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LETTER TO EDITOR: Proud2Be responds to BBC new article

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Devon-based Proud2Be the social enterprise that supports lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, questioning, intersex &/or asexual+ (LGBTQIA+) people, in Devon & beyond responds to “Christian school worker Victoria Allen in gay marriage row” published on November 28, 2016.

“We at Proud2Be, a Devon based lesbian, gay, bisexual and/or trans+ (LGBT+) organisation would like to respond to the BBC News Article “Christian school worker Victoria Allen in gay marriage row” published on November 28, 2016.

“Although we do believe all people have the right to their opinions, Vicky Allen is employed to support the school in providing a fair and equal education to all students, including those who may identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual &/or trans+.

“Unfortunately, the message that is being sent out to every young person in Brannel School is that it is OK to believe that some people should be denied equal rights and protection under the law because of other people’s opinions of them. This is a message that we will continue to challenge and counterbalance at Proud2Be. 

“Too often we hear religious freedom used as a way of justifying beliefs, that in many other contexts would be regarded as bigoted and in congruent with the values of a school in 2016.

“The Ofsted framework now explicitly directs inspectors to look at a school’s efforts to tackle bullying and prejudicial language based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity. This includes but is not limited to Equal Marriage.

“Laws are changing but often society can be slow to catch up and that is one of the reasons why we are very proud to be one of 12 organisations in the National Anti-Homophobic/Biphobic/Transphobic Bullying Alliance. The alliance will deliver an innovative school’s project over the next 2 and a half years and will be led by LGBT Consortium and funded by the Government Equalities Office.”

To read original BBC story, click here:

To find out more about this Bulling Alliance initiative click here:

For more information about Proud2Be, click here:

BOOK REVIEW: Madonna 66

Starlight, Star bright.

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In June 1983 a well-known New York casting director and producer, asked her photographer son Richard
 to drop everything and head over to Manhattan’s Lower East Side to take polaroids of a young and upcoming performer.

The production team was preparing a modern-day treatment of the classic fairy tale Cinderella and in this New York City fable that would satirise the rock music world, the central character was to be re-named ‘Cinde Rella’, perhaps one of the reasons the film was never made. But the buzz around the project was that the lead was to be played by an emerging dance music artist with a couple of moderate hits to her name: Madonna Ciccone.

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Six weeks before the release of her eponymous debut album in late July 1983, Richard Corman photographed the 24-year old singer in a range of different set-ups 
at her brother Christopher’s apartment. And although the young woman in the centre of each shot is instantly familiar, taken some fifteen months before her infamous garter revealing floor roll at the inaugural MTV music awards which would propel her to the top of the US music charts for more than twenty years, there’s a excitable naivety that has in more recent years been replaced by an all-knowing dominance. An expectation of everything yet to come.

For over thirty years Cormon believed he had lost the polaroids until whilst on a recent apartment move in New York and a review of many unlabeled boxes, he rediscovered the collection. Produced here, quite simply are the contents of that almost lost forever bundle of 66 photographs.

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Richard Corman’s photography has been described by Ken Burns, documentarian and director as an “artistic vision dedicated to the highest aspirations of human endeavor…the photographs record in big moments and small, among the famous and ordinary, the gifted and challenged, larger truths relevant to all of us.”

As a portrait photographer, Corman has worked with a thrilling breadth of subjects from Nobel Peace Prize recipient Nelson Mandela to esteemed actors at the top of their profession including Robert De Niro, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Tilda Swinton.

Corman, a native New Yorker had unique working relationships with various artists before they reached international recognition, including Madonna, Jean Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring in the early 80s, all of whom would later shape their own genres within their artistic fields beyond recognition.

Published by independents NJG, ‘Madonna 66’, a must for any Madonna fan is a ‘limited edition’ publication of 500 ‘strictly limited’ signed and numbered by Richard Corman with a signed print (£100) and a further 1000 books signed and numbered (£60).

Featuring all 66 previously unpublished Polaroid images of Madonna (a selection shown here), shot on Friday June 17, 1983, the 66 accompany a 14-page film treatment ‘Cinde Rella’ all 164 pages housed in a flesh pink hardback cover, bound by a
 2 inch thick black rubber band symbolic of Madonna’s rubber bracelets, worn in the published collection.

For more info and how to get your hands on a copy, click here:

 

Gay Pride returns to Brazil’s Olympic city

Celebrate all things LGBT+ this December at Rio de Janeiro’s notorious Gay Pride Parade.

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The Olympics may be over but the celebrations continue as Rio de Janeiro prepares to host its 21st LGBT+ Pride Parade.

Rio de Janeiro is considered a top destination for LGBT travellers, voted in recent years as the most attractive gay destination in the world by tripoutgaytravel.com

Winding along the vibrant Copacabana beach front, Pride will take place this year on Sunday, December 11, and activities celebrating LGBT+ culture will take place in Rio for seven days.

The theme for 2016’s Pride is ‘I am my gender identity’, encouraging people to recognise that identity is a choice that must be respected.

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Rio de Janeiro’s Parade is the country’s second largest LGBT+ parade, after Sao Paulo’s, which boasts the largest gay pride parade in the world.

The Rio parade will involve a 2km long procession along Copacabana beach, which hundreds of thousands of people are expected to join.

Voted in 2016 as the most attractive gay destination in the world, Rio de Janeiro is the entry gate for most LGBT tourists that visit Brazil.

Home to stunning natural beauty and iconic attractions including Christ the Redeemer and Carnival, Rio is packed with travellers from all around the world, all year round.

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Ipanema beach is the primary meeting point for the LGBT community, located opposite the Rua Farme de Amoedo, Rio’s gay strip in the sophisticated neighbourhood of Ipanema.

During Carnival there are many raves and exclusive parties for the gay community, predominantly located in Lapa, the trendy neighbourhood and heart of nightlife in downtown Rio.

For more information about Rio Pride, click here:

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