February 2018 – Page 7 – Scene Magazine – From the heart of LGBTQ+ Life

TUC march for new deal for working people on May 12

Posted on 18/02/2018 by Besi

Calls for members of GMB Union to mobilise for the TUC march and rally for A new deal for working people in London on May 12.

GMB are supporting the TUC’s national march and rally for ‘a new deal for working people’ as part of its TUC Great Jobs Agenda campaign.

TUC created the Great Jobs Agenda to give the trade union movement a common set of bargaining asks in workplaces.

These include; to be paid fairly, work in a safe and healthy environment, to be treated decently, have regular hours, get a voice on what matters at work, and have the chance to get on in life.

GMB Southern says: “It’s time the government stopped supporting fat cat employers and the gig economy against the best interests of hard-working GMB members in health, education and other sectors.”

GMB Southern are encouraging all their members to attend the march and rally.

Assemble at Embankment between Hungerford Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge on Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 11 am, moving onto Hyde Park at 12noon – 4pm. Speakers will include TUC General Secretary, Frances O’Grady.

Paul Maloney, GMB Regional Secretary, said: “GMB Southern region will play a major role in this TUC event. Since 2007 our members in the public sector saw their standards of living fall by over 10%.

“There has been a massive increase in zero hour contracts and precarious employment.

“With the cost of living surpassing earnings, our members in the whole economy are getting deeper in debt while working longer unpaid hours.

“Pension provision is virtually non-existent as is sick pay. It’s time the government stopped supporting fat cat employers and the gig economy against the best interests of hard-working GMB members in health, education and other sectors.”

Outright Action International calls for people NOT to boycott Bermuda

Posted on 18/02/2018 by Besi

Last week, Bermuda became first in the world to legalize and then revoke same-sex marriage legislation.

Same-sex couples no longer have equal rights to marry and are only able to access a civil union – a step backwards for equality.

However in response to the decision many people think the campaign that is unfolding, a call to #BoycottBermuda is misguided.

The online campaign appears to be spearheaded mainly by people in the USA and Europe, who believe that a tourism boycott will show the Bermudian government that repealing same-sex marriage was a mistake.

The demand for the boycott is not coming from grass-roots organisations in Bermuda. In fact, LGBT+ Bermudians are coming out against the boycott.

Jessica Stern, Executive Director OutRight Action International, said: “This campaign stands to hurt rather than help the LGBT+ community in Bermuda. This boycott, in line with almost all boycotts that do not start locally, is uninformed and ill-advised. It could increase discrimination against local LGBT+ people, who may very well be used as scapegoats for any negative impact on tourism and the economy. Not to mention the consequences for LGBT+ people who themselves work in the tourism industry.

“People, and the media, in the US and Europe ought not to push their own agendas and instead listen to the priority of LGBT+ groups on the ground.

“This simple but important rule is central to the way that OutRight functions and engages in enabling social justice. We consult, listen to, and are guided by local leaders who are best placed to inform strategy and programs to bring about change.

“Without listening to voices from the ground we all stand to do more harm than good. I ask that you #DontBoycottBermuda and instead learn how to empower local organisations and the movement there.”

REVIEW: TWINKLE @ Phil Starr Pavilion

Posted on 18/02/201818/02/2018 by Brian Butler

Harold Thropp is a very tired very angry panto dame. Arriving at a down at heel Northern town – probably Sunderland – he discovers that Widow Twankey has been reduced to a tiny cupboard of a dressing room in what he describes as the “cellar “.

In this staggering feat of memory Jason Sutton aka Miss Jason, rants, raves, reminisces, laughs and cries at his past life and current predicament. Appropriately the one-man show forms part of the B RIGHT ON season of LGBT events.

In a rapid fire monologue Harold recounts the early days of his gay youth – encounters in public toilets, police entrapment and brutality and the cruelty of becoming homeless and destitute when his partner dies intestate.

It’s a timely reminder of how far gay rights have come but also how far there is still to go. Deftly directed by Allan Cardew, Philip Meeks dense dialogue doers falter once or twice but Jason’s immaculate timing and delivery of many, many hilarious one-liners more than makes up.

He doesn’t make life easy for himself because he is constantly on the go in the tiny acting space, undressing, dressing and applying his dame’s makeup. I wished he could have faced us or at least half faced us to do the make up scene as his back sometimes obscured his witticisms.

That said, its is a highly nuanced performance – not just a tirade of bitter bitchiness but genuinely heart-rending when he talks of his mother, and of his lifelong partner Eric whose death he has clearly not come to terms with.

It’s a very rich canvas we cover in 90 minutes – the history of gay rights, the technicalities of panto and theatre in general and the domestic pain often hidden by the pro performer in his search for love and happiness onstage and off.

Jason should continue to revisit this stunning piece of acting and it would be a good vehicle for film or tv if anyone was brave enough to produce it.

Five star entertainment!

PREVIEW: Star of ITV’s Transformation Street takes to the stage in ‘Dead and Breathing’

Posted on 18/02/201818/02/2018 by Besi

Actress Kim Tatum aka Mzz Kimberley stars in Dead and Breathing by Chisa Hutchinson, at The Albany in London, from February 19 – March 3, 2018.

Transformation Street is a three part ITV documentary following the staff and patients in a London gender clinic. The show follows gender reassignment specialist Dr Christopher Inglefield, and follows the fascinating and heart-warming stories of people transitioning their gender.

Written by Chisa Hutchinson and directed Rebecca Atkinson-Lord Dead and Breathing is a dark comedy of ethics and mortality that positions the right to die against the right to live your own life. Through constantly surprising humour and persistent questioning, Dead and Breathing investigates morality, mortality, and the intense tug-of-war between the right to die with dignity and the idea of life as a gift.

Spiteful old Carolyn Whitlock wants to die already. She’s been sick with cancer for almost as long as she can remember and the pain has made her so mean that there’s no one left who loves her.

Carolyn just wants to give up, but in order to do so, she’s going to have to work harder than she ever has in her privileged life to convince her very Christian nurse Veronika to help her. But Veronika isn’t all she seems, and so before Carolyn can die in peace, they’ll both need to let go of everything they believe about what is right.

Can this well-to-do widow, slowly succumbing to cancer manage to convince, her home nurse, to help her end her life?

It wouldn’t be easy at the best of times, but it becomes almost impossible when Carolyn finds a final hurdle she must overcome. Spoiled, privileged, sheltered and judgemental she is repulsed by transsexuals and Veronika happens to be one. If Carolyn wants her own way, she will not only have to convince Veronika to do something that goes against her every belief; she will also need to choose what she denounces with revulsion as “death by tranny.”

Event: Dead and Breathing

Where: The Albany, Douglas Way, London SE8 4AG

When: February 20 – March 3

Time: 7.30pm

Cost: £14 (£10 concessions)

To book tickets online, click here:

Or call the box office: 020 8692 4446

Open your garden this summer for Macmillan Cancer Support

Posted on 18/02/2018 by Besi

Organisers of the Macmillan Coastal Garden Trail are seeking more gardens to be added to their 2018 garden trail.

All money raised will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support and the Horizon Centre, a partnership between the Sussex Cancer Fund, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and Macmillan Cancer Support.

The generous people of Sussex raised £3.7m to help fund the building of the Macmillan Horizon Centre, but more is still needed. Running costs of the centre are covered by Macmillan Cancer Support, with services provided by a team of skilled local volunteers.

Macmillan is funded solely by donations and the running costs of the centre are over £650,000 per annum. All monies raised from this garden trail will support Macmillan in its operation of the centre.

Once again this year, broadcaster and gardener Christine Walkden is Patron of the trail which takes place over the weekend of July 28-29.

Entry to each garden is £2 or £6 for a daily ticket.

For more information call Geoff on 01323 899 296.

For more information about the Macmillan Coastal Garden Trail, click here:

B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival: SuicideTALK – Suicide awareness-raising sessions

Posted on 17/02/201819/03/2019 by Besi

If you work face to face with members of the LGBT community then SuicideTalk is for you.

A one-hour exploration and awareness-raising session suitable for all individuals and groups within all communities.

If you are concerned about suicide in your community this training can help you talk about one of the most taboo subjects in the world today.

Grassroots Suicide Prevention, LGBT Switchboard, MindOut and the LGBT Community Safety Forum are working together to ensure that those working in the LGBT community are trained in having conversations about suicide.

In just an hours training you will see that it is okay to talk about suicide as well as find out more about the local services that are available to those wanting support. This might be enough to save a life.

If you work in a bar, club, cafe or any other LGBT venue, then take an hour out of your day to attend this workshop. It will run in a very relaxed way and it is your opportunity to find out more as well as ask any questions that you might have.

The B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival celebrating LGBT History Month, is organised by the volunteers of the Brighton & Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum and takes place at the Phil Starr Pavilion – a multi functional, fully accessible, heated performance, conference and community space with a licensed bar which is located on Victoria Gardens, Brighton, BN1 1WN.

Event: SuicideTALK – Suicide awareness – raising sessions

Where: Phil Starr Pavilion, Victoria Gardens, Brighton

When: Monday, February 19

Time: 11am-12noon and 4pm-5pm

Cost: Free

To reserve a place online, click here:

B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival: Cream tea with LGBT Switchboard

Posted on 17/02/201819/03/2019 by Besi

Pop along to the Phil Starr Pavilion and have a cream tea with the LGBT Switchboard Team.

Learn more about LGBT Switchboard including the Older Persons Project over a cream tea!

To help Switchboard cater for the right amount of numbers, email: brighton.admin@switchboard.org.uk or call them on 01273 234009 to book your place

Event: Cream tea with LGBT Switchboard

Where: The Phil Starr Pavilion, Victoria Gardens, Brighton

When: Monday, February 19, 2018

Time: 2-4pm

Cost: Free (donations welcome)

B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival: Paul Diello – EPICENE

Posted on 17/02/201819/03/2019 by Besi

Award winning singer songwriter Paul Diello brings his gender-blending extravaganza ‘Epicene’ to the B Right On LGBT Community Festival after a sold out success at Brighton Fringe.

Paul Diello invites you to his gender-blending celebration of iconic women in music. After a run of three sold out, five star reviewed and award nominated performances for this years Brighton Fringe Festival, Paul and his 7 piece ensemble bring the show back to Brighton for the B Right On Festival.

Join the avant-garde performer and his band on a colourful, camp cabaret extravaganza as they re-imagine classic songs originally performed by legendary female artists such as Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell and PJ Harvey, to name but a few.

Dance, sing, laugh and cry as Paul interweaves his stories of childhood out-castings and social misfittery into well loved compositions. Every sense will be tantalised in this outrageous, rainbow coloured romp.

With songs picked from a wide range of genres and time periods, some tunes will take people on an emotional journey of nostalgia and others will make people want to get up, dance and sing along (which will be strongly encouraged).

EPICENE is a musical event presented in a cabaret style that will appeal to a wide audience, bringing together regular gig goers, fans of the theatre and cabaret queens as well as the LGBT community and its allies. The production is a comedic but raw tale of growing up in a world feeling disconnected.

Paul says: “I wanted to create a fun platform for me to share my story of gender confusion through music that was personal to me but that would reach others and spread the message of the ‘It Gets Better’ project” (an organisation whose mission is to communicate to LGBT youth around the world that life does get better).”

Paul Diello has released two LP’s, 2011’s The Last Green Bottle and 2014’s Looking Glass and has toured extensively, promoting both bodies of work across the UK, Europe and America supporting artists including Texas, Jarvis Cocker and Kyla La Grange. He has made many festival appearances including Edinburgh Fringe, The Big Chill, Blissfields and in 2015 he opened the Brighton Pride Festival on the main stage in Preston Park.

Paul won Best Solo Artist at Brighton Music Awards 2010 and was nominated for Best Video. He also performed at The Brighton Centre to an audience including Jimmy Page, Roger Daltrey and Arthur Brown.

The B Right On LGBT Community Festival celebrates LGBT History Month, is organised by the volunteers of the Brighton & Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum and takes place at the Phil Starr Pavilion – a multi functional, fully accessible, heated performance, conference and community space with a licensed bar which is located on Victoria Gardens, Brighton, BN1 1WN.

Event: Paul Diello – EPICENE

Where: Phil Starr Pavilion, Victoria Gardens, Brighton

When: Sunday, February 18

Time: 7.30pm

Cost: £13

To book tickets online, click here:

B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival: Outside Out: Rough Sleeping and Homelessness in the LGBT Community

Posted on 17/02/201819/03/2019 by Besi

Brighton and Hove has a reputation as a safe space for all and many people come here seeking to live a life unhindered and as part of an all-embracing community.

The city also has a serious housing crisis with no drastic solutions in view for people who have lived here their whole lives or for those newly arrived.

Brighton & Hove has the second highest number of rough sleepers in the country after Westminster and many more people are vulnerably housed in insecure and unstable housing including emergency B&B’s, supported accommodation, backpacker hostels and sofa surfing.

Our young people are exchanging sex for accommodation. Our older people remain invisible and uncounted.

Are you uncomfortable with this and do you want to be part of the change?

How do we as a community support those who are rough sleeping and vulnerably housed and could we do more?

Go along and hear the voices of lived experience, explore what the key issues are and learn about current support frameworks.

Then the group will investigate together what the opportunities are to make things better by considering practical solutions and fantastical visions through small table guided discussion and whole group dialogue.

If you want to be part of creating a different world then your experience, knowledge, voice and commitment are needed to make this happen. Go and be a part of the solution!

If you have lived experience of rough sleeping and homelessness in Brighton and Hove and would like to talk about this or you would like to be part of the team delivering this event email: greg.headley@passage.org.uk

Greg Headley has worked in rough sleeping and homelessness for over 15 years and for the last five this has been in Brighton and Hove as the LGBT lead worker for the street outreach team. He is currently the Project Coordinator of The Brighton and Hove Charity Link Project, a newly commissioned service funded for two years who aim to build city-wide resilience and improved collaboration between the communities, established charities and the commissioned services as we work together towards ending rough sleeping.

Event: Outside Out: Rough Sleeping and Homelessness in the LGBT Community

Where: Phil Starr Pavilion, Victoria Gardens, Brighton

When: Sunday, February 18

Time: 10am – 1pm

Cost: Free

Mayor of Brighton & Hove opens B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival

Posted on 16/02/201816/02/2018 by Besi

The Mayor of Brighton & Hove, Councillor Mo Marsh officially opened the 2018 B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival last night (February 16) celebrating Brighton’s contribution to LGBT History Month.

Local Labour MPs Peter Kyle (Hove & Portslade) and Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Brighton Kemptown & Peacehaven) were in attendance along with Cllr Tony Janio, the Leader of the Conservative group on Brighton & Hove City Council and Linda Hyde, Conservative Councillor for Rottingdean.

Entertainment during the evening was provided by the Rainbow Chorus, Brighton’s LGBT Community Choir and Jennie Castell and her band Reload with guest spots from Krissie Du Cann and Gabriella Parrish.

Billie Lewis, chair of the Brighton & Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum, AJ Paterson, a committee member on the Forum and Finola Brophy former Chair and trustee of the Rainbow Chorus spoke passionately about the importance of the community development work the Forum were engaged in.

Jonathan Spencer Coetzee an asylum seeker from Zimbabwe was helped off the streets and found accommodation by the Forum. He is currently being helped with his claim for asylum and he spoke about how he was repaying the unconditional support and kindness he had received by volunteering and giving something back.

In the audience were many local business owners and entertainers including Jason Sutton aka Miss Jason, Stephen Richards aka Lola Lasagne and David Pollikett aka Davina Sparkle, who said: “Billie Lewis and his amazing team of volunteers have worked so hard pulling this Festival together. There are so many events planned over the next two weeks, both during the day and in the evening. Why not pop along and see if there is anything you want to see, or just pop in for a coffee and a chat, and hear about the fabulous work the Forum are delivering.

“I’m so proud of Billie and in awe of the Forums commitment to our scene, especially the help they provide to the most vulnerable in our community. Please, please, please, support them, and make this festival the best ever.

There is everything from Abba, and Dine with the Stars Cabaret Dinner, to productions like Twinkle and the World Premier of Andrew Stark’s new show, Expenses the Musical.”

For a full programme of events, click here:

Photos by StellaPix, Brighton

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Month: February 2018

TUC march for new deal for working people on May 12

Calls for members of GMB Union to mobilise for the TUC march and rally for A new deal for working people in London on May 12.

Outright Action International calls for people NOT to boycott Bermuda

Last week, Bermuda became first in the world to legalize and then revoke same-sex marriage legislation.

REVIEW: TWINKLE @ Phil Starr Pavilion

Harold Thropp is a very tired very angry panto dame. Arriving at a down at heel Northern town – probably Sunderland – he discovers that Widow Twankey has been reduced to a tiny cupboard of a dressing room in what he describes as the “cellar “.

PREVIEW: Star of ITV’s Transformation Street takes to the stage in ‘Dead and Breathing’

Actress Kim Tatum aka Mzz Kimberley stars in Dead and Breathing by Chisa Hutchinson, at The Albany in London, from February 19 – March 3, 2018.

Open your garden this summer for Macmillan Cancer Support

Organisers of the Macmillan Coastal Garden Trail are seeking more gardens to be added to their 2018 garden trail.

B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival: SuicideTALK – Suicide awareness-raising sessions

If you work face to face with members of the LGBT community then SuicideTalk is for you.

B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival: Cream tea with LGBT Switchboard

Pop along to the Phil Starr Pavilion and have a cream tea with the LGBT Switchboard Team.

B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival: Paul Diello – EPICENE

Award winning singer songwriter Paul Diello brings his gender-blending extravaganza ‘Epicene’ to the B Right On LGBT Community Festival after a sold out success at Brighton Fringe.

B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival: Outside Out: Rough Sleeping and Homelessness in the LGBT Community

Brighton and Hove has a reputation as a safe space for all and many people come here seeking to live a life unhindered and as part of an all-embracing community.

Mayor of Brighton & Hove opens B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival

The Mayor of Brighton & Hove, Councillor Mo Marsh officially opened the 2018 B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival last night (February 16) celebrating Brighton’s contribution to LGBT History Month.

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Calls for members of GMB Union to mobilise for the TUC march and rally for A new deal for working people in London on May 12.

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Last week, Bermuda became first in the world to legalize and then revoke same-sex marriage legislation.

Share this:

Harold Thropp is a very tired very angry panto dame. Arriving at a down at heel Northern town – probably Sunderland – he discovers that Widow Twankey has been reduced to a tiny cupboard of a dressing room in what he describes as the “cellar “.

Share this:

Actress Kim Tatum aka Mzz Kimberley stars in Dead and Breathing by Chisa Hutchinson, at The Albany in London, from February 19 – March 3, 2018.

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Organisers of the Macmillan Coastal Garden Trail are seeking more gardens to be added to their 2018 garden trail.

Share this:

If you work face to face with members of the LGBT community then SuicideTalk is for you.

Share this:

Pop along to the Phil Starr Pavilion and have a cream tea with the LGBT Switchboard Team.

Share this:

Award winning singer songwriter Paul Diello brings his gender-blending extravaganza ‘Epicene’ to the B Right On LGBT Community Festival after a sold out success at Brighton Fringe.

Share this:

Brighton and Hove has a reputation as a safe space for all and many people come here seeking to live a life unhindered and as part of an all-embracing community.

Share this:

The Mayor of Brighton & Hove, Councillor Mo Marsh officially opened the 2018 B RIGHT ON LGBT Community Festival last night (February 16) celebrating Brighton’s contribution to LGBT History Month.

Share this:

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