The gulagsplaining turned out to be a step too far even for the Goldsmiths Student Union. Their statement:

Yesterday, Monday 10th September, a member of the LGBTQ+ Society with access to their Twitter account posted tweets containing offensive material. We condemn the abhorrent content of the tweets and they are in complete opposition to the views and values of the Students’ Union.

The Society have broken multiple Union policies and procedures, including failing to adhere to our code of conduct, and we have issued multiple requests for the group to delete the tweets. As such, the Society have been suspended and disaffiliated from the Students’ Union, pending investigation.

I think they should have said what the tweets were about and what made them “offensive” and “abhorrent”…and chosen a word other than “offensive” to describe them. Evasiveness seems unhelpful. But anyway it’s good to know the Goldsmiths Student Union isn’t a fan of Stalin and the gulag.

I can’t help wondering how friendly Stalin would have been to the Goldsmiths (or any other) LGBTQ+ Society. Nah I don’t really wonder, I already know. They’d have been in the gulag, not standing outside admiring it and trying to persuade others to admire it. Kids today, eh, thinking Stalinism and queer politics make a good mashup.