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‘The Buttcracker’ – Academics challenge image of ballet

Edge Hill University academics challenge the image of ballet by re-creating and queering photos of ageing and fat dancers in The Buttcracker.

RUPTURING the traditional image of thin, heterosexual, athletic, young dancers, Mark Edward and Helen Newall have constructed photos of famous ballets and songs renaming them Gaysell (Gisele), La Sifilis (La Silfide) and Sugar Bum Fairy (Sugar Plum Fairy).

Reader in Dance and Performance, Mark Edward, who appears in the photos in drag, said: “This work is about shifting perceptions, looking at how we see traditional dancers and read the body through a queer and queered lens.

“No-one expects to see a fat, ageing, bearded man on pointe in a tutu. But it’s about disrupting the performance and aesthetics.

“Someone like me would be invisible in a mainstream classical ballet stage production yet I am a trained professional dancer who has worked in the industry for over 20 years. Standing on pointe is highly technical yet it looks effortless.”

Professor of Theatre Praxis, Helen Newall, who constructed, photographed and photoshopped the images and appears in some of the photos as a drag king, added: “I’m interested in how photographs capture reality and often misrepresent it, as well as the performances of identity which people make in front of a camera, something which has gone on from as early as 1839 when the invention of photography was first announced, and Hippolyte Bayard, who was piqued at having been excluded from the announcement, made a hoax self portrait of himself as a drowned man in protest.

“We think the camera never lies, but these photos, the drowned man, the drag queen, Mark on pointe, me as a male ballet dancer, they’re all performances for the camera. Here, we’re looking at the photographic depiction of ballet as a heteronormative micro-performance.”

Mark and Helen are currently curating a selection of photos which they plan to exhibit at arts venues, conferences, festivals, queer events and pop up shows across the country.

The Buttcracker follows on from their previous collaborative exhibition Dying Swans and Dragged up Dames which parodied iconic performance photographs of legendary dancers.

It also forms the basis of a co-written chapter titled ‘The Buttcracker: Dragging Ballet into Queer Places’ focusing on historical drag performance for one of two of Mark’s and Dr Stephen Farrier’s (from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama) drag anthologies due to be published by Bloomsbury in 2019.

To book the work email: mark.edward@edgehill.ac.uk

OPINION: Sam Trans Man – A reason to live!

Dr Samuel Hall on HIV/AIDS hitting home, and working not only to save lives, but souls.

I’VE been putting off writing this column for a while. Partly, I think, because I always feel like a bit of a fraud when it comes to writing about HIV, which this month’s issue is dedicated to. I feel like a fraud because in the 1980s and 90s I was a bystander, an outsider to the LGBT+ communities. I wasn’t out, I hadn’t transitioned, I saw the rise of HIV infection and deaths from HIV related diseases from the sidelines, as a young doctor working in intensive care, this wasn’t having an impact on my life in any way.

I wasn’t really affected by it, until one day one of my colleagues lay dying in an intensive care bed in front of me during a long hard night shift. Then it hit home. Felt a bit closer. It was a uniquely personal experience of the power of disease, pathology, overcoming medicine. We couldn’t help him, the world hadn’t caught up yet, there was no cure, no holding this at bay. So now, rather than a capable and resilient colleague with whom we had all shared tough shifts, we found ourselves crowded around another patient we couldn’t save, and felt helpless.

Yesterday I worked an out-of-hours GP shift. This is a very different way of working to my usual everyday GP clinic. The out-of-hours is telephone-based, and we try to sort things out over the phone if we can. If that’s not possible, we arrange for people to visit one of the bases that are open in the evenings and on weekends. And if that doesn’t work, we arrange a visit by a roving doctor in a car. Being a GP is hard, but working in the out-of-hours service is even worse. You don’t know the patients; NHS IT means you can’t see their history; you’re geographically miles apart and aren’t able to use facial expression and body language to aid your assessment on the phone. You have to rely on your knowledge, experience and intuition.

Many doctors don’t like working out-of-hours because it’s more risky from a medicolegal standpoint. And it’s the backstop for other healthcare practitioners out there. Nursing home staff, district nurses, carers, pharmacists and paramedics all use the GP service to refer the patients they can’t deal with. We mop up all the difficult and lonely, the forgetful and anxious, the hypochondriacs, the chancers, and the overtly suicidal.

Years ago I wouldn’t have coped with this kind of work. I hid behind the snazzy bling of intensive care and hi-tech anaesthetic equipment. I saved lives no doubt, but doing the kind of work I do now, as a GP, saves souls. There’s a connection to be made, and a doctor is in a privileged position. Patients will trust us and tell us things they can’t say to anyone else. This is never more evident than during an out-of-hours session when you have an interaction with a patient you’ve never met and probably never will. You’re so aware of the potential to say or do something detrimental, you learn to tread carefully and assess the risk of making a mistake, and spend a lot of time ensuring that both you and the patient are safe. Them, from further harm, and yourself from the torture of having got it wrong.

It was in this context then, that I picked up the phone and dialled the number of a young (well, younger than me) man who had earlier called an ambulance. On arrival the crew had assessed him, decided he didn’t need to go to hospital, and passed him on to us for a call later in the day. I woke him up. He wasn’t sober, and he didn’t want to live. This guy had run out of steam for life. As his story unfolded on the phone, I began to feel helpless. He was HIV positive, he’d been assaulted by an intimate partner, and he was addicted to several illegal drugs. He had tried his best to pull himself together, had done some detox, and sought appropriate help. But none of this was enough. Not in the face of such low self-worth. I wondered how much of his poor mental state was due to his HIV status. And what is the connection between this and intimate partner violence, depression, suicide and addictive substance misuse? I felt the pull of the darkness he was living in.

I just wanted this guy to have one thing he could live for. One little speck of hope, of light to focus on so that he could walk away from the temptation to end his life. It wasn’t the first time he’d felt like this, there has been a previous serious suicide attempt in the recent past. He hadn’t succeeded and in some way didn’t want to this time either. That’s why he’d dialled 999. He needed to be saved from himself. He couldn’t trust himself not to take his own life. Anyone who has ever felt this will know just how terrifying it is.

“I just wanted this guy to have one thing he could live for. One little speck of hope, of light to focus on”

Dr Sam Hall
Dr Sam Hall

Many of us do know what it feels like to want to leave the planet. To go to sleep and never wake up. Mercifully these feelings do pass, if we can only find a reason to hang on, we can ride the wave of emotional pain and move on with our lives. All I could hope to achieve on the phone yesterday morning was to give this patient enough hope to get though another day. I felt helpless and I was helpless, because nothing changes unless we want it to. Not a single word of mine was going to be enough if he couldn’t find a reason. But he did. We spoke for 20 minutes. I gave him numbers to call for help, he said he wanted to live. For today, anyway, that is enough.

Manchester Pride appoints new Ambassadors

Manchester Pride recruit four new Ambassadors to help spread the word about the work carried out by the LGBT+ charity all year round.

Daniel Brocklebank, Annie Wallace, Lucy Spraggan
Daniel Brocklebank, Annie Wallace, Lucy Spraggan

SINGER/songwriter and Big Weekend stalwart, Lucy Spraggan has been appointed as an ambassador for the charity this year along with Coronation Street stars, Daniel Brocklebank and Dolly-Rose Campbell, Hollyoaks actress, Annie Wallace who was appointed in late 2017.

Manchester Pride works to enrich and empower LGBT+ people across Greater Manchester, and every year this is supported by the work and commitment given by the charity’s key ambassadors who each have their own unique ability to reach new audiences and connect with different groups within the city’s communities.

2018 marked the 10th year that Lucy Spraggan played The Big Weekend, which takes place every year on August Bank Holiday weekend. The former X Factor star broke the silence at 2017’s Candlelit Vigil and she also spoke to guests about her involvement with the charity at the Manchester Pride Spring Benefit earlier this year.

Lucy said: “I am very excited to be an ambassador for Manchester Pride. I’m so looking forward to getting stuck in with what Manchester Pride is all about, not just for The Big Weekend but all year round. They do such amazing charity work and at the Spring Benefit this year there was a video about helping young people overcome the struggles of being out which, as an LGBT+ person myself, really opened my eyes. Now more than ever I really want to get involved in the charity work that Manchester Pride do.”

Both Dolly-Rose Campbell and Daniel Brocklebank, who play Gemma Winter and Billy Mayhew on the Manchester-based soap, are regulars at Manchester Pride events and have been key supporters of the charity for years.  Both have taken part in the parade on the Coronation Street float in recent years and attended the annual Manchester Pride Spring Benefit in May this year.

Dolly-Rose Campbell
Dolly-Rose Campbell

Dolly-Rose Campbell said: “I am thrilled to be an ambassador for Manchester Pride. The work that Manchester Pride does throughout the year to engage with and create opportunities for people in Manchester’s LGBT+ community and beyond makes a huge difference to so many people’s lives and I am very much looking forward to getting involved in their fantastic charity work.”

Making history as the first transgender person to play a transgender character in British soap history, Annie Wallace is also a newly appointed for Manchester Pride. The Scottish-born actress has lived in Manchester for a number of years, currently playing headmistress, Sally St Claire in TV soap, Hollyoaks. Having been a regular at Manchester Pride events for several years, alongside her co-star Ross Adams, Annie’s works as a trans activist and LGBT+ supporter makes her a perfect fit as ambassador.

Annie said: “I’ve been involved with Manchester Pride for 18 years and I was honoured to be asked to be an ambassador for the organisation. They are a celebration of all things LGBT+, a support and educational organisation, helping to end ignorance, prejudice and hatred, and a charity that raises so much for the LGBT+ community. Everyone knows the Bank Holiday Weekend celebration, but Pride is about so much more. I look forward to helping where I can, and flying the flag for Manchester Pride!”

Mark Fletcher
Mark Fletcher

Mark Fletcher, CEO of Manchester Pride, said: “We’re so pleased to have been able to appoint Lucy, Daniel, Dolly-Rose and Annie as ambassadors for the charity. They have been huge supporters of ours for such a long time that this was a natural process for us and we can think of no better people to go out there and represent LGBT+ people on behalf of Manchester.”

Help Brighton Fringe secure funding

Brighton Fringe is asking for support from local communities in Brighton and Hove to help win funding as part of the Aviva Community Fund 2018.

Image:James Bellorini
Image:James Bellorini

BRIGHTON Fringe needs votes to increase their chances of winning funding of £10,000 which they hope will fund 2019’s Fringe City and Family Picnics.

Whilst Fringe City and the Family Picnics are free to attend, there are many costs involved in putting these events on.

The money from the Aviva Community Fund will be used to pay for the less glamorous, yet essential elements such as First Aid provision, security and road closures, and will ensure everyone attending is safe and can enjoy Fringe City to the maximum.

Only projects with the most votes will become finalists, so the local community’s support is vital.

Brighton Fringe is England’s largest open access arts festival. Each May it helps over 5,000 artists put on over 1,000 events in more than 160 venues across the city. Its mission is to bring artists and audiences together and act as a catalyst for creativity.

Fringe City takes place in the heart of Brighton each weekend during May, and showcases over 250 performances for free.

The Family Picnics take place each Saturday in Pavilion Gardens and offer a family friendly atmosphere with carefully selected performances suitable for all.

There are interactive activities for people of all ages to get involved with, and the chance to find out more about the wider Fringe programme.

Julian Caddy
Julian Caddy

Julian Caddy, CEO of Brighton Fringe said: “Fringe City and Family Picnics are completely free and accessible events which we believe are incredibly important in introducing people to the arts who might not otherwise be engaged. Less than 3% of our funding comes from central government or the local council so it is vital that we find money from other sources rather than charge people for these events. So please support us by voting for us in this campaign, Brighton Fringe needs your help.”

To get behind Brighton Fringe, click here: 

Submit your vote before November 20, 2018.

OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar – Trans Positive Healthcare

First, before I get on my pedestal for the month, I have to convey my sincere apologies to my regular readers for my recent hiatus.

You may well remember that this time last year I spent a month in India having some surgeries; well, with nine months to allow myself to heal, I have just spent the last two months away having some more work done. Due to the nature of the surgery, I was unable to honour my work commitments with Gscene and I thank the editor and you, my regular readership, for understanding. I am not really well enough to be writing again, but this month’s topic is a far too important one for me to miss.

In last year’s HIV issue I wrote of my personal experience of living with HIV as a trans woman and the difficulties and heightened stigma that I have faced post-transition rather than pre when read as an MSM.

I also spoke of the lack of sexual health awareness for trans people in general and the lack of support from nationwide clinics unless within reach of ClinicT or ClinicQ here is Brighton. I ended with an open invitation for any trans positive people to feel free to contact me should they want some signposting, support, or just a chat.

This opened up the floodgates and got the ball rolling for trans people to come out to me who have been harbouring their status as a secret for many reasons, including stigmatisation from friends and family, being scared that their status would affect their hormone regimes and any gender related surgeries they may wish to have. They could see me living trans positive and proud, and my status not affecting my sex life, my relationships, my HRT and my fast-paced surgeries.

Over the last year I have spoken to many a trans positive person for one reason or another, many of them coming to me as a referral from my surgical team in India who wanted some reassurance that their trip to India for surgery would not be hampered by their status.

I would like to share with you one particular call for help which I received in India in August whilst in the middle of five surgeries in four weeks so I was unable to offer immediate support. It has probably been the hardest and most difficult for me to deal with both practically and emotionally.

She wrote: “Hey there Sugar, 

“Hope you don’t mind me messaging you out of the blue but I follow you on social media and really just need someone to talk to. Obviously I’m trans, that’s all great and I have no problems there and I’m a non-sexual partner to my adopted son’s mother. I have an amazing family but I found out six years ago that I’m HIV positive. God, my head is spinning just typing that out to you, Sugar. 

“Seriously I just haven’t accepted it and still can’t even think about it. I’m not on any meds and never have been and I’ve only ever seen a doctor anonymously when I got my diagnosis at a sexual health check up. I used a false name and address so there is no record of it and the secret is hard to deal with. The truth is I don’t deal with it, I ignore it. I just don’t know what to do. I can’t tell my family but I also know I can’t ignore this forever. Can you help me Sugar?”

Now, what am I to do with this? This is a woman who received a diagnosis six years ago and is so scared of the social stigma that she has run from her diagnosis, buried it and only even thought about unpacking it when she read my work and realised that just maybe, she could live as I do. This woman needed so much help and support.

I first had to get her to trust me, which wasn’t particularly hard as she had been following me for some years and had already reached out to me and told me something she had never told another soul before. I then had to get her to trust the medical system for trans positive healthcare and that was somewhat harder.

Eventually, after many weeks of dialogue, she agreed to make the four-hour drive to Brighton to visit ClinicT. She was adamant that she was not going to go anywhere within a 100 mile radius of her home and that she would only see a clinician if I accompanied her.

This is how scared this woman is. This is happening right now, as I type I am arranging clinic appointments for her. This is the reality of trans positive healthcare in 2018. It is so easy to think that we have everything wrapped up and we are doing just great with HIV care for all LGBTQIA patients because we fall under the same umbrella as cis gay men, who, by comparison, and from my own lived experience, have got this shit nailed.

As I said in my last HIV edition of this magazine the stigma is in no way comparable and the level of care and understanding from medical practitioners is excellent. I am not knocking this service provided by clinics, such as Lawson Unit and Dean Street – locally and centres across cities in the rest of the country, the care for MSM is exemplary and is something to be commended.

However, I am sad to say that the same cannot be said for trans positive healthcare – it is almost like our practitioners don’t know how to deal with us, like we are a curiosity, something to question and often asked inappropriate questions and make statements that wouldn’t be tolerated anywhere else if we didn’t really need our meds. It’s like we have to hand hold our doctors through our appointments and be the doctor, not the patient.

In my six-monthly appointment with my HIV doctor last week I was asked directly: “I’ve been your doctor for 15 years now, why did you only tell me you were trans three years ago?”, and: “I don’t know if you need a smear test now, leave that one with me.”

The first of those statements is just pure idiocy, the second is lack of knowledge. These are just two examples of many a stupid question I have been asked by HIV service providers since transitioning.

In December of last year my public husband and bed partner ‘#nohetto’, Jak, a trans MSM, was diagnosed positive. Obviously, I accompanied him on his appointments and at his first meetings with HIV consultants, pharmacists etc, as is the nature of our close relationship, he was dealt with by a petrified consultant who was clearly out of his depth.

He tried to hand Jak a booklet on HIV and Women, which I quickly snatched out of the doctor’s hand and scolded him, telling him Jak was a man after he had tried to tell Jak that he could use the women’s only clinic. I scorned the doctor and told him the women’s clinic is somewhere that I would use, not a man. Jak and I didn’t see that consultant again.

I am used to being asked stupid questions, I have been positive since my early 20s and I am now almost 40. Jak, however, and any newly diagnosed trans person who walks through the doors of an HIV clinic, has to put up with this kind of nonsense that can make people like the woman who wrote to me whilst in India, run away from the healthcare services altogether.

Jak and I started to read the material produced by sexual health clinics and it has always been part of my freelance work to consult with providers and make sure they are representing us right. Jak is now doing the same thing and is working closely with THT to make sure their sexual health booklet for non-binary people is correct and uses the right terminologies.

Although I have been very busy working as an advocate, mentor and liaison for many trans positive people since I came out publicly as a trans positive woman, Jak raised the fact there is actually no peer support for trans people other than the ones that reach out to me for 1-2-1 peer support.

We searched Facebook and there is not one single support/peer group for trans positive people, so, if it doesn’t exist but it is obvious there is a need from the number of requests for help I receive, we must build it.

Jak made a peer support group for us. It is simply called Trans Positive and it is a closed group on Facebook. It exists for us to create a community of trans positive people where the intersection of being both trans and positive come together and for us to discuss and support each other around the very specific issues we face.

We welcome all trans positive people to join our peer support group regardless of where you fall under the trans umbrella and we look forward to welcoming you soon.

I wish all my positive siblings, both trans and cis, a very safe World AIDS Day – I encourage you all to be kind to yourselves and I will see you at the vigil in New Steine Gardens on December 1st at 6pm.

INTERVIEW: Mistress of the House – Kara Van Park

For Brighton’s Wain Douglas – the drag queen Kara Van Park, it all started in Hollywood films – she talks to Brian Butler about school bullying, Les Miserables and a secret future project.

Image: Hugo Michiels
Image: Hugo Michiels

AS an overweight child, Wain Douglas was subject to constant bullying at school. His means of escape was to immerse himself in the song and dance musicals of Hollywood at its height.

“I went to an old style grammar school which was very academic. There was no tradition of school plays and music, “ he says.

But at 15 years old he was asked to play Pharaoh in a school production of Joseph. Suddenly the bullies wanted to be his friend. But she rebelled. “I’ve never suffered fools so I saw through it. Cross me once: it’s a mistake; cross me twice it’s all hell,” he reveals.

At that teenage stage he knew he wanted to be an actor. “It’s not about adulation; it’s about being someone else – stepping out of me for a short while.” His mother supported his wish to go to drama school but insisted he had a trade to fall back on. It was a far-sighted move.

“My cousin had her own hairdressing salon so I did an apprenticeship with her,” – a job he was to return to in the theatre world years later.

Aged 18 Wain went to the Italia Conti stage school. He supported himself with the help of a 100 per cent grant and by Front of House jobs in West End theatres at night.

By the time he left Italia he was set on a dancing career and pursued it successfully for a while. Tours of Joseph, Hair and Fame followed and he found his career moving more towards singing and acting.

While in Singing In The Rain, he stood in for a principal and by chance was seen by someone from the Cameron Macintosh organisation. An offer immediately followed to audition for Les Miserables in the West End.

Image: Hugo Michiels
Image: Hugo Michiels

He walked on to play the criminal inn keeper Thenadier whose great show stopper is Master of the House, and found him self playing opposite the wonderful Rosemary Ashe, and later was involved in both the 25th anniversary concert and the more recent film of the musical.

Becoming disenchanted with the cost-cutting in production values, he returned to his first job but this time advising, creating and maintaining hair and make up for some of the West End’s biggest shows.

But Wain was to take another road and friends suggested that he develop his regular panto dame act into a drag performance.

And so Kara was born! “It all took off very quickly. I wasn’t expecting the attention but also the backlash from some.”

His great initial strength, which makes him an outstanding act today too, was his strong dramatic voice and theatrical background.

“For me, it’s totally about pleasing the audience,” he admits.

He says he’s eternally grateful to drag act Baga Chipz who gave him  his first break at London’s Admiral Duncan. “He pushed me into it. The other big influence was Son of a Tutu – one of the most incredible people and the most giving soul I know.”

He’s currently working on two productions – first playing the trans character Bernadette in Priscilla Queen of the Desert in Brighton for a week in December at the Old Market.

And crucially he’s also working on what he calls a “secret project” which will mean drag takes a bit of a back seat. He will say nothing more at the moment .

Wain has strong views about gay politics and prejudice which he sees within the wider LGBT+ communities, particularly about trans people and older gay men.

“If we can’t accept each other, how can we expect anyone else to accept us?” he wisely says.

Asked what advice he would give to a 15-year-old Wain, he says very quickly “keep your eyes and ears open and your mouth shut. I’ve had to stand my ground  because I’ve fought for what I’ve got – I won’t be taken for granted,” he says firmly.

But our conversation goes back to Priscilla. “I can’t tell you how excited I am. It’s a dream role, back to my musical theatre roots and those of my drag act.. it will show Brighton more of what I really do , and should make a few people sit up and take note.. Bernadette is not a drag queen – she’s a trans woman. The show is very camp and theatrical but because of the trans element, you have to avoid sending it up – that would be disrespectful to trans people,” he says.

Asked what up and coming drag performer he rates, he immediately says – as Davina Sparkle did last month in the magazine – Pat Clutcher. “A total professional with a fantastic voice,” is Wain’s verdict.

Brighton is a tough scene to crack and be accepted, says Wain, but there are some outstanding performers and he rates Miss Jason as one of the best. “She has the audience in the palm of her hand – she’s got them from the moment she walks on stage.” he says.

It’s a typically generous view of his colleagues and one that many of his fellow performers would say was also true of Kara.

Priscilla plays at the Old Market, Hove from December 4 to 8

Doctor Brightons – the final countdown!

Charles Child will be packing his bags and leaving Doctor Brightons and Brighton for the last time on Saturday, November 3.

CHARLES and his staff were originally due to leave Doctor Brightons in July after his landlords, Enterprise Inns decided they did not want to renew the lease for the building they had with Brighton and Hove City Council for the premises at 16-17 Kings Rd, Brighton.
Even though Charles was a tenant in situ the council informed him that a new lease had to go out to competitive tender and Charles was told that even though he had been the tenant for the previous 12 years, he would have to bid along with other businesses including national corporate brands
Charles thought the process unfair and stacked against any small businessman, so he decided not to bid. He announced a closing party for July 14 but after his customers in no uncertain terms made their feelings known to him about his decision to close, he decided to lodge a bid for the new lease.
His bid was accepted, with the council promising him a fifteen year lease. Then followed a period of silence from the council and Enterprise Inns, during which nothing happened, leaving Charles in no mans land trying to run a business without having the terms of his lease agreed.
In reality the Council and Enterprise Inns wanted him to pay for the repairs to the building, which was the responsibility of the brewery who held the main lease. Charles like many other business people in the city decided he did not want to risk his future working with a local authority that made life difficult for small business people like him and withdrew his bid.
His last night behind the bar at Doctor Brightons will be on November 3. Between 7-9pm he is inviting, for a private VIP reception, a small group of long-standing regulars, friends, current and old employees and people who he feels have made a difference and helped him during his years in Brighton. Then, from 9pm, he will throw open the doors of Doctor Brightons for the very last time for everybody to have one big final party.
It will cost £3 to get in with which he will buy you a drink and donate the proceeds to the Rainbow Fund an organisation who give grants to local LGBT/HIV organisations that deliver effective front line services to LGBT+ people in the city.
Charles says: “I want to thank all the customers who have supported me over the last 10 years in my own beloved Doctor Brightons and other venues and also my brilliant staff team from bar staff to security to DJs.
I would have loved to be the one taking Doctor Brightons forward over the next 15 years but the council have made that impossible.
“I look forward to seeing and celebrating with everybody on November 3 for our final curtain call at the bar and raising some much-needed money for the Rainbow Fund, an organisation I believe in so much for one last time”

Whats up at the Rainbow Hub?

The Rainbow Hub at St James Street, is a local point of contact for LGBT+ people seeking up to date help, information or guidance, in a safe, non-judgemental environment in the heart of the gay village.

VOLUNTEERS are providing a welcoming drop-in space to help people and where necessary refer them on to one or more of the city’s extensive network of partner organisations for further support.

The space is also open to partner organisations wishing to reach out to their user base, and one such partner – the Brighton and Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum – has a permanent home there.

The Rainbow Hub has recently launched an early version of their website which will grow and expand to reflect the needs of our communities as the organisation continues to develop.

The Rainbow Hub is currently open with restricted hours: Monday thru Saturday 12:00 – 15:00. These will steadily increase during November. Keep an eye on the website and the message board in the window for updates.

So why isn’t The Rainbow Hub fully open yet?
There was a deceptively large amount of work to be done before The Rainbow Hub is fully open for business. Much of this work derives from that fact that this is a physical space providing a service to a wide variety of people who might walk in off the street. Managers are ensuring that the health, safety and wellbeing of their volunteers and service users are at the forefront of everything they do.

At the moment they are busy recruiting volunteers; building and delivering training programs; drafting their policies and procedures; installing an accessible toilet; setting up basic office systems and generally making this a great space for everyone.

Joel Boardman
Joel Boardman

Meet the team – this month Joel Boardman

Recruiting and training a large number of new volunteers to an appropriate level is a huge task and this is being coordinated by Joel Boardman.

Joel is the new Volunteer Coordinator and is currently focused on building recruitment and training programmes for all volunteers. Joel is experienced in people management and service delivery, currently working for the UK’s largest wig company managing the head office team.

He has worked in advisory and management roles for financial companies, as well as volunteering in money advice and local community causes. Being openly gay himself, Joel has faced personal instances of homophobia and prejudice, which he feels have made him wiser and strengthened his abilities to empathise with and inspire others.

He is extremely passionate about the values of the project and is really excited to begin giving back to a community he is proud to be a part of.

If you’d like to volunteer at the Rainbow Hub, email: joel@therainbowhubbrighton.com

Reported Hate Crimes rise 28%

Police record nearly 13,300 crimes against LGBT+ people in the year ending March, 2018.

REPORTED hate crimes against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender LGBT+ people in England and Wales have risen by 28 percent, according to figures released this week in the Crown Prosecution’s Hate Crime Annual Report.

Nearly 13,300 crimes were record by the police in the year ending March, 2018. Research by Stonewall, the equality campaign group, shows four in five incidents went unreported, with younger people particularly reluctant to go to the police.

Laura Russell, policy head at Stonewall says: “While some may suggest this rise is due to increased confidence in reporting, we fear these represent the tip of the iceberg in hate crimes against LGBT+ people.”

The crime figures were released as the Government prepares to undertake a review of hate crime legislation, which will look at, how to make it more effective and, whether it should encompass new categories such as misogyny.

Sajid Javid
Sajid Javid

In a statement Home Secretary Sajid Javid said: “Hate crime goes directly against the long-standing British values of unity, tolerance and mutual respect – and I am committed to stamping this sickening behaviour out.”

The government also announced plans to enhance training for police handling hate crime, which includes offences motivated by hostility on the grounds of race, religion, disability, sexual orientation and trans identity.

Figures released by the CPS show courts were passing harsher sentences on hate crimes with prosecutors in such cases able to ask for and getting, an increased punishment to reflect the aggravating circumstances.

Sentences were boosted in about 64 percent of convictions involving anti-LGBT+ hate crime between April 2017 and March 2018, up from nearly half of cases in the preceding year, according to the CPS’s annual Hate Crime Report.

Police recorded 11,638 hate crimes on the basis of sexual orientation between 2017 and 2018, up from 9,157 the previous year, and 1,651 hate crimes against transgender people up from 1,248.

These rises could reflect improvements in police recording of such offences and greater reporting of incidents, rather than a genuine increase.

However, CPS data showed referrals by police remained low with only 1,564 cases passed to prosecutors in the same time period.

Overall, police recorded 94,098 hate crime offences last year, mostly race hate crimes, up 17 percent on the previous year.

The 28% rise in Hate Crime comes at the same time as the Labour administration on Brighton and Hove City Council, can’t find £300 in their core budget to ensure that the volunteer led, Brighton and Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum continue holding four quarterly public meetings a year, to hold police and council to account for the growing problem of Hate Crime in the city.

Bus company launch new anti-hate crime campaign

Brighton & Hove Buses has been working with Sussex Police, Brighton & Hove City Council and local community groups to tackle hate crime with a new ongoing poster campaign.

ANTI-hate crime posters went up on all buses in Brighton & Hove from Saturday, October 13 – the start of National Hate Crime Awareness Week – encouraging people to report incidents. You can also report such incident using social media #NoHateHere.

Hate crime can include insults, shoving, attacking or intimidation. It can be verbal, as well as physical. While it’s rare on B&H Buses (98% of passengers said they felt safe in the independent Bus Passenger Survey), B&H Buses want their customers to know that they will act when it does occur.

Martin Harris
Martin Harris

Brighton & Hove Buses’ Managing Director Martin Harris said: “We want people to have the confidence to report all forms of hate crimes and to help us confront prejudice and discrimination in Brighton & Hove. Our drivers’ union, Unite, has also got behind the campaign.

“While incidents of hate crime are low on our network and all our buses have CCTV, every passenger deserves to feel safe and respected on every journey. Each incident that’s reported on our buses will be taken seriously and investigated thoroughly. The perpetrators will not get away with it.” 

After the first month, the poster will stay on one in every four of our buses, covering about 1.4 million journeys every month. Posters will also be displayed with local community groups and yellow #NoHateHere wallets will be distributed, which define hate crime and say how to report it.

Sussex Police Superintendent Ed De La Rue added: “Everyone should be free to live their lives without fear of abuse or attack on the basis of who they are, what they believe, or how they look.

“It’s fantastic to see Brighton and Hove Buses acting to raise awareness of this problem and make it easier for people to report it and get support if it happens to them. We should all act to make sure there is #NoPlaceForHate.” 

Cllr Emma Daniel
Cllr Emma Daniel

Cllr Emma Daniel, Chair of Brighton & Hove City Council’s Neighbourhoods, Inclusion, Communities & Equalities Committee, said: “Hate incidents of any kind are unacceptable and we’re really pleased to be a part of this partnership campaign to tackle it. It’s really important people know how to report all hate incidents, including verbal abuse.” 

This anti-hate crime campaign was devised in partnership with local community groups and the Racial Harassment Forum, which includes representatives from the city’s black and minority ethnic community groups, the voluntary sector, Sussex Police, Probation Services, and Brighton & Hove City Council.

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