Raphael Rafferty - Vice President Inclusion

Great question! You can follow my campaign on Instagram @raphael_vp_inclusion26, I also have a Linktree which has all my contact details and links. https://linktr.ee/raphaelforvpinclusion2026.

I'll be regularly updating my Instagram with upcoming events, campus appearances, info on my policies, why I'm so passionate about this, and any questions I receive from students! :)

I'd immediately start working on fighting racism, discrimination, and managing safety for international and ethnic-minority students in the local area; anti-immigration protests in the area have caused significant disruption to daily public life for some time in Southampton. You may be familiar with current protests spanning the city centre, Portswood, and Highfield area. This has caused a significant safety issue for many of our students and valued local community, with the main protest site at the Highfield House Hotel intersection between Portswood and Highfield Campus. We've seen this before too, in 2024 and 2025 Southampton faced similar anti-immigration protests in July and August, yet still nothing has been done. I can't presume to know what the state of these protests or demonstrations will look like in the future, but I think it is niave to believe these salient racist attitudes will disappear without direct action to combat racism. If I successfully become your VP Inclusion, I would do everything in my power to implement new initiatives to combat student fears of safety, more support in reporting hate crimes, and direct SUSU protest information that helps inform students of their rights to civil demonstration, and awareness on when their rights are being abused. Alongside this, working with protest organisers, and the local council, could mean more information on safe alternative routes home when these demonstrations occur. In longer-term action, I would focus on combatting discriminatory culture and latent racism in daily life. This could include promoting more awareness campaigns that include ethnic-minority and international communities, and making sure complaint processes seriously consider the gravity of this kind of discrimination.

1) Absolutely, I believe all transgender, gender-diverse, or other not cis-identifying people should be respected and their identities are wholly valid. As a transgender man myself, I am incredibly passionate about ensuring that any individuals identity is protected, you should absolutely respect the chosen name and pronouns of any individual. As the president of LGBTQ+ Society, I have witnessed the procedures that enable trans students to continually be disrespected by university faculty and internal infastructure through deadnaming and misgendering. I have already been working on direct feedback with the former VP Inclusion and current Union President to ensure that the university and students union is working on solving this issue activiely and would continue to fight this as your VP Inclusion. 2) Trans students should feel whichever facilities they are most comfortable with using, there are a myriad of factors that come into play when trans students choose to use public bathrooms, and the consequences they may face as a result of discrimination. While it is easy to say 'do whatever works' this often is not always feasible in practice, and I strongly acknowledge this. Firstly, binary transgender individuals may still feel unsafe, or face harassment, when using their chosen bathroom. Secondly, non-binary students are often forced to choose between two binary gender bathrooms, neither that fit their identity, while also navigating discrimination. This is why its so important that the university implements more gender-neutral and accessible facilities so that all gender-identities are accomodated on campus. 3) I believe whole-heartedly that gender-neutral facilities are overwhelmingly positive for wellbeing at the university. Gender-neutral facilities are not just beneficial for transgender folk, but also reduce stigma around gender-non-conforming individuals and opens the conversation to what a 'safe' facility really includes beyond a reductive gender segregation system. A gendered sign with a skirt or trouser pants will not reduce sexual harassment or other discrimination, but only seek to reinforce gendered differences to divide us. There needs to be encouragement to explore how we can make these necessary spaces safe and inclusive for everyone. 4) Once again, this question is difficult to answer because the ideal conditions do not match our current social context. Ideally, all trans students should engage with gendered sports in any way that they see fit or most comfortable. However, we know this is not always possible in practice when students face active misinformation, fear-mongering, discrimination, or poor accessibility. Even if a gendered team accepts a binary trans student with open arms, they are still excluding non-conforming or non-binary students by uplifting a segregatory practice. I believe the university and SU should be working to reducing gender segregation in sports as a whole, which would consequently make it easier for trans, non-binary, and gender-non-conforming students to participate freely. However, I don't believe any sport should be segregated by sex nor gender identity, reinforcing that idea only perpetuates patriarchal ideas that cis gender women are inheretly weaker than their cis men counterparts. I do believe that we should be involving sexual and gender minorities into the sports conversation, as much is said about trans peoples participation in sports, yet little of this commentary is made by trans people themselves. As a part of empowering trans students in sports, we need to redirect the bio-essentialist narrative.

Hi, thank you so much for asking! I have addressed this briefly in my key points, and have expanded on my social media. I think protecting students against sexual assault is incredibly important! More initiatives, such as student abuse and victim support, should be developed to make sure students are aware of sexual misconduct and harassment. We need to place specific focus on minority groups who are uniquely affected by forms of misconduct and sexual abuse. According to Southampton Says Enough, a program working with SUSU to bring awareness to sexual violence in Southampton, 62% of students have been sexually assaulted at UK universities. This is significantly higher for women and disabled students! Only 2% of students felt comfortable reporting their sexual assault, and our university is no exception to these findings, we need more victim support! The link for the Student Room & Revolt Sexual Assault Report from 2018 is here: https://revoltsexualassault.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Report-Sexual-Violence-at-University-Revolt-Sexual-Assault-The-Student-Room-March-2018.pdf