Students were quick to notice the quiet omission of the 'T', as well as the timing of the event, which was to be held on Thursday 26 March, just five days before TDOV, raising questions about whether the Queer Department had intentionally omitted trans representation, or if it had simply neglected to recognise the symbolic significance of the omission ahead of TDOV.

UniMelb’s transgender community and other student activists have criticised UMSU, accusing it of trans erasure. On the Instagram post advertising the event, a barrage of comments criticised the alleged exclusion, calling out the responses of UMSU office bearers (OBs) who supported the pun.

“Lgbbq is a play on words as it’s a bbq for queer students”, the UMSU Queer account said to one student who criticised the omission of the T, concluding the response with an emoticon sticking its tongue out.

“The face I make excluding trans people during a time of great political stability for them”, one student mockingly responded, using the same emoticon.

The post has since been deleted, but student activists have remained vigilant in their criticism of UMSU’s handling of the situation, mockingly dubbing the scandal ‘BBQgate’.

The Queer Department's 'LGBBQ' event post drew criticism for its omission of the 'T'.

On 31 March, on TDOV, protesters descended on the Amphitheatre, disrupting the Prides and Bustles event just outside Building 168. While Education OB Corbin Afanasyev was speaking, he was interrupted by former Queer OB Ivy Pierlot, who led the protesters, resulting in a tense and awkward exchange as they talked over one another to puzzled onlookers.

“Instead of getting to share the promising news about preferred name usage in tutorials, I got yelled at with a megaphone… I was never approached or reached out to [by the protest organisers].” Afanasyev told Farrago.

As UMSU OBs dispersed shortly after, protesters settled in the Amphitheatre, as the music on the stage continued to be played, which at one point drowned out the noise of the protest, who chanted slogans like “No LGB without the T,” and “Stand up, fight back.”

A total of eight speakers spoke at the protest, including 2025 Queer OB candidates Mabel Shelley and Ronglin Hou, Queer Committee member Allie Lee, and former Queer OB Ivy Pierlot.

Speakers at the protest were unrelenting in their criticism of UMSU, framing BBQgate as a part of a broader pattern of trans exclusion, and a lack of accountability on the part of the Union.

“Every time we have tried to politely talk to them about trans exclusion, they delete our comments and delete their posts,” Shelley said to protesters about UMSU’s handling of the incident.

“They have ripped up our posters, and they have disabled comments on every post related to trans events, where criticism was posted.”

While speakers at the rally spoke about various issues, ranging from the global backslide in transgender rights, to the disadvantage experienced by transgender students, the protesters’ demand for an apology remained persistent across speeches.

“We are not asking for much. We’re just asking for an apology, an acknowledgement of what you have done to us,” Hou said of the demand.

Committee Member Allie Lee speaks to protesters at the TDOV rally.

Following the conclusion of the rally, protesters remained at the Amphitheatre as one representative spoke to the President to formally lay out their demand for an apology.

According to sources, the demand specified that the apology must be made by the president in a public statement in collaboration with Queer, Activities and Creative Arts, and must be published on the UMSU Instagram, its website, and via the UMSU mailing list.

The Union has yet to issue an official apology, as outlined by the demands of the protesters, but has maintained that it is committed to protecting the interests of transgender students.

Ahead of the TDOV protest, UMSU’s departments published a range of trans-related posts, including one advertisement for the weekly trans collective, which had not been advertised in isolation since August 2024.

While UMSU itself has not addressed the protest or the BBQgate scandal, Education OB Corbin Afanasyev, himself a transgender student, spoke to Farrago about the Education Department’s policy accomplishments for transgender students, including preferred name usage in tutorials and on student ID cards.

“I am working with the University staff on hammering out the logistics of what guide or backend system needs to be updated, and what communication needs to be circulated to teaching staff… This is so deeply personal to me as a trans man with a significant number of transgender friends who have not yet been able to legally change their name,” Afanasyev told Farrago.

However, the BBQgate saga has also reportedly left other transgender students unaffiliated with the protest embittered by the Queer Department’s continued silence. One transgender student spoke to Farrago on the condition of anonymity, expressing disappointment in the lack of an apology from the Queer Department.

“The Queer Department’s entire purpose is to be inclusive as possible, and the Department forgetting the T is extremely disappointing. Especially since trans people are arguably the most marginalised group in the nation,” they said.

Ultimately, whether simply a joke made in poor taste, or a symptom of a deeper failure of representation on the part of UMSU, BBQgate has exposed a growing rift between the Union’s elected OBs and parts of the UniMelb transgender community.

Farrago contacted UMSU’s Queer Department for comment but did not receive a response.