Freshers who hurled homophobic slurs in LSE group chat ‘thought it would be bants’
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). (Oli Scarff/Getty)
Students in a London School of Economics (LSE) freshers group chat reportedly hurled homophobic slurs at each other because they “thought it would be bants”.
One soon-to-be LSE student in the group chat posted screenshots of anti-LGBT+ messages on Twitter, and wrote: “Not this homophobia in the LSE freshers group chat.”
https://twitter.com/privsafian/status/1297832457983721473
The screenshots showed students calling each other slurs like “batty boy” and one student told another: “James Charles looking a**. Go shake that a** somewhere else.”
The student who posted the screenshots eventually intervened, writing: “There’s no reason for you to be running your mouths with the homophobic slurs.” He reported that after that, the anti-LGBT+ name-calling stopped.
Students involved told The Tab that they thought using the homophobic language “would be bants”.
One, who repeatedly used the slur “batty boy”, said he saw it as “dark humour” even though “some may have been offended”.
He said: “I am not homophobic. I thought it would be bants… Some of my friends are gay and they laugh.”
The student insisted again: “I’m not homophobic. Ngl some of my boys cracked up but I see why some won’t.”
Another member of the group chat, who called another student “James Charles” said he was wasn’t to blame, adding: “I apologise. My cousin was using my phone, sorry.”
According to the university’s discrimination, harassment and bullying policy: “When using social media or posting online all members of the LSE Community should consider the content, language and appropriateness of such communications.”
It states that sending “using language which would be deemed to be offensive, threatening or humiliating to others in a face-to-face setting” is deemed unacceptable and “can lead to an investigation under the relevant disciplinary procedure”.
https://twitter.com/LSESULabour/status/1298287784663425033
Twitter users who saw the screenshots described the messages as “disgusting” and called for LSE to “confirm that these incidents of homophobia are being addressed”.
PinkNews has approached LSE for comment.
