CUSU LGBT+ has made changes to its constitution in an attempt to reassert control over GetReal. magazine by splitting the editorship into a two-person role and ensuring that the CUSU LGBT+ Chair and Finance Officer have final control over any payments.

GetReal., the magazine for the autonomous CUSU LGBT+ campaign, was launched in Michaelmas by Hesham Mashhour as a successor magazine to No Definition, the campaign's previous publication.

The changes were sent out by CUSU LGBT+ Chair Jack Renshaw in an email to the campaign's members on Friday, telling them that the changes would see the magazine "receive funding in return for some obligations".

Under the new regulations, editorial control has to be made subject to a "certain degree of supervision" from the CUSU LGBT+ executive committee, with each editor being elected like other executive positions.

The two co-editors, who will be able to hold other positions on the CUSU LGBT+ executive, will have "equal power", and will only be able to serve for a maximum one-year term.

CUSU LGBT+ has reserved "the right to consult and advise GetReal. on its activities, structure, and publication(s)", though the clause of the proposals insists on respecting the magazine's independence.

This is a considerable loss of autonomy for the magazine's editors and for founder Mashhour in particular, who has been stripped of unilateral editorial control and will no longer be able to appoint successors. 

Renshaw told Varsity that the changes were made to "ensure that misinformation (and historical inaccuracies) are kept to a minimum", in an apparent reference to an earlier controversy relating to an article by Mashhour.

The piece in question, titled 'Feminism's Duty to Gay Men' and written in GetReal. in March, triggered an angry backlash from members of the executive, the Women's Campaign and Mashhour's own editorial team, and prompted a written response from Martha Perotto-Wills, an associate of the Women's Campaign, in Gender Agenda.

Mashhour told Varsity that the "editorial dispute" within GetReal. "was a result of a fallout with the CUSU Women's Campaign over the article".

"The Get Real I founded was set up to platform queer people of all opinions, entitling them to free speech," Mashhour continued. 

Once the editorial change took place, "as Attlee [sic] did with Hitler, I appeased them [The Women's Campaign] and I appointed Co-Editor Em Travis and Deputy Editor Rowan Douglas".

The magazine is now also obliged to feature the campaign's logo "prominently" on the cover of each edition, as well as including advertising from the campaign's sponsors, The Boston Consulting Group and Deloitte.

The changes also specify that GetReal. would not be able to carry any advertising from these firms' competitors, a move in line with similar clauses in sponsorship deals for other student societies, as Varsity revealed in an extensive investigation earlier this term.

If any provisions of the agreement are broken, then CUSU LGBT+ would be "require[d]... to begin a procedure of dismissal for one or both editors, and retract its obligation to fund GetReal".

"These changes are of huge benefit to GetReal," Renshaw insisted. "They ensure that the magazine is run democratically and has a secure source of funding. The freedom of the magazine to publish whatever materials they wish is protected."

@tag_freeman & @hepworth_dan