To want to sob uncontrollably at this solution?

Well perhaps sobbing uncontrollably is a bit OTT Bluebell, but I do share your disquiet.

OMG !

Petition to rescind this outrageous thing that university "leaders" have endorsed: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Universities_UK_Rescind_endorsement_of_sex_segregation_at_UK_Universities/?mobile=1

Leaders!? Leaders!? Idiots more like.

Shocking. And disgraceful to even consider it. Did the 60's ever happen? It seems we are intent on heading straight back to the Middle Ages.

Whose country is it anyway?

If UK students don't protest loudly and actively about this I'll join you in the uncontrollable weeping, bluebell. It is truly appalling.

This is just wrong!

Astonished? Sadly not. Angry, you bet! No, no and no! Surely this cannot be possible.

This is the sort of thing that fuels the BNP and UKIP. I'm appalled.

Sigh.

Yes, it is very wrong and not to be tolerated, but it will take time and protest before things improve. It is less than 60 years since Rosa Parks made a stand for black rights, and less than 30 years since women were allowed to compete in the olympic marathon. So much has been achieved already in breaking down barriers of all types but so much remains to be done.

This is going backwards though isn't it? The fact that university 'leaders' are sanctioning this makes me despair of what universities are supposed to be about - oh silly me, they're about making money.

I'm surprised that you are shocked by this. I'm not.

Bluebell is right - this is not slow progress - it is a hugely retrograde step. Everyone is free to set up a Public Meeting or stand on a soap box and spot whatever sense or nonsense they like. It is not the job of Universities or other educational establishments to provide them with a platform for their ideas.

I would suggest that students turn up in huge numbers, dressed in transgender clothing, and sit down in a random fashion. See what the 'Authorities' make of that.

I'm simply bemused by the University leaders trying to please everyone and succeeding in pleasing no-one. What planet are they on?

Surely students will not be prepared to sit down – literally – under such a ruling or have they changed beyond recognition in the last 40 years?

Good idea, g23. Alternatively, they could all "dress" in burkas (which are not items of "clothing" anyway) and then they could sit anywhere too.
somehow or other the 'audiences' of speakers who want audience gender segregation must take the complete piss out of this.

If they segregate left to right, are those sitting on the right superior to those on the left? And is that left / right facing the stage or from the stage? Perhaps they should consider stripes?

I signed and shared the petition thatbags, many thanks. I find this issue a real challenge to my liberal leanings. It brings to mind the Dylan song with the words ' oh yes I'm liberal and to a degree, I want anybody to be free, but if you think I want moving in and marrying my daughter......."
The separation of races, cultures, faiths is worrying enough, but this kind of nonsense really needs a challenge. The problem is, the only folks who seem to stand up and shout about it are folks I wouldn't want to stand with - the EDL/BNP etc.

WE are standing up to it, iam. WE are calling it utter bullshitting nonsense. WE are saying allowing backward steps to "accommodate" backward ideas is ridiculous and that this "solution" from idiot university "leaders" (HA!) should be reversed forthwith.

We are liberal in our ideas. Accommodating illiberal demands is not liberal. It is merely stupid.

"university leaders" whoever pushed this idea mocks both those words.

I'd like to know which universities have such stupid "leaders".

Signed but I wish Avaaz wouldn't shower me with petitions every time I sign one. I thought it was the university of Leicester.

Signed it, too. I find it ridiculous that any student would choose a university that takes such action.

This is not acceptable - demands that require an audience to be separated by race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc., should not be tolerated. I would have thought that a university, of all places, should be the first to reject such a suggestion.