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PICTURE DIARY: World Pride in Madrid, 2017

Madrid estamos orgullosos de ti!

Madrid World Pride 2017 opened with a ceremony that took place in the Teatro Calderon and the streets around were packed full of expectant Spanish and visitors.

This is a city that takes Pride and an excuse for a party very seriously indeed. The weather was cooler than usual (which was lovely as it’s usually 40 degrees) and this edition of World Pride in Madrid commemorated 40 years since the first LGBT+ protests in Spain; 30 years since Chueca became the centre for the gay 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 and WOW did they go for it

The climax of the WorldPride Festival took place on Saturday July 1, with a huge procession of activist groups, LGBT+ groups, political parties and supporters and followed up by the longest floats ever, 52 superb trucks stuffed with dancers crawled their way through the centre of Madrid, starting at Atocha Station and ending in Plaza de Colón where a main stage welcomed all the participants with music and the reading of the manifesto of freedom, inclusion and diversity. The parade took more than four hours to slowly roll by.

There was an alternative protest Pride a few days before as there has been criticism of the commercialisation of Spanish Prides in the last few years and the sponsorship showed, with occasional uninspired rainbow-wash over commercial products.

More than two million people attended the parade, Madrid Prides floats get bigger and bigger each year, seem to defy any health and safety rules and spewed foam, glitter, bubbles, smoke, kisses, condoms and a seriously hot amount of flirting on the huge happy crowds watching. It was slightly less chaotic than previous years but you can’t beat the sight of over a hundred speedo clad Latino muscle boys writhing, bumping and grinding while clinging on a four level scaffolder lorry with some seriously cool music being blasted out.

There were as many floats representing Lesbian clubs and bars, Trans associations, as there were men’s bars and representatives of bars/clubs and spaces where everyone was welcomed.

The entire city was rainbow-hued, draped, painted or lit up to celebrate both the local and visiting LGBT+ populations. All public spaces, all main buildings; including the Spanish Parliament symbolically rainbow lit all weekend (imagine that in the UK!), street crossings gays’d up, windows decorated across the city and rainbow flags everywhere.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been anywhere that felt so safe, beautiful and queer, everywhere you went there was huge crowds of LGBT’s and happy allies enjoying the kind of free open engaging and inclusive parties, stages, music events, arts, crafts and famous galleries all joining in.

From the Prado’s special homo exhibition to incredibly huge parties in fantastic clubs topping out with Fabrik’s mega parties of 7,000 revellers going at it all night – Madrid excelled this year.

Tubes ran all night, extra busses, streets scrubbed clean each morning; Madrid was in its groove. We were up till dawn, with half of the city dancing in squares, drinking, skipping, eating and meeting old (and new) friends across the city, night after night after night.

The Spanish know how to party and Madrid is an example of how a city committed both politically and culturally to being truly inclusive can provide such a superbly diverse collection of events culminating in a superb Pride Procession and reap the substantial rewards bestowed by us, the LGBT’s of the world when we are made to feel so very, very welcome and so very, very Proud.

Vive la vida Madrid! Indeed!!

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Trans STI self-testing kits launched at Brighton & Hove Trans Pride

Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) and Clinic T launch trans STI self-testing kits at Brighton & Hove Trans Pride

Leading HIV and sexual health charity, THT and trans sexual health clinic, Clinic T, joined forces on Saturday (July 22) at Brighton and Hove Trans Pride to raise awareness of good sexual health in Brighton.

Brand new trans inclusive sexually transmitted infection (STI) self-testing kits were given away at the city’s fifth Trans Pride to encourage testing, diagnosing and treating of sexually transmitted infections, such as chlamydia and gonorrhoea.

 

The free kits are one of the UK’s first trans inclusive self-testing kits, where the contents and information are inclusive to everyone, whether it be trans, non-binary or gender variant. The kits are easy, quick and convenient to use.

Terrence Higgins Trust and CLINIC T have also set up STI testing stations at sexual health clinics city-wide, so that anyone can return their kits conveniently, where the samples will be tested in the lab. Results are then delivered privately and confidentially by either text message or email.

Staff and volunteers from the two organisations joined the Trans Pride march, the largest to date with over 1,500 people, to Brunswick Square, where the celebrations continued, and local people found out more about HIV, good sexual health, and were given STI self-testing kits, condoms, as well as advice and support.

Tom Boyt, Senior Community Engagement Officer at Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “Trans Pride is a fantastic celebration for the city that gets bigger and better every year, and this year was no exception.

“Together with CLINIC T and Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals, we were delighted to launch our new trans inclusive STI self-testing kits. These enable people who identify as trans or gender variant to test themselves in a way that’s convenient and inclusive to them, and at the same time to find out just how easy and convenient it can be to maintain and look after their sexual health through regular testing.

“These new kits mean more people can access testing, and together we can reduce STI rates in Brighton and Hove and improve sexual health for everyone.”

Clinic T is the local sexual health service for anyone who identifies as trans, non-binary or gender variant. The free, friendly and confidential clinic runs every last Wednesday of the month at the Lawson Unit, Eastern Road, Brighton, BN2 1HS.

For more information call 01273 523 388 or click here:

Terrence Higgins Trust in Brighton, based at 61 Ship Street, provides free HIV testing and STI screening. It also offers a wide range of services for people living with HIV.

For more information please call 01273 764 200 or click here:

 

OPINION: Craig’s Thoughts 

Shopping for Pride. Or which vodka will make me gay? By Craig Hanlon-Smith @craigscontinuum

“Isn’t it great that Pride feels like a national celebration now?”, my husband exclaims as we wander around London for some last minute holiday shopping. And as I look around at every other shop, wall, skyward banner and lamppost, adorned with some manifestation of the rainbow, I cannot help but agree. In the 22 years that I’ve been attending Pride events, the integration of these into our national psyche is nothing short of terrific and the importance of this not to be underestimated. The first Pride marches I attended in London during the mid-late 1990s, although massive, were routed away from the main shopping areas and with the park/party/rally events in the green open spaces of Finsbury, Brockwell and Victoria Parks, not to forget Clapham Common, visitors to London could happily wander around the city’s main tourist centres and not experience so much of a hint of it. Pride happened, but around the edges.

Not so now. The London march and parade closes both Oxford and Regent Street to traffic, the ‘party’ element has now been a mainstay of Trafalgar Square for several years, and Pride in London adorns the shops, buses, underground stations and even high-street fashion choices. Our own event in Brighton is a massive boost for the annual local economy with guest houses booked out months in advance, and with the parade marching through the centre of town and street party closing a significant part of the seafront for two days, you cannot visit and miss it.

But all is not well in Pride land. Peter Tatchell writing in The Guardian this week, pulled no punches in highlighting what he described as draconian rules and regulations which in effect inhibit London’s Pride celebrations at the behest of commercial profit. Pride in London has to limit the number of participants in the parade at the behest of the mayor’s office, and whilst there is a smattering of human rights groups marching, the parade is overrun with representatives ranging from supermarket chains to international airlines. The Royal Parks will not permit Pride celebrations on their land, and there is a tight limit on the numbers allowed in the Trafalgar Square event. Tatchell directly challenges the mayor’s claims of over a million attendees and puts the figure at a more conservative 250k. When these figures are compared with those in Madrid and Sao Paolo to name but two, it would appear that Pride in London is less party and more poop. There are now similar limits on those attending Brighton Pride, and for both London and Brighton, applications months in advance and fees payable for a spot in the parade.

Peter Tatchell speaks highly of the Pride organisations themselves describing their positions as almost being held to ransom by city councils. But Pride groups have also this year come under some scrutiny. Pride in London had to withdraw a seemingly expensive poster marketing campaign following accusations of straight bias and the marginalisation of the very community it was trying to support. Pride in London apologised unreservedly and issued a statement confirming the campaign to have been a misjudgement.

I am less than over the moon with the current Pride-friendly Hate Sucks campaign. Sucks being a derivative of c**k-sucker seen most notably in the late 1970s Disco Sucks campaign, when there were mass burnings of disco records at football stadiums across America with homophobic overtones. When raising this online, I’ve been accused of oversensitivity, political correctness and ‘attacking Pride’. To be straight with you (rolls eyes), I’m not angry or offended by these campaigns, but I do think they have not been adequately researched or thought through. And it’s the lack of thought that I find a little disappointing.

It’s important to remember that the original Pride marches were demonstrations, an emerging fight for equality and a direct reaction to police brutality against the LGBT community in the late 1960s and beyond. I would welcome a historical reflection to this essential aspect of our past in our Pride parades, but Pride is also now much bigger than that. Pride in both London and Brighton now host a range of events in the two weeks up to the weekend festivals referred to as ‘Pride’. How many weekend revellers were aware that the Royal National Theatre were hosting a range of seminal play readings in the first week of July, including Martin Sherman’s Bent, which examines the treatment of gay men in Nazi concentration camps? The thinking man’s Pride is out there if you can be bothered to look for it.

Craig Hanlon-Smith
Craig Hanlon-Smith

There is also, I believe, much to celebrate in the commercialisation of Pride. If international businesses or high street stores want to sponsor LGBT Pride events, of course it’s for commercial gain, but is that not progressive? I’m only 45 and I remember all too well when gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender branding was considered toxic, and no commercial organisation with any business sense would come anywhere near us. I love to hear stories of people refusing to buy rainbow covered vodka bottles or McDonald’s fries served in a Pride carton, those organisations are saying to those individuals it is you who needs to change your mind. Supermarkets marching through Pride are promoting themselves of course, but they’re also showing off and celebrating their LGBT staff networks and encouraging members of our community to consider working for an organisation that allows us to be ourselves.

Pride is not what it was, and I am in many ways pleased it doesn’t need to be. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good march and can often be heard ranting political manifestos in my sleep, but I cannot to any reasonable extent put into words the Pride I feel when every day I can hold my husband’s hand and kiss in the street, hug my friends tightly and possibly for slightly longer than is comfortable for some, in public, be visibly homosexual across a range of online platforms, and stand on an escalator which will take me to one of the busiest commercial centres in the world and see that it is in every direction adorned with rainbows that celebrate me.

Every petition, every demonstration, every step towards acceptance over the past 50 years has brought us here. It is now our duty to make sure that we don’t f**k it up.

@craigscontinuum

REVIEW: Jane Eyre @Theatre Royal

Jane Eyre
Bristol Old Vic in association with the National Theatre.
Based on the novel by Charlotte Brontë

Following a critically acclaimed season at the National Theatre, Jane Eyre is touring the UK and is in Brighton until Saturday. This innovative re-imagining of Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece is collaboration between the National Theatre and Bristol Old Vic and is directed by Sally Cookson.

The classic story of the trailblazing Jane is as inspiring as ever. This bold and dynamic production uncovers one woman’s fight for freedom and fulfilment on her own terms. Jane Eyre’s spirited heroine faces life’s obstacles head-on, surviving poverty, injustice and the discovery of bitter betrayal before taking the ultimate decision to follow her heart.

Nadia Clifford’s Eyre is superb, an active, fierce reimagining from the very first moment and her slight physical frame accentuates her struggle to be taken seriously, on her own terms, in an unjust world set against her sex and needs.  With her chorus of internal dialogues we ranged through Jane’s brutal and brutish experience and see how they fail to crush her but compress her before her final flowering at the end of hope. Tim Delap’s raging, harsh, broody Rochester is an example of a modern interpretation of all the privilege of empire and money being projected as emotional turmoil,  addiction, bad actions over bad people ( as Brontë herself claims) and not the pitiless core and keen wickedness of the man, it serves the action well and his slow softening to Jane is acted with conviction, he is accompanied by the most superb representation of a dog I’ve seen on stage in years from Paul Mundell who delighted the crowd with his convincing and fun canine action.

Cookson’s direction is tight and efficient and these are some seriously well-drilled actors, she can’t have spared the whip. Just delightful, all of them,  all thought the night, from their own stand out performances (honestly everyone on the cast shone this evening, a flawless crew) to the choreography and ethereal slow-mo actions scenes Cookson has brought out the very best of individual actors and ensemble performances.

The onstage musicians who are also part of the cast provide a constant musical backdrop to the action, sometimes as soft harmonies, other times evoking stage-coach journeys with passion and humour, shifting from school chant to chapel hymn to accompanying beautiful set pieces from singer (and Bertha) Melanie Marshall whose side-ways narrative gives her a dignity and sadness that’s often missing in productions of Eyre. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a delicate, careful and essentially sad representation of Bertha and the whole play felt much better balanced because of it.  Her renditions of ‘Mad about the boy’ and ‘Crazy’ were both perfect reinterpretations, which suited the narrative perfectly and added another layer devoid of Jane’s perspective. Marshall’s voice soaring with purity, deep and soft with desire and commanding with her own narrative power stalking the action was astonishing and her lurking, sensual, constantly moving presence gave Bertha real power with no ‘mad women in the attic’ cliché. Marshall gives a tender and convincing performance and her voice is utterly beguiling. I was bewitched by this Bertha, and she gave a believable foundation to Rochester’s original adoration of her and his long devoted care.

Katie Sykes’s costumes are great, evoking class, status and narrative without too much period flim-flam and her pared down essences give a real flavour of the muted colours and rough fabrics that would have been the everyday of most folk rather than the luxurious fabrics of the wealthy socialites. Bertha’s deep scarlet dress is a shocking highlight and contrast both in sensuality and style and gives Melanie Marshall a seriously physical stage presence, brooding, other-than and disconcerting whilst being impossible to ignore and melancholy, strange and whispering of faded glamour.

The set is all scrubbed oak boards and scaffolding with windows to drop down, up and out to suggest various of the spaces of the narrative, school, house, classroom, the Hall, the lane etc, it’s evocative without being in the slightest bit convincing but the superb acting more than makes up for the lack of imagination in the set and if you like folk running around (and around) and climbing up and down ladders and across floorboard you’re in for a treat, it felt like the Thornfield workout.  The lighting is as suggestive and the occasional theatrical effect; wind on the veil, a lightning storm and real flames (always a vicarious thrill in a flammable tinderbox like the Theatre Royal) work well, but again the top-notch acting transports us where the set just prods.

The plot roars, of unjust life and hope, of love and wonder, of duty and cruelly, of lost folk and lack of opportunities and of the voices of clear minds that yearn and ache for recognition and love and it’s true to Bronte in that.  I enjoyed it immensely, my companion and the rest of the theatre were thrilled and transfixed by it, it’s been a long time since I’ve heard a theatre that quiet for so long and there was a tumultuous applause for the well deserved and physically exhausted actors at the end.

It’s a long play, but the constant chopping of space, action, time and inner/outer worlds keeps the actions and narrative moving along, it’s a carnal treat. There were some lovely scene changes where Jane’s just whirls her skirts, they fill out, she turns, and we find ourselves moved on.

Simple, evocative, engaging and seriously well acted this is thoroughly modern Eyre, and as relevant today as when it was written, it’s still an unjust world for many people, so grab any young person and take them to this production and treat your friends if you can get a ticket… We need theatre like this, to remind us how important it is to live on our own terms, as Jane says..

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being, with an independent will..”

Ravishing, book now!

Runs until Saturday, July 29 at
Theatre Royal, Brighton

PICTURE DIARY: Trans Pride 2017

It is always disappointing when it rains at an open air event and boy did it rain at Trans Pride this year!

Photo: Hugo Michiels Photography

Fortunately the rain held off allowing the protest march to assemble at the Marlborough Pub for welcoming speeches before making its way along Brighton Seafront to Brunswick Gardens in Hove.

There was just chance for people to hear a few numbers from Brightons only LGBT+ Community Choir before the heavens opened for a few hours of torrential rain which completely cleared the park sending revellers to take cover in local bars.

Numbers on the march matched last year but with the park clearing so quickly some concessions struggled to make their money back. Community stalls were cleared and packed away by 3pm but as the rain slow down people ventured back into Brunswick Gardens to support the acts still appearing on the main stage.

Here’s to Trans Pride 2018 and lets hope for a return to sunshine and harmony.

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Uncredited photos by Alix Blezard and Stellapix Brighton

PREVIEW: Kate Bush – A Celebration

Brighton’s best musical acts come together to pay tribute to the amazing music of Kate Bush in a multi media evening of Kate filled entertainment. 

Featuring performances by:

Paul Diello – Award winning singer/songwriter Paul Diello has released two solo albums, toured across the UK, Europe and America and has supported artists such as Texas, Jarvis Cocker and Nick Harper. He won best solo artist at Brighton Music Awards 2010 and has just completed a run of three sold out, 5 star reviewed shows for Brighton Fringe Festival as well as receiving a nomination for the LGBT Fringe Award. Paul has performed at many festivals across the UK and America in 2015 he opened the show on the main stage at Brighton Pride Festival.

Mishkin Fitzgerald – Mishkin Fitzgerald is best known for her role as lead singer and pianist in the British ‘orchestral punk-rock’ band, Birdeatsbaby. However, as a solo performer she plays darkly tinged pianos ballads and melancholic alt-pop tunes. Daughter of a church minister and a maths teacher, the young singer was influenced heavily by classical piano music and opera, and then later alternative artists such as Nick Cave, Patti Smith and Kate Bush. She has created a sound that is distinctive, fragile and unapologetic.

Oli Spleen – Oli’s former band The Flesh Happening were banned from several Brighton venues for their abhorrent behaviour (you’ll have to ask him yourself!) but his current band, Pink Narcissus, have swapped the confrontational stance and bare-bones garage rock for a diverse form of punk metal, albeit with agonisingly confessional lyrics. Oli will be singing solo with piano accompaniment from Mishkin Fitzgerald.

Iris and The Wolves – Classically trained chanteuse Fiona Wallace started out as an opera singer before putting together indie/alternative/melodic pop act Iris and the Wolves in the early 2000’s. The band became a prominent feature in the Brighton music scene and began work on a debut album but disbanded in 2011. Since then Fiona has been focusing on motherhood and fronting the successful five-piece covers act The Double Zeros. Tonight sees the return of Iris and the Wolves on stage for the first time since 2011.

Anna Searight – With a distinctive voice and an emotive guitar style, Anna Searight approaches singer-songwriting in a fresh and unique way. Combining classic songwriting with a haunting voice, her hypnotic melodies reflect influences of artists such as Tracy Chapman, Elliott Smith and Thom Yorke.

Birte Paulsen – Inspired by Folk, Chanson, Americana and Scandinavian eccentricity, Birte Paulsen delivers dark Indie Folk with a sigh of Nordic melancholy. Her debut album Borrowed Time, has brought together some of the UK’s finest musicians and has been praised as “A rare sort of success, and superbly intriguing – if Portishead took a foray into folk music”.

Nick Hudson – Nick Hudson is a composer/musician/artist based in the UK and founder member of The Academy Of Sun, a democratic unit sinuously augmenting Nick’s compositions in the form of a queer, gnostic, post-punk orchestral militia. The Academy Of Sun are currently manifesting a colossal piece of work in the form of an album called Codex Novena.

Emma Madden – It’s a rarity to find Emma without bleeding fingers after a show, as she sings until her neck tendons are raw and her fretboard bloody. Though this sounds like the bio for a death-metal band, Emma is anything but. She demonstrates the brutality behind gentleness and honesty.


Event: Kate Bush – A Celebration

Where: Brunswick Pub, 1-3 Holland Road, Hove

When: Friday, July 28

Time: Door open 7.30pm: 8pm – 11pm

Cost: £5 in advance/£7 on the door

To book tickets online, click here:

 

 

 

 

Govia Thameslink restores full timetables for major Sussex events

Industrial action that had threatened the success of several popular events in Sussex next month will not now take place and Southern reinstates its full weekday service timetable from yesterday, Monday 24 July.

ASLEF and RMT drivers had both planned strikes on August 1 ,2 and 4 and ASLEF had placed an ongoing overtime ban on its driver members.

The ASLEF and RMT unions have suspended industrial action that would have disrupted travel to Brighton and Hove Pride (August 4-6), the Goodwood Festival (August 1-5) and Brighton & Hove Albion’s pre-season friendly against Atletico Madrid on Sunday, August 6.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) will be running Thameslink’s new, longer 12-carriage trains to and from Brighton through the Pride weekend, with more trains and additional carriages on Southern and Gatwick Express services.

Angie Doll
Angie Doll

Angie Doll, Southern Railway’s Passenger Services Director said: “We are delighted on behalf of all our passengers that this industrial action has been suspended. The events that we serve over this weekend are important for us and our region and we are delighted to be supporting them.”

“We have been working closely with Brighton and Hove Pride to ensure that this fantastic event is a resounding success, and we’ll continue to liaise with Brighton and Hove FC throughout the season to help get supporters to and from home matches.”

Paul Kemp
Paul Kemp

Paul Kemp, managing director of Brighton and Hove Pride, said: “We are very relieved and grateful that the action has been called off and has taken away the uncertainty for people travelling from all over the UK and the world to visit the city for Brighton & Hove Pride.

“The Pride weekend is a critical time for Pride’s community fundraising for the Rainbow Fund and local groups and charities, so we’re just relived that the Pride plans to go ahead unhindered. Brighton and Hove looks forward to welcoming you all to Pride “

 

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