl as most people call it) is one of the most notorious nights on our calendar and certainly not to be missed.

Take a break from your Fresher’s Fest events (if it clashes – sell your ticket… guaranteed profit) to come and make friends as your LGBTQ committee manically tries to introduce everyone to everyone else (so don’t worry about coming on your own) before introducing you to Birmingham’s famous gay village.

We’ll head into town from 8pm onwards and whilst we obviously encourage responsible drinking, it’s usually a case of ‘last one standing’… because you’ll obviously be all too exhausted from the dancing to stand anymore…

Birmingham’s gay village has quite a few venues, so we’ll only realistically be able to go to a few on the barcrawl -but don’t worry over the first few weeks of term, we’ll try and introduce you to them all. For this first barcrawl, we’ll be hitting the Angels, Route 2, the Fox and the Nightingale club. Keep your eyes peeled on the calendar for upcoming events where we’ll hit the other venues…

TICKET INFO:
Whilst we like to keep all as many as our events free as possible, we will be selling tickets for this event at a measly £5. Ticket price is to cover entrance into Nightingales who charge an entry fee on Thursdays, and also your travel into town. (Bargain.)

If this doesn’t sound like your thing… not to worry. We put on a wide range of events so there’ll be something for everyone.

Your LGBTQ Association welcomes all new and returning students.

We’re very excited that Welcome Week is finally here! In honour of the occasion we have included a lovely picture of a lady with ‘open arms’. This is obviously very important and symbolic and represents the friendly, accepting nature of your LGBTQ Association etc etc. We would analyse it further but it may get complicated, but we’re sure you’ll agree that she is quite lovely and does not look like a tit at all.

This week we’ll be making our way around halls to try and introduce ourselves to as many of you as possible. If anyone should have any problems with flatmates regarding homophobia (though that is very very very very rare – so don’t get scared) please let us know so we can help you out.

As well as visiting halls we’ll be at the ‘Change Your World’ and ‘Societies’ Fairs on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday of this week, which are in the Deb Hall and Welcome Week Marquee, both in the Guild of Students.

University’s a great, and common, time to come out but if any of you are worried, nervous or simply a bit shy then take advantage of our ‘Befriending Scheme’ and come and meet a couple of us, privately and confidentially, for a chat so you know a few faces before coming to an event. Just email us to arrange a time and a place.

Speaking of events… this Thursday we have our MEGA barcrawl and on Saturday we have our Meet ‘N’ Greet, so check the Events page for more details and make sure you don’t miss out. If the barcrawl clashes with a Fresher’s Fest or Postgrad event, sell your ticket and come with us instead. It’ll blatantly be much better.

Finally, don’t forget to join our Facebook group and mailing list. The Facebook group link is on the right of this page and you can sign up to the confidential mailing list by emailing us or signing up at one of the fairs or events. We take confidentialiality very seriously and can guarantee the safety of your details not being handed out.

We look forward to meeting you all soon and wish everyone a great Welcome Week ‘08.