Students unveiled pride and trans flags at a Caius formal on Friday (04/02) while grace was being read, expressing their anger at the college’s decision to no longer fly LGBT flags.

Fellows at the college’s general meeting voted in favour of only flying the Caius banner on flagpoles over concerns about ‘political neutrality’ at the college.

Pride and trans flags were also displayed in the college bar after the event. The JCR are bulk buying progress flags for students to fly from their rooms. This takes advantage of the college changing its regulations last month to allow students to fly any legal flag or poster from their room.

The JCR’s LGBT officer said: “as someone who’s been part of the fight to make Caius a more inclusive place over the past year, it feels damning to see all of our hard work completely disregarded”.

He added: “After college made it so difficult for us to fly the flag twice and for students to have flags in their room, it’s disappointing yet not surprising to see that they’ve taken this enormous step backwards.”

Another Caius student was critical of the timing of the fellows’ decision, which came days after the progress pride flag was raised for LGBT history month, arguing that it “undermines the college’s commitment to inclusivity and diversity” and “disregards the tireless efforts of the JCR and student body to achieve visual representation and support for the LGBT+ community”.

Homerton JCR’s LGBT officer told Varsity: “It’s disappointing that Caius College considers displays of support for the LGBT+ community as potentially divisive. What is truly divisive is failing to show solidarity with queer people, a fifth of whom have been the victim of a hate crime in the last twelve months in the UK”.

Another student told Varsity: “Our existence is factual not ‘political’; our existence is natural and beautiful; and our representation is not a ‘cause’”.

The Caius JCR President announced plans to present an open letter to the college after canvassing students’ views. In an email to students, he said “we are determined not to let this decision go unchallenged”. The open letter will be open to signatures from across college, including fellows and staff members.

A Caius spokesperson said: “The amended flag policy was reached following an extensive consultation period which included student representatives throughout. Student representatives were invited to present to the General Meeting on [January] 29th and were in attendance at the College Council meeting on February 2nd .

Student representatives are non-voting attendees of both the General Meeting and the College Council. They opposed the new flag policy at both meetings, with the JCR and MCR presidents writing in a joint statement that they “fought ardently against this decision.”