The NUS Disabled Students’ officer defends liberation

Dear Mr Kemp

I have been directed to your website and listened to the stories brought to me by Christian students.

Let me say from the outset that I think the NUS Disabled Students’ campaign has a wonderfully Christian ethos and we thank God for your work in making things better for those who are afflicted by handicap. But you say on your website and in your blogs a number of times that you work with the NUS woman campaign and the NUS homosexuals campaign.

We wonder why you choose to associate yourself with groups of people that support the murder of innocent babies, many of whom are murdered because they are disabled, and ‘rights’ for those who try to suppress good Christian Unions and support homosexuals in their deviant acts.

We would like to invite you on to our Christian TV channel. In case you haven’t heard of it before, we broadcast on ******. We are evangelical Christians and you can read more about what we believe here [website removed]. We would like to talk to you about your wonderful work with handicapped people but also like to discuss with you why you choose to work with organisations that are so different to yours and that are actually doing the work of Satan.

Are you trying to change their minds and direct them to the Bible? Do you think that they can support handicapped people because of the massive political power of homosexuals?

These are the issues that we would like to discuss with you. You can email me back or call me on *****.

God bless,
****

Dear *****

Thank you for your email. I’m afraid I am going to turn down your request for an interview.

The NUS Disabled Students’ campaign works closely with the NUS Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans campaign, the NUS Womens campaign and the NUS Black Students’ campaign. We think they are all wonderful. Their work makes a huge and direct difference to the lives of oppressed students in this country.

They exist to fight for the rights of oppressed and marginalised students in the UK and we fully support their aims and objectives. We are most certainly not ‘trying to change their minds’. I personally have been actively involved in the LGBT campaign for many years and, indeed, was an LGBT officer in my Students’ Union.

I would like to take issue with some of the language in your email too. We are not ‘afflicted by handicap’. Handicap is a term derived from the phrase ‘cap in hand’ and is offensive to disabled people. It suggests that we are beggers, reliant on charity.

We are human beings with human rights and are afflicted by an inaccessible society and inaccessible world. We fight to change the structures of society in order to make them accessible to disabled people. We believe in a social model of disability – one where disability is caused by a lack of access and bad attitudes towards disabled people.

May I also take the opportunity to point out some other offensive aspects of your email. Firstly, the NUS LGBT campaign is not, nor has it ever been, the NUS homosexual campaign. It exists to defend and extend the rights of lesbian students too, of bisexual students and of trans students.

Secondly, the NUS Women’s campaign does not, nor has it ever, supported ‘murdering babies’. I assume you are referring to the fact that the NUS Women’s campaign is pro choice. We too, as disabled people, believe that women have the right to safe and legal abortion – and, importantly, the right to decide what to do with their own bodies. We believe that all women, including disabled women, should have that right.

Anti-choice groups have been targeting us for some time and we condemn the emotive and unnecessary association between disability and abortion. Women have a right to decide what to do with their bodies themselves. Disabled people do not wish to interfere with that right.

Perhaps it is also appropriate to make you aware of our position on Assisted Dying. The NUS Disabled Students’ campaign believes that terminally ill people have the right to choose to end their life in dignity. We believe that euthanasia is a human right that should be extended those who are terminally ill. We presume that you would not describe this conviction as ‘wonderfully Christian’.

Given the profound differences of opinion between us (and the fact that these are not likely to be resolved), along with the offensive language in your email, I see little point in meeting you for an interview.

NUS Disabled Students’ Officer

Dear Mr Kemp

I did not realise you were a homosexual. We will pray for you.

God bless,
****

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