After years of indecision, the USI has voted overwhelmingly in favour of creating a full-time lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) rights officer, who will take up office on July 1st.

The post was first established in the early 1990s. Over the years it has gone from being a full-time position to a part-time one and back to full-time. The current incumbent, Diane Goldthorp, works part-time. She says she will stand in the forthcoming elections for the full-time job. The biggest issues facing the LGB officer include "combatting both homophobia on college campuses and the isolation that a lot of LGB students feel. Campus campaigns to confront ignorance and intolerance, and training for LGB students to give them greater confidence are vital," she says. Even in these enlightened days, there are still colleges where societies have yet to receive official recognition. According to Goldthorp, there are more than 50 institutions affiliated to USI, and colleges boasting LGB societies are in a minority. It is the larger institutions, particularly the universities and the DIT, which have well-established LGB societies. However, the fact that smaller institutions and the ITs have fewer LGB societies is not always the fault of college authorities. In many instances, Goldthorp says, it is the students themselves who are reluctant to get involved. "In smaller institutions where everyone knows everyone else it can be hard for people to come out," she explains. "People worry that there will be a bad reaction."