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Drag Queen to run for Sussex Beacon

Drag Queen Sonia Marmite will be running with the Bear Patrol in the Brighton Half Marathon later this month.

Paul Brown aka Sonia Marmite
Paul Brown aka Sonia Marmite

This years Brighton Half Marathon is on Sunday, February 16 and Sonia Marmite aka Paul Brown will be running with the Bear Patrol to raise money for the Sussex Beacon.

If he gets pledges of sponsorship for more than £500, Paul will run dressed as ‘Sonia the bride’ in full make up, wig, veil, white short dress and a flower bouquet. Due to health and safety regulations he will have to run in trainers rather than the rather fabulous pair of Prada booties he had planned to run in.

It is easy to sponsor him.

Text PBSM76 £5 to 70070 to sponsor him today.

Or donate on Just Giving:

Taxpayers money allocated to troubled i360 project on Brighton seafront

Brighton & Hove City Council announced last month they intend to allocate taxpayers money to plug a hole in the financing of the i360 project.

i360

The announcement followed after investors withdrew fifteen million pounds investment from the troubled project last September (2013).

Simon Kirby MP
Simon Kirby MP

Simon Kirby, MP for Kemptown and Peacehaven is expressing concerns over the move to spend a further £36 million pounds on the project.

He said: “Whilst I am incredibly supportive of efforts to support tourism in the City, I am concerned at the cost to taxpayers to get this project off the ground.”

Adding: “At a time when people are having to watch their finances very carefully I am not convinced this is the most appropriate way to spend £36 million of taxpayers’ money. Whilst this is not my decision to make I would not be proceeding.”

“This project has been beset by issues already and I have reservations about the likely return for taxpayers. It is revealing that the required amount of private finance has not been secured.

“I would urge caution from the Council to ensure that taxpayers hard earned money is not poured down a black hole.”WEB.600.2

National Student Union calls for end to “deep injustice for LGBT community” in Russia

The National Union of Students (NUS) held their very own Sports Gay today – a protest to highlight Russia’s woeful human rights record in the lead up to the Sochi Winter Olympics.

NUS Student Protest

They staged a traditional sports day with an LGBT twist outside the Russian embassy in London rallying LGBT people and allies to affirm that the LGBT community has a place in sport and they will not accept the community being discriminated against.

The NUS worked in conjunction with Amnesty Students,allies and sports teams from across the UK to make a stand against Russia’s anti-gay laws.

The Campaign calls for:

• President Putin to pledge not to arrest or detain anyone who is shown to be supporting LGBT rights during the Winter Olympics

• To call on the International Olympics Committee to honour Principle 6: “Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement,” in relation to Sochi and future Olympic venues

• David Cameron, Helen Grant and other MPs to condemn the treatment of LGBT people in Sochi and across Russia

• President Putin to lift the 100 year ban on Moscow Pride

Sky Yarlett and Finn McGoldrick, NUS LGBT officers, said: “NUS LGBT believes that Putin’s Russia has become a place of intimidation and violence for LGBT people.

“The international community and corporate sponsors can no longer stand idly by and ignore these human rights violations. It is grotesque to think that what is meant to be a celebration will be masking deep injustice for the LGBT community in Russia”

Tory MPs call for ban on immigrants with HIV and HEP B

A group of right-wing Conservative politicians unsuccessfully tried to ban immigrants with HIV and HEP B from entering the UK last week.

Dr. Philip Lee MP
Dr. Philip Lee MP

Dr Philip Lee, Conservative MP for Bracknell, tabled an amendment to the Immigration Bill making anyone with HIV or HEP B have to declare it when entering the country.

It is alleged 17 other Conservative MPs backed the proposed amendment including Stephen Barclay MP, Tracey Crouch MP and Dr Sarah Wollaston.

The proposal met with opposition from AIDS campaigners and was not considered by MPs before the bill was voted on at Third Reading. The Home Office distanced itself from the amendment, saying it did not reflect existing government policy and that the government had no plans to introduce health screening for conditions such as HIV or hepatitis.

The Immigration Bill minus the amendment passed with 295 votes to 16, and now goes to the House of Lords.

Daisy Ellis, Head of Parliamentary & Public Affairs at Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “It’s outrageous that a group of MPs are even proposing such an un-evidenced amendment.

 

“If implemented, it would represent the most draconian policy enforced on people with HIV by this country to date. It is to the UK’s credit that it’s Government, whatever its political stamp, has consistently refused throughout the past 30 years to put in place HIV-related border controls.

“Such a poorly thought through about-face would take UK HIV policy into a new Dark Age.’

Deborah Jack, chief executive of the National AIDS Trust added: “The UK has for 30 years resisted entry restrictions and to introduce them at this stage would set us squarely against the international trend to overturn such rules.

 

Swedes claim the Russian National Anthem as the Rainbow Anthem of the future

A film project, Live and let love, highlights the plight facing many LGBT people in Russia in the run up to the Winter Olympics taking place in Sochi.

Live and let love

Director and conductor of the project, Sean Kelly has been in London during the last week to premier the film and conduct an interview with CNN.

In the film thousands of Swedes sing the Russian National Anthem in the Stockholm Olympic Stadium in support of LGBT people in Russian.

Last year the Russian Parliament passed a law prohibiting ‘gay propaganda’ which has caused public opinion in Russia to move against LGBT people creating more discrimination for them.

This new law means that schools are not allowed to teach about homosexuality, gay couples can’t hold hands in public without facing police enforcement or being abused by citizens, freedom of speech has gone and people are being forced back into the closet.

Live and let loveSean said: “The Russian Anthem is one of the world’s most beautiful anthems, filled with pride, melancholy and strength to show the true sentiment of the Russian people. Although not every Russian feels proud when they hear it.

“For many Russians the song has been a symbol of oppression. However, the lyrics of the song were changed in year 2000 and in 2009 a poll showed that 56% of respondents felt proud when hearing the anthem, and that 81% liked it.

“Still there are many Russia people, who are not able to sing the song with pride, among them many millions of LGBT people. It is their anthem too, but the state is criminalizing their lives.”

Singer and choir conductor Sean Kelly suggested filming a mass protest using the Russian National Anthem, making it a proud song for people of all colours and orientations, singing for those who can’t.

A website was set up with lyrics, sheet music and music files for people to practice to. The choirs of Stockholm were contacted and asked to join the project. A Facebook event was created that thousands of people liked and shared, ending up with 2000 singer coming together in the Olympic Stadium of Stockholm where the summer Olympic Games were held in 1912, on October 6 last year.

In the film, we see people of all colours and orientations; gay couples, straight couples, best friends, rainbow families and the thousands of allies to the idea that being LGBT is perfectly normal and should be embraced fully by the people.

Sean continued: “The rainbow flag is not forbidden in the Olympic Stadium in Stockholm; on the contrary we were more than welcomed by the City of Stockholm, owner of the Stadium. The LGBT issue has finally become an issue of human rights and since the LGBT community percentage wise is so small, it is important to have allies who will fight for the human rights of all LGBT people. This is happening in many countries, which is great news, however many countries are moving in the opposite direction. Russia being one of them along with many African countries.”

People around the world are encouraged to create their own rainbow version of the Russian National Anthem and publish on YouTube to make it the Rainbow Anthem of the future.

To view the video, CLICK HERE:

 

 

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