He entered to raise money for the Sussex Beacon and due to the generosity of customers at the Amsterdam raised more than £700, making him the winner of the Beacon’s Team Beacon Fundraising Prize!
You still have a chance to support Miguel’s herculean fundraising effort.
To make a donation to JustGiving and help Miguel raise even more for the Beacon, click here:
Forced anal examinations have largely been used to “prove” whether or not a man is homosexual in countries where homosexuality is criminalised. This practice has been decried by organisations across the globe as dehumanising and as amounting to torture, not to mention being discredited by the scientific community as holding no value as proof.
The case came to the courts after two suspected gay men were arrested in 2015 and both forced to undergo anal examinations and HIV tests, in order to determine if they had engaged in consensual intercourse.
The men were represented by the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC) in Kenya, a leading LGBTIQ organization providing pro bono legal services to many in the community.
Njeri Gateru, Head of Legal Affairs, said: “We are thankful that the Appeal Court has put Kenyan citizens’ rights first. With this ruling, the judges are saying that we all deserve to be treated with dignity and afforded our basic rights, as enshrined in the Kenyan Constitution.”
Currently, under Kenya’s Penal Code, same-sex behaviour is criminalised, with a penalty of up to 14 years in prison. Currently, Kenya’s High Court is considering a separate case that could decriminalise homosexuality, the next court hearing will be on April 26.
While this is good news for Kenya, other countries continue to implement this practice. With ongoing and increasing crackdowns on LGBT+ people, reportedly both Egyptian and Tanzanian authorities have forced alleged gay men to undergo anal exams.
Jessica Stern, Executive Director, OutRight Action International, said: “Forced anal examinations amount to torture, and no one should ever be exposed to such a degrading and dehumanising experience. The Kenyan Courts ruled in favour of international law and in favour of human dignity. Other countries should follow suit and put an end to this discredited practice.”
Bear-Patrol, the social networking community group took the opportunity to shake buckets during the evening raising £251 for the LGBTQ Counselling Project at MindOut.
Winners of the tournament were the badminton team from BLAGSS.
Pictured are some of the players from the three Bear-Patrol Teams and the team from MindOut who bowled on the night.
The Brighton-based musician and business-owner has been a much-valued supporter of the charity for many years, fronting their Snowdogs by the Sea campaign in 2016 and last October launching the new Snailspace campaign for the hospice.
Emma Knight from Martlets, said: “To have such a personable, Brighton-based international star like Norman generously lending his support to us is very exciting. He is, and will continue to be, a fantastic and highly influential Ambassador for Martlets.
“Being associated with Norman is tremendously valuable to us, and we’re very grateful to him for all that he has done to help us already.
“We’ve really appreciated his sense of fun and kindness so far, and are enthusiastically looking forward to working with him into the future.”
Norman said: “I’m honoured to have been asked to represent Martlets as an Ambassador.
“I’ve known about Martlets for some time, having had a family member need their care. So I know first-hand that what Martlets does for people and their families is, indeed, life-changing.
“What I’ve discovered personally since then, by being involved with Snowdogs by the Sea in 2016 and now Snailspace, is that the people who make Martlets tick are truly a pleasure to be around.
“I am often a bit stuck for words when it comes to serious subjects, but they make it easy and have always bought a huge amount of fun to the projects that I’ve been involved with.”
For more information about Martlets, click here:
WARMTH:Brighton is a traditional, wood-fired sauna in a timber-lined, converted horsebox. Come rain or shine, this Spring you can get hot and sweaty on the beach in Brighton’s first ever Finnish Pop-up Sauna, part of the Brighton Fringe Festival.
It’s unapologetically quirky, it’s surprisingly sociable and… definitely hot! Experience the löyly (Finnish for sauna-steam) as you splash water on the warm coals: heat up, cool down, detox, revive, sweat, be social, or just relax.
WARMTH:Brighton is brought to you by Brighton residents; Sauna Master, Katie Bracher and Wellbeing Entrepreneur, Liz Watson.
Inspired by Sauna projects she has run in London, Sauna Master Katie wanted to bring the community sauna experience to Brighton.
“An authentic sauna awakens all the senses, whilst also being a health-giving and endorphin- boosting experience”, Katie explains. “There is a real lack of traditional saunas in Brighton, so it’s very exciting to be bringing this unique, log-fired and steam-filled sauna to this city during the Fringe Festival. A real pocket of Finland, right on Brighton Beach. Heat up in the sauna, then run out into the sea for an invigorating plunge”
Liz Watson explained why she wanted to get involved: “I’m very excited to be bringing WARMTH:Brighton to our beach and creating a social space where people can meet, chat, feel good and have fun. With the Fringe celebrating 100 years of Finnish Independence this year, it’s an ideal opportunity to bring this Nordic culture here.”
To add a Festival twist, there’ll be impromptu performances from Fringe artists to animate WARMTH: Brighton, whilst at other times it will simply be a place to relax.
Event: WARMTH:Brighton
Where: Brighton Beach – Opposite West Pier Arches, BrightonBN1 2LN
When: May 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26, 27 & 28: June 2 & 3
Time: For times. click here:
Cost: £10
To book tickets online, click here:
2018 sees the highest numbers of homelessness since the 80s. In fact, worse than that, now we have children leaving care and ending upon the streets, with no provision. NO future!
So why do I care? Well, I am a trans woman who grew up in care, as a young effeminate gay boy I know all too well how frightening the streets are, and how welcoming they are compared to being abused at home and school simply for being gay.
I was lucky in the 1990s, kids leaving care got housed, yes it was a fight, but I was classed as vulnerable for being gay and eventually housed. Young LGBT kids are no longer classed as vulnerable even if they are HIV.
That was 20 years ago…so why have things gone backwards. I have personally worked in a charity called the Pillion Trust in Islington since 2007, so I speak from professional experience when I say I have never seen a system so deprived of funding and a society so deprived of compassion.
I understand there are more young people identifying as LGBT now, but in my experience, this hasn’t changed the levels of young people being thrown out or having to leave home because of their sexual and or gender identity.
When I fled domestic violence from my older lover I ended up on the streets again at 19. Thankfully Albert Kennedy Trust were there to find me supported lodgings with a caring gay couple, who not only provided me with a safe home and a platform to get into work and education, they provided the first positive gay role models I had ever had in my life.
Tim Sigsworth C.E.O of Albert Kennedy Trust noted the reduction in government funding to housing providers has led to a drop in standards when it comes to caring for LGBT homeless people. I agree and have experienced first hand LGBT people being discriminated against by the very services which are supposed to support them.
He told Pinknews: “The proportion of mainstream housing providers targeting services at LGBT homeless people has dropped from 11 per cent to 1 per cent between 2011 and 2013. Homeless people, those who identify as LGBT, have multiple and complex needs, and agencies within the UK are offering increasingly generic support due, in part, to a reduction in funds.”
Why twenty years on are the youngsters of our community being put back to the dark ages?
The Conservative government cuts have been vicious. Pillion Trust now run a shelter for young people on donations and funding from food outlet, Pret a Manger. It was unheard of when I started working there to even have LGBT homeless clients, especially very young people.
Now most of the residents are under 21 and LGBT, alone afraid and have three months to move on. Yet nowhere to move on too? There are not enough services to sign post to, they have been closed, and the local councils won’t honour their duty of care.
Housing benefit was available before 2017 to under 21’s who couldn’t live at home to fund supported accommodation. There still was supported accommodation. Now both have been removed.
Now we have a generation of young people who have been failed. We have the biggest class divide i have ever seen, like countries in the third world we have an ever-depleting middle class and more people living in dire poverty.
In 2018 working in the small shelter, I have experienced young LGBT people selling themselves for a chicken burger. I have experienced the council telling HIV positive trans kids recovering from surgery that they are intentionally homeless and not vulnerable. I have witnessed teenagers sleeping in the snow, begging for small change for food.
This is no longer a country I recognise. I grew up in the Thatcher era, and I hear everyone say how awful she was to our communities, yet I know back then there were still homes, and legislation to protect the young. Where have we gone wrong as a community when we are allowing this to happen and not protesting? .
Statists show that now approximately a quarter of all young people who are homeless identify as LGBT. This is highly disproportionate to the general heterosexual population. LGBT young people are more likely to experience sexual abuse, mental health and addiction issues as a result and HIV infections are on the rise again. Yet services have been shut down and pathways into services blocked, bars raised higher and the level of care support and duty lower. Brighton is a hub for young people from the LGBT community they see it as safer than London in reality its anything but.
Trans youth are especially affected because of the physical and mental processes they face, without a stable home these cannot be managed or achieved. Locally the cut to housing benefit for under 21s, and introduction of the unworkable benefit universal credit means that the most vulnerable people in LGBT society and the most marginalised are now facing a broken system which offers no support.
Attendees at the LGBT homeless workshop, Outside Out: Rough Sleeping and Homelessness in the LGBT Community at the Phil Starr Pavilion during the B RIGHT ON festival run by the Homeless Team from Brighton & Hove City Council heard that 25% of all homeless nationwide were LGBT while in Brighton the percentage rises to 33%.
We need to remember that Britain in the 90s and 00s was a country renowned worldwide for its compassion towards minority communities. Since the current government came to power, my job working with the homeless has become almost impossible, on top of that the clients have become increasingly more vulnerable.
Not only LGBT youth, but people affected by the chemsex epidemic, HIV and Aids related illness being told they are not too vulnerable to sleep rough?.
Modern Britain has become a divided place, dictated to by a right-wing media, a place where the LGBT community has become politically invisible, and where our vulnerable are left to build tent cities and freeze sometimes… to death.
For any society to work we must invest in young people and safe housing and spaces which encourage them to thrive. Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs dictates that without a home a person cannot thrive if a quarter of all homeless young people are LGBT this will have a massive impact on our communities’ place and role in society in the future. This isn’t about demographics, politics or blame it’s about recognising that we have a responsibility to help our own and if our political choices mean our community is boosted by the necessary funding it needs to provide services suitable for us then so be it.
The Toilet, a film which is part of the Around the Toilet project, led by Dr Jen Slater from Sheffield Hallam University, is an animated film which weaves together personal accounts from transgender, disabled and Muslim people, who share their experiences and challenges of using public toilets in a society where current toilet provisions prioritise some people’s needs at the expense of others.
The public release of The Toilet. follows preview events in Reykjavik, Glasgow at the Scottish Queer International Film Festival, Together! Disability Film Festival in London, and the Manchester Animation Film Festival, as well as its official premiere in Sheffield at the ESRC Festival of Social Science.
The short animated film explores the importance of the toilet in feeling comfortable and welcome in everyday life. It illustrates how inaccessible or unsafe toilets affect people in a range of ways, stopping some from leaving the house, and leading others to lose their jobs, or avoid food and drink, and taking day trips and holidays.
Dr Jen Slater, a reader in disability studies and education at Sheffield Hallam, said: “We’re very excited for this film to be available to the public. Although it focuses on what is thought to be a mundane space, the focus on toilets in fact raises much bigger issues, about who is included and excluded from public space, and who is valued in our society.
“Toilets therefore become a crucial practical issue which can create and reaffirm feelings of exclusion and regulation. Sharing our findings through film is a brilliant opportunity to bring important social and political issues to a wider audience through the stories of people who face this kind of marginalisation on a daily basis.
“Lots of public, charitable and campaigning organisations have already heard about the film and got in touch to ask about using it in their own work. We’re hopeful that making it available for public viewing and sharing it will get people thinking creatively about the need to change toilet design.”
Around the Toilet is a cross-disciplinary, arts-based research project funded by the AHRC Connected Communities programme.
To watch The Toilet. view: https://vimeo.com/231888061
The repairs contract costing the city over £200m should be overhauled and brought back under council management, say local Green councillors.
Greens have raised repeated concerns over the multi-million pound housing repairs contract with Mears PLC, which has been beset with complaints. High-profile pricing scandals revealed the company charged up to twice the cost of many other surveyors for some repairs. Despite assurances, Mears also came under fire for overcharging for electrical works at the end of last year, with an estimated six-figure sum still owed to the council.
The Green Group of Councillors have called for the contract with Mears PLC to come back ‘in-house,’ as part of a review of options for when the existing contract ends in 2020.
With a consultation planned in the coming months, Greens say a council owned repair service has the potential to save public money and also bring added community benefits of increased accountability for the public and stronger employee rights.
Green Councillor Tom Druitt said: “The continued number of complaints about Mears proves something has to change. Too many of our tenants have been left without a good service. During the last burst of extremely cold weather, a number of our council tenants were unacceptably left without heating after boilers broke and the repairs service were overwhelmed with calls.
“Twice now the council have had to deal with high profile scandals of malpractice and overcharging from this contractor. But we have an opportunity now to change things, and the Labour Council has promised the biggest consultation this Council has undertaken in ten years. Greens will be holding them to this and pushing for meaningful engagement with residents over the best way forward.”
Greens have repeatedly challenged the practice of handing over huge amounts of public money to private companies, a model they say is “failing to deliver” for the city in light of complaints. Pointing to a shake-up of contract management in Preston, Lancashire, Greens have argued breaking such huge contracts into smaller chunks would make it possible for smaller, local businesses to apply, boosting the local economy.
Councillor David Gibson the Greens housing spokesperson added: “It’s good to see options to overhaul this costly repairs contract are finally on the table. Public provision is a positive model – It provides direct accountability of an in-house service to elected councillors and no profits are creamed off by private companies. Councils offer better conditions for their workers including pension schemes. In Islington and in Sheffield, councils breaking with private repairs companies have been able to demonstrate huge cost savings but also a better quality service. It was heartening that Councillor Moonan spoke positively about bringing the contract back in-house too.”
“Greens also want to see the council explore the options for breaking these gigantic, monumental contracts into smaller chunks so that we end the practice of pricing out smaller, local companies from being able to apply. In Preston this has boosted the local economy, and the Labour Council here could follow their lead and change the practice of handing over massive sums of public money to giant private companies.”
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