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Stars of stage and screen to celebrate 50 years of Rockinghorse

For one night only, on September 24, Brighton’s Theatre Royal plays host to stars of stage and TV for a very special, gala variety performance, in the presence of The Mayor of Brighton and Hove and the High Sheriff of East Sussex.

Sunday Night at the Theatre Royal will be celebrating fifty years of Rockinghorse Children’s Charity and raising money for Sussex Giving for Sussex Charities.

Starring the UK’s leading female impersonator, the fabulous and multi talented Ceri Dupree, X factor heart-throb, singer and model, Sam Callahan, and Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalist Eva Iglesias, this traditional variety show has something for everyone including a live band.

Sam Callahan
Sam Callahan

Sam Callahan who had the girls swooning on the 2013 series of X Factor has been carefully carving a career in music and business for himself since leaving the show. Still just 22 years old, Sam has been writing his own music since he was 14. He worked with Gerry Halliwell at 19 Management before his big break on X Factor, he now has his own record label and is presently working on his new music video.

He says X Factor was “an essential part of my growth as an artist” and he would recommend the experience to everyone. His musical influences are Ed Sheeran and Shawn Mendes and in his set he sings everything from Ben E. King to Stevie Wonder.

Outside of music Sam has his own health and fitness business and takes his own personal fitness very seriously. He has a body to die for, is always happy to get his kit off to show it off and has appeared naked on the front cover of GT. He loves dogs, supports Celtic and West Ham and while his romances with the ladies have kept him in the tabloids, this ex barman from Essex is essentially an old head on sensible young shoulders.

Sunday Night at the Theatre Royal will be directed by West End and touring theatre Director and Choreographer Carole Todd and produced by Rob Reaks and David Bell.

The show on Sunday, September 24 is sponsored by locally-based businesses including Brighton and Hove Buses, Reveries Events, Lloyds Banking Group, SkyFall Hove, Marketing Actually and The Best of Brighton and Hove.


Event: Sunday Night at the Theatre Royal

Where: Theatre Royal, New Road, Brighton

When: Sunday, September 24, 2017

 Time: 7.30pm

Cost: Tickets from £15 – £55

To book tickets online, click here:

Or telephone: 0844 871 7615

Ceri Dupree
Ceri Dupree

Small LGBT+ groups hold first AGM

Working to Connect – The LGBT Small Groups Network held its first public Annual General Meeting on Saturday June 10 at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church.

Cllr. Pete West, Mayor of Brighton & Hove 2016-17 opened the widely advertised meeting.

Working to Connect brings together smaller local LGBT and HIV community groups and charities in order to network, work in collaboration, support each other, and to develop organisational capacity.

Over the last year Working to Connect has also delivered infrastructure support to member groups in partnership with Community Works.

Seventeen groups are currently members, with an open invitation for others to apply for membership. Along with the business of the meeting, an account was given of the last year’s work which has been diverse, needs-led, and highly beneficial for participants of the network and the wider community.

Smaller LGBT+ and HIV community groups and charities deliver a range of much needed, effective, well used services and activities; not provided anywhere else for the LGBT+ community.

They are fundamentally based on the fullest participation of volunteers from the community they serve, collectively giving thousands of hours each year of hard work, professionalism, good-will, commitment, and enthusiasm.

Cllr Pete West
Cllr Pete West

Reflecting on the achievements of the network, and the essential need for smaller community groups and charities, Cllr. Pete West, said: The Network is delivering great work across the City, bringing together the smaller LGBT and HIV groups – learning, gaining support from each other and delivering important services. 

This gives the small groups a bigger  collective voice, which is especially important.  

It is National Volunteers Week, and we should cherish volunteers. People get so much positive personal experience from volunteering. Working To Connect actively supports the Council’s Volunteering Strategy so I would like to thank you for that.  I wish you all continued success for the future.”

For more details about Working to Connect and member groups, how to join, and news from the AGM, click here:

PREVIEW: New Steine Heroes Exhibition to stage charity preview for Rainbow Fund

New Steine Hotel in Kemptown will hold a charity preview evening of their latest exhibition Heroes on Monday, July 31 to celebrate the start of Brighton Pride week.

During the evening, 10% of any art sold will be donated to the Rainbow Fund. There will also be a raffle with prizes including a three-course meal at the New Steine Bistro and an overnight stay at the New Steine Hotel. Drinks and canapes will be served.

The artist, Charly N’doumbe, a student at the Beaux-Arts Biarritz and the Fine Arts of Monaco, uses nudes both feminine and masculine in his work while employing techniques such as photography, drawing and sculpture. Charly produces pieces of work combining all three mediums to magnify the body’s natural beauty in both figurative and abstract forms.

The exhibition runs till September 17.


Event: Charity preview: Charly N’Doumbe HEROES Exhibition

Where: New Steine Hotel, 10-11 New Steine, Brighton BN2 1PB

When: Monday, July 31

Time: 6pm – 9pm

 

‘Cowboys and Queens’ raffle raises £300 for Rainbow Fund

Cowboys and Queens cabaret dinner and dance at the Old Ship Hotel on June 23, raises £300 for Rainbow Fund from raffle.

Following a first class three course steak dinner, Kara Van Park whipped the audience into life with some cowboy numbers including Oklahoma before line dancing instructors took to the floor, to put the line dancing virgins present, through their paces.

Most people attending had entered into the spirit of the evening, dressing mainly as cowboys with a few Queens for good measure. There were plenty of bare chests and legs on show, all adding to the glamour and excitment of the occasion.

Chris Gull
Chris Gull

Chris Gull, Chair of the Rainbow Fund, said: The Rainbow fund is delighted to receive the donation of £300 raised from the raffle held during the Cowboys and Queens event recently. This demonstrates, yet again, the vital role that we play in ensuring that funds raised by community events are distributed fairly, to support the local groups and organisations that support people from our LGBT+ and HIV communities. Our thanks to everyone involved.”

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Photos courtesy of: Tyrone Darling and Graham Hobson @captaincockroachphotographer

Brighton & Hove Council issue statement on fire safety in council owned high rise buildings

Following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower on June 14, Brighton and Hove City Council have issues the following statement on fire safety in council owned high-rise buildings.

“Following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower last Wednesday our thoughts continue to be with all those affected.

“As of Monday 19 June, the council has taken a number of actions to reassure concerned local residents that our highest priority always has been and always will be their safety.

The Housing Fire Health & Safety Board, which is made up senior housing officers and fire officers, met the morning after the fire. The group met again on Friday and will continue to meet moving forward.  

“On Friday a text message was sent to tenants of high-rise council housing with cladding, and council housing staff personally hand delivered an information letter to tenants and leaseholders living in those buildings. Over the coming weeks we’ll be working with Tenants’ and Residents’ Associations to keep everyone regularly informed and updated.

“We work closely with East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service and all council-owned high-rise blocks of flats are inspected every year to ensure they meet current safety standards. All our high-rise properties were inspected in 2016 and we have already completed 7 this year.

“There are 43 council high-rise blocks of flats in the city, 20 of these have full cladding. We have already started the process of conducting additional precautionary fire safety assessments on our high-rise buildings and shortly we’ll be conducting detailed and independent surveys of all high-rise properties prioritising those with cladding first. We will then decide if specific actions need to be taken.  

“Together with East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, we’ll be monitoring closely all information on the Grenfell Tower tragedy. Over the coming days, weeks and months, we will continuously review our own properties and practices in light of the outcomes of the investigation, official government advice and the public inquiry called by the Prime Minister. The council is co-operating fully with the UK government as part of this nationwide inquiry.”

The cladding used on Grenfell Tower has not been used on any high-rise blocks of flats owned by Brighton and Hove City Council.

The council has produced an FAQ fact sheet based on common questions asked by their tenants and we continue to regularly update it as new information becomes available and new questions are asked.

To read online, click here:

OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar – ‘You need to be more ladylike’

Those 6 words. Those 6 words that I have heard over and over again in many different guises since I began transition feed into a cis narrative in which I neither belong, nor wish to.

Ms Sugar Swan
Ms Sugar Swan

The OED defines ‘lady’ as ‘a polite or formal way of referring to a woman’. Well, I am a woman, so therefore, I am a lady, and I am ladylike.

Of course, this is not what people mean when they tell me I should be more ‘ladylike’. What they mean is that I should modify my behaviour to fit their blinkered ideas of what it means to be a woman, and I am done modifying my behaviour to suit society. Herein lies the problem. The whole ridiculous idea that I should act more ladylike is fed to me by the same people who told me that I was too camp when I was read by society as a man. I used to be told that when I walked, I ‘minced’, now that exact same walk is read as feminine, which of course, it always was as I am female. It’s just people’s perspective that has changed, nothing else.

“For the cisnarrative to police what the trans experience should be and look like is absolutely absurd”

At the other end of the spectrum flatulence was acceptable when read as male but now frowned upon when read as female. The whole premise is a completely toxic one and I, along with everyone else in society both cis and trans, are free to express themselves as they feel fit. I will not police my characteristics to fit into peoples neat boxes and neither should anyone else. It is an outdated cisnormative narrative that tells us that men should act one way and women act another – and that is the very heart of the problem. It is acting. As children, girls and boys have historically been encouraged to ‘act’ differently to each other. Girls are told to modify their behaviour, to be quieter, to not stand out so much, whereas boys are given a free pass to act boisterously. This is unhealthy right from the start and only feeds into the gap between gender behaviour expectations.

I was raised to be a boy, but I wasn’t one. I was certainly never boisterous, noisy, loud nor bouncy and highly excited as a child. I was the opposite. I behaved naturally how the girls were told to behave. I was quiet, shy, and preferred to play quietly with the girls. This, in turn, lead to bullying which then taught me to try to ‘act’ – there’s that word again – like a boy to minimise the bullying. This acting that I had to do all my life is deeply ingrained in me and naturally became part of the complex fabric of who I am. It leads me to my current conundrum where I am by nature very feminine but I carry over some of those masculine traits I picked up to try to protect myself when young, like being loud and standing out. This confuses people as they see a very feminine woman with some very masculine traits and they somehow think that it is their place to correct my behaviour and ‘help’ me ‘act’ (I’m getting angrier every time I type it) more like a woman. I am all the woman I always have been and always will be, I have absolutely no interest in modifying my behaviour to suit other people’s ideals of what a woman is. I am a woman, a proud woman, and I am enough.

As we enter Trans Pride month I want to remind all of my trans family, men, women, non binary, genderqueer siblings that we are ALL enough. None of us have to modify our behaviour to fit what we think is expected of us. We don’t have to change the way we ‘act’, the way we walk, the way we talk, the way we dress, or have to try to fit in. All our individual gender identities and presentations within the trans umbrella are valid and none of us have to explain ourselves, not to anyone. There is a huge amount of pressure on trans people to conform to what society thinks trans is. Cis people understand us better when we transition from one gender binary to another and we, as the trans community, need to be giving a huge ‘screw you’ to that mentality. 

There is no right or wrong way to be trans, trans is who we are, not how we present. Medical transition is not for every trans person, and nor should it be. Hormonal and surgical binary transition is the goal for many and that’s great. But for those of us who, like myself, may have a different starting point or may have a different end goal are not to be shamed. Trans women do not have to wear make up or dresses and trans men do not have to take on those qualities that boys were encouraged to at school. For the cis narrative to police what the trans experience should be and look like is absolutely absurd. As we approach both Trans and Brighton Pride I ask you, The LGB cis community, not to judge us by your standards. As you start to see more of us out and about celebrating with you over the summer, remember, we are not cis like you. We are not here to be held to your beauty standards, your social norms, your upbringing. We are trans. We are beautiful. We are powerful. We are unique.

iViva la vida! Madrid hosts WorldPride on Saturday, July 1

After Rome (2000), Jerusalem (2006), London (2012) and Toronto (2014), Madrid hosts the most important event for the LGBT+ community globally, this Saturday, July 1.

Madrid has officially started the celebrations for WorldPride 2017, after an opening ceremony that took place in the Teatro Calderon.

This edition of WorldPride, Madrid commemorates 40 years since the first LGBT+ protests in Spain; 30 years since Chueca was named the epicentre for the community and Pride; 20 years since the first Pride Parade that united political protest with celebration and 10 years since EuroPride was last celebrated in the city. Moreover, Madrid is the first Spanish-speaking capital to celebrate WorldPride.

2017 offers a historic opportunity to share Madrid’s values as a diverse, plural, inclusive and involved city, whilst it reinforces Spain as the reference nation in the liberty and defense of LGTB+ individuals’ rights.

Three million people are expected to visit Madrid to join this year’s festival called ¡Viva la vida!

A huge program of activities will be taking place in Madrid all this week until Sunday, July 2. These will include an international human rights conference, open air concerts, performance stages, parties, art, culture, sports offering a great festival to celebrate, discuss and show diversity, culminating in the main event, the World Pride Parade on Saturday, July 1, which will be the world’s largest Pride parade ever!

WorldPride Madrid is supported by the City Hall of Madrid, the Regional Government of Madrid, The Tourism Association of Madrid (ATM) and Madrid Destino.

Amongst others, these are some of the contents and highlights WorldPride, 2017.

Madrid Summit, a world-wide Human Rights Conference (June 26 to 28 in the Autonomous University of Madrid).

More than 200 activists, politicians, and leaders in the fields of culture and education from more than 45 countries across 6 continents will come together to spark an international debate on LGBT+ specific Human Rights and strengthen the foundations of this global movement.

The summit has been structured to explore and contemplate all areas of day-to-day life in which LGBT+ people experience discrimination and unequal treatment.

The conclusions of the conference will be contained in the Madrid Summit Declaration which will act as source of reference and serve as a strong commitment to the future of our shared fight for and defence of LGBT+ human rights across the world.

♦ WorldPride Parade. The climax of the WorldPride 2017, Festival takes place Saturday July 1 (from 5pm till midnight) in the centre of Madrid, starting at Atocha Station and ending in Plaza de Colón where a main stage will welcome all the participants with music and the reading of the manifesto of freedom, inclusion and diversity. More than two million people are expected to attend the parade.

♦ International Cultural Festival (Muestra T, La Culta y la Oculta) and the exhibition Subversives, 40 years of LGBT activism

The WorldPride Madrid International Festival will stage more than three hundred activities, including theater, music, dance, literature, cinema or arts to make “a reflexive approach to activism and the celebration of diversity, from a cultural standpoint”.

In support of this, a great number of institutions, cultural centers and state museums such as Thyssen Museum, the Prado, the National Museum of Decorative Arts and the Museum of America have developed specific exhibitions for the Pride celebrations.

The cultural program of WorldPride Madrid embraces three cultural festivals: La Culta, la Oculta and Muestra-T.

One of the main initiatives is the exhibition Subversives, 40 years of LGBT activism (CentroCentro at Cibeles Palace), a historic journey through 40 years of activism in nine themes and more than 200 pieces, both originals and reproductions.

♦ WorldPride Park. A specially designed location will host community stalls and LGBT+ global human rights associations, giving them the opportunity to connect with a large and diverse crowd from around the world. A community space open to everyone with a program of activities for children, families, neighbours and visitors. A celebration of diversity for the whole family.

♦ WorldPride Festival: free open air concerts, cultural and ludic activities in five scenarios across the centre and other parts of the city.

Some of the renowned national and international artists that have confirmed they will be appearing include: Ana Torroja, Ania, Azucar Moreno, Baccara, Barei, Camela, Carmen Paris, Cintia Lund, Conchita Wurst, Dani Umpi, Accelerated Diabetics, Fleur East, Ivri Lider, Kate Ryan, Le Klein, Loreen, Los Quintana, Marta Sánchez, Mirela, Nuria Fergó, OBK, Olé Olé, Ray BLK, Rebeca, Rosa, Roser, Rozalén, Ruth Lorenzo, Sharonne, Soraya, The Weather Girls, Whigfield and 99 Souls. The Brazilian musician, Carlinhos Brown will close the festival on July 2.

Special programming has been planned in different districts around the city, organised by Madrid Town Hall; and other activities organised by the LGBT+ associations fabric of Madrid, such as an LGBTQI+ VIH Conference 2017 and LGTB+ Sport Competitions.

On July 2, 2017, Madrid will hand over the WorldPride baton to the city of New York, where the world-wide LGBT+ communities will celebrate in 2019 the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall events that gave birth to the LGTB+ movement.

Inaugural Brighton ‘Go Dad Run’ raises money for five charities

The first ever Sanlam Go Dad Run on the South Coast has been hailed a great success by organisers.

Photo: Hugo Michiels Photography

It took place in Hove Park yesterday morning (Sunday, June 25) when men and boys from across the region pulled on their big blue Yfronts to run a 5K or 10K and raise awareness of men’s health issues and funds for five partner charities.

Olympic gold medalist hurdler Sally Gunnell and six-time world champion swimmer Mark Foster were on hand to set the runners off and then present them with their medals as they crossed the finish line. Go Dad Run’s founder, Colin Jackson, sent a special audio message.

Riptide Gym’s Matt Bartsch lead the mass participation warm-up. Coastway Hospital Radio’s Jason Baker and Alex McCord shared the MC duties and with Martlets Hospice, as one of the benefiting charities the event had a strong local feel.

Mark Foster, said: “I’ve been an ambassador since Colin first created the project in 2013 and this is without doubt one of the very best and most fun atmospheres I’ve experienced at a Go Dad Run. It was great to see so many men and boys in the Park, especially as I visited Martlets Hospice recently and witnessed the amazing work they do in the community.

Prostate Cancer UK, Bowel Cancer UK, Orchid and the Campaign Against Living Miserably were the national charity partners and all had runners taking part in an event that Sally Gunnell believes could become a massive annual fixture.

She said: “It is so exciting to see something new coming to Brighton and Hove and as this becomes established I think it will grow and grow as it is such a simple and fun idea and the guys seemed to love pulling on their big blue Yfronts, although some of the smaller boys needed a few safety pins to keep theirs attached !”

This was the third of seven Go Dad Runs that the three-time world champion athlete and BBC commentator Colin Jackson is organising around the UK this year and he was delighted with the response from the runners in Hove Park.

“It was very sad not to be there but I watched it on Facebook Live and have seen lots of photos and tweets and am really pleased with how much the guys and their families seemed to enjoy their morning. It is all down to the hard work of the organisers and charities and our wonderful volunteers and now that we’ve got a foothold in the City we look forward to making the 2018 Go Dad Run even bigger so that many more men think and talk about their health.”

For more information about Go Dad Run, click here:

Photo: Hugo Michiels Photography
Photo: Hugo Michiels Photography

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All photographs by Hugo Michiels Photography

Conservatives appoint three new City ‘Champions’

Cllr Tony Janio
Cllr Tony Janio

Cllr Tony Janio, the new Conservative Group Leader on Brighton & Hove City Council, has appointed three new ‘Champion’ roles to hold the Labour Administration to account.

Cllr. Mary Mears will be the Group’s new Business Champion, Cllr. Nick Lewry will be the Group’s new Cycling Champion and Cllr. Andrew Wealls will be the Group’s new Community & Voluntary Sector Champion.

Cllr Janio, said: “We have decided to create these new roles because we feel that they are very important policy areas which are not being given due attention by the Labour Administration.”

Cllr Mary Mears
Cllr Mary Mears

New Business Champion, Cllr Mears, said: “I am delighted to be taking on this new role for the Conservative Group. As a former Leader of the Council and a former local trader myself I know the vital importance of businesses to the city – they are the lifeblood of our economy and employ thousands of local residents. The Conservatives are the only political Group that really understand their needs and I will do my best to help them in any way I can in my new role.”

New Cycling Champion, Nick Lewry, added: “Brighton & Hove is already very much a cycling city but we believe that much more can be done to make cycling both easier and safer for residents and visitors. We are very proud to have been the Party which began the process of introducing Boris Bikes to Brighton & Hove but much more still needs to be done to break down the barriers between cyclists and motorists which unnecessarily polarise the transport debate in the city. Increasing the number of people cycling is good from every perspective. Not only does it help reduce the number of car journeys in the city and hence, traffic congestion and air pollution, it is also hugely beneficial to the individuals in terms of their physical and mental health.”

Cllr Andrew Wealls
Cllr Andrew Wealls

New Community & Voluntary Sector Champion, Andrew Wealls, concluded: “As Conservatives we believe strongly in the power of the Community & Voluntary sector to transform people’s lives for the better. Over the years we have provided strong and vocal support for the sector both through the Budget process and in our everyday work as Councillors. I am delighted to be taking up this new role and look forward to putting the case for a strengthened role for the sector in the Council and the city as a whole.”

A Labour spokesperson dismissed the appointments of the three ‘Champions’, saying: “When last in power the Conservatives tried to rip out a brand new cycle lane in Hove. They only recently tried to abolish the committee Labour set up to work with the community and voluntary sector, and for them to say Labour doesn’t work with local businesses is frankly desperate when the evidence shows otherwise.

“It seems that in the wake of an election where Labour got over 50% of the votes in the city and their candidates were humiliated, the Conservatives are flailing around trying to appear useful.”

Hull art installation will challenge people’s perception of hate crime

A provocative and interactive art installation exploring barriers within our society is set to appear at Hull Minster throughout Hull UK City of Culture 2017’s Freedom Season.

The Electric Fence, inspired by the everyday experience of people facing hate crime around the world and the dark horrors that have resulted throughout history, will be open to the public at Hull Minster in Trinity Square from 4 July through to the end of September.

The installation, by artist Annabel McCourt, makes use of some of the latest electronic and sound technology to create a sensory experience aiming to challenge people’s perceptions of hate crime.

Four giant metal posts are connected with wire and react to an audience’s presence. The Fence appears live, triggering visceral and thought-provoking reactions.

 Annabel McCourt
Annabel McCourt

Annabel said: “The Electric Fence was born out of a direct and personal response to a highly publicised American Pastor’s sermon in which he advocated a ‘solution’ to same-sex marriage.”

The pastor Rev. Charles L. Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, NC, stated in his Mother’s Day sermon, responding to President Obama’s public endorsement of same-sex marriage that we should, “build a great big large fence, 50 or a hundred mile long. Put all the lesbians in there, fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing with the queers and the homosexuals. And have that fence electrified so they can’t get out”.

Annabel added: “I couldn’t have foretold the current climate in my wildest nightmares. Soundbites of ‘learning lessons’ resonate in a hollow mantra in which we haven’t evolved. First, Trump rises to power promising a wall, then, reports of gay men being interned and tortured in concentration camps in Chechnya, evoking the indescribable horrors of Auschwitz.

“Now, a ‘coalition of chaos’ fuelling fear and throwing into question new-found and cherished LGBT+ freedoms. Borders, boundaries, terror, fake news… we are trapped in a loop of hatred where the human condition and an architecture of fear are working in perfect harmony.

“The Electric Fence although initially inspired by LGBT+ concerns, is an installation for everyone; exploring freedoms, both physical and metaphorical loaded with symbolism and carrying the scars of humanity within its very fabric.

At a time when the world seems more fractious and volatile than ever and on American Independence Day, maybe, just maybe, in the very building where William Wilberforce himself was baptised, there might be a glimmer of hope…”

The Electric Fence will be open to the public from July 4 until September 30 at Hull Minster. Entry is free.

The project is part of Hull 2017’s Creative Communities Programme and offers a counterpoint to the LGBT+ 50 celebrations taking place in Hull in July marking 50 years since the start of decriminalisation of homosexuality in England.

It is also supported using public funding by the Arts Council of England.

Annabel hopes that after debuting the installation in Hull she will tour it nationally and internationally, with plans to incorporate people’s stories of hate and hope by integrating them into the future sound design of the installation.

Martin Green
Martin Green

Martin Green, Director of Hull 2017, said: “With our third season reflecting on ideas of freedom, which Hull has historically been at the forefront of, Annabel’s thought-provoking installation is timely. As we celebrate the progress that has been made in attitudes to LGBT+ and the ability to be who you are, the Electric Fence is a stark reminder that around the world more still needs to be done to enable everyone to enjoy the freedoms that many of us are able to take for granted.”

For more information about the installation, click here:

 

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