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Martin Fisher Foundation bus to challenge HIV stimga

Alan Spink explains why having Martin Fisher, one of the world’s most significant authorities on HIV, acknowledged on the side of a Brighton and Hove bus, is particularly important to him.

I am exhausted from telling people over the past 16 years that I am not a monster, I am not a dirty riddled pervert and I am not a danger to them or anyone else. I am just a normal gay man that acquired a virus at the beginning of the century from another gay man whilst we were enjoying doing what gay men do together.

And don’t deny you do it too, or you used to.

We all do it.

And we enjoy it.

And don’t make out that because you are negative you are somehow better than me, because you are not. We are equal.

The bus is going to be a truly public message about HIV. For many Brightonians, it will be the first message since the falling tombstones of 1986. It will also be the first HIV campaign they can’t ignore since 1986. Especially if they want to get on the Martin Fisher foundation bus.

The bus seeks to educate and to inform. It will be there day in and day out delivering its message to people at bus stops, people in cars passing alongside it, or driving behind it. But best of all to people travelling on it. It doesn’t matter where you sit, upstairs or down, or if you stand, you can’t avoid the message.

HIV isn’t scary anymore.

HIV may not be curable yet, but it’s very controllable. The medication is so effective that one tablet a day is enough to keep the virus at such a low level in our blood (undetectable) that it’s impossible to pass it on to our partners. It’s so effective that people that are positive and ‘undetectable’ can have families in the same way as people who are negative. Like it or not, that’s the truth. You can argue or justify your reluctance to accept this, but in the face of proven science, your opinion is nothing more than opinion or prejudice. Not a nice word, but that’s what it is.

If you ask someone if they are “clean” and then reject them when you don’t like the answer, you are prejudiced. Get on the bus and educate yourself.

But that is not the only reason the bus is important to me. We owe the people who have lived with HIV for over 25 years some form of acknowledgement, a kind of apology, some reparation even. These people survived the worst of the epidemic, they came through horrific times wondering when it would be their turn to die. They trialled toxic drugs that sometimes contributed to premature death. They suffered dreadful illnesses many of which they still bear the scars of and they are still here. They suffered the worst of stigma and ostracisation that our society threw at them, and they are still here. But many of them are invisible to you. They have been so hurt by society that they don’t come out.

What about them?

What can we do for them?

What should we do for them?

Well, this bus contains a few subtle messages for them.

They trialled the drugs that made them ill.

They suffered terrible side effects.

All of which was in the course of scientific research which has brought us to where we are now. We have our Anti Retro Viral drugs that give us a “normal” life, a “normal” life expectancy and the ability to function “normally” and have a family, should we desire. All on only one tablet a day.

We need to salute these men and women and we need to say a huge thank you for going through what they went through and for not giving up, and for getting us to where we are today. We need to look after and care for these people, because without them many more people probably would have died, and many more people would be living with HIV.

The Martin Fisher foundation bus acknowledges their existence and what they went through. We should welcome the bus and let it help bring Brighton & Hove towards a state of Zero HIV Stigma and Zero new cases of HIV.

Our message to the good people of Brighton and Hove is simple.

Get Tested

Get Treated

Live Well.

The Martin Fisher Foundation was founded in 2015 to take forward the work of Professor Martin Fisher by continuing to promote Martin’s ethos of treating people living with HIV with dignity, compassion and respect.

The charity will be celebrating the launch of the Professor Martin Fisher bus on Saturday, October 5 between 1pm and 3pm on Hove seafront by the Peace Statue. Everyone is welcome to attend.

To have the opportunity to be one of the first people to take a ride on the bus, click here:

The charity’s vision is to eliminate new HIV cases within a generation by increasing HIV testing, through improving knowledge of HIV, increasing availability PrEP and reducing HIV stigma in Brighton and Hove.

Follow the charity’s work and get involved:

Twitter @MartinFisherFo1

By Alan Spink
HIV+ for 16 years.
Still happy, still healthy.

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/themartinfisherfoundation/

Website https://www.themartinfisherfoundation.org/

BLAGSS tennis tournament attracts 36 players

BLAGSS tennis group held a round robin tennis tournament on Sunday August 11 at Hove Park Tennis Alliance, Hove Park with thirty six players taking part in doubles matches.

THE levels of the players ranged from tennis virgins to Park league standard. All matches were well grouped according to tennis standard which resulted in some excellent and exciting games.

The highest score of the round robin was achieved by Raffaela Kurz (ladies) and Matthew Morgan (mens).

BLAGSS tennis group is a sports and social group that has around 450 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members from across Brighton and Hove, Sussex and beyond.

BLAGSS members come in all different shapes, sizes, ages and abilities and participate in sports as varied as badminton, tennis, squash, golf, table tennis, running, tenpin bowling, football and cycling.

The tennis group was one of the original sports when BLAGSS started in 1997. It is a successful and friendly group with about 45 players in total who play tennis twice a week throughout the year, every Wednesday and Sunday from 11am to 1pm, weather permitting on the outdoor court at Hove Park tennis alliance.

They play short sets of doubles and some singles and then mix teams around with new partners and opponents so everyone gets variety, the chance to play against others of the same standard or higher.

John Moore
John Moore

John Moore, the chair of BLAGSS, presented the trophies to the winners and runners ups, congratulating the winners and organisers of the tournament for putting on such a great event.

The day ended with a picnic for over 40 players and their friends. Apparently Paul’s egg and cress sandwiches went down a treat at the picnic. The organisers hope to hold the same event the weekend after Pride 2020.

BLAGSS supports the Sussex Beacon who recently promoted their various sports in a window display at the Sussex Beacon store on St. James Street in Kemptown. All BLAGSS members contributed donations to the store.

For information about BLAGSS tennis group or other sports, click here:

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Brighton Bear Weekend announce 10th Anniversary dates for 2020

Brighton Bear Weekend (BBW) reveal dates for next years annual weekend event which will take place from Thursday, June 25, to Sunday June 28, 2020. Mark it in your diaries now as organisers promise it will be the best yet!

Brighton Bear Weekend 2019
Brighton Bear Weekend 2019

NEXT year BBW reaches a milestone and will be celebrating its 10th year fundraising. A full programme of events will be announced closer to the time, with some exciting new experiences being added to old favourites. As always next year’s event is proudly supporting The Brighton Rainbow Fund who give grants to local LGBT+ organisations what deliver effective front line services to LGBT+ people in Brighton and Hove.

Graham Munday
Graham Munday

Graham Munday, Chair of BBW said: “Ten years is an amazing achievement and we plan to celebrate with you all. We are already working away at BBW HQ and have some very exciting developments in the pipeline for the next year. So now is time to organise your accommodation, book those plane tickets, sort out your train routes and don’t forget to book the Monday off work, otherwise, you miss all the fun on Sunday! We are all really looking forward to seeing you here in Brighton and partying with you at the biggest Bear weekend in the country.”

Review: Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus – In time for Pride

The past informs the present – and in the 50th anniversary year of the Stonewall Riots, the Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus offer us a journey through time, stopping at milestone dates and places in LGBT+ history.

ANDREW Farr in fur-collared overcoat and long rainbow scarf is Dr Woohoo- a gay version of the famous time lord who takes a passerby backwards and forwards in his TARDIC – his Time And Relative Dimensions In The Closet machine.

It’s a funny and clever idea and allows the time travellers to visit San Francisco’s Castro District, the Stonewall Inn in New York, The Department of Health in London at the time of the Don’t Die of Ignorance ad campaign in 1986, and finally to their desired destination – the Kylie concert at Brighton Pride 2019.

Chorus Director Joe Paxton has put together a selection of stunning songs showing off not only the power, intensity and subtlety of the chorus but also great talent in depth in its soloists.

The songs are too many to list – some 25 – but there are significant highlights. It’s a show about loss, unrequited love, of farewells, regrets, but also an affirmation of the power of love and understanding.

From the back of a totally blacked-out church, the chorus opens the evening with a stirring and beautifully toned version of I am What I Am, and all the following songs have a resonance that isn’t lost on the audience.

From the upper gallery Andrew Farr sings the full-bodied Streisand classic Before the Parade Passes By – a song on the jukebox at the Stonewall Inn on riot night.

Many of the numbers have an LGBT+ resonance if not a provenance – like ABBA’s Does Your Mother Know You’re Out? And I Left My Heart in San Francisco, but others like Nick Ford’s staggeringly powerful rendition of Conchita Wurst’s Rise Like a Phoenix are a totally uncompromising celebration of being queer.

Ending the first half, the chorus rise to the occasion with Run – a powerful version of Leona Lewis’ song of long goodbyes .

The second half – if it’s possible – exceeds the promise of the first, and outstanding for me was the Myley Cyrus Wrecking Ball and the beautifully written Sondheim classic No One Is Alone.

Bowie’s Warzawa lies underneath a slide show of the choir’s LGBT+ icons – from Alan Turing to Stephen Fry, Sondheim, Fox and Owl Fisher, Sue Sanders and Ellen Page and many more.

The Doctor and his companion finally make it to Pride and so of course the chorus end the show with two Kylie numbers Love Boat and Confide in Me.

Inevitably the audience demanded more and they got it in the shape of a full-blown version of Enough is Enough.

If you miss their second performance on September 21 at St George’s Church, Kemptown, be sure to catch their Christmas offering on December 6 at All Saints Church, Hove. There will also be a few tickets on the door tonight.

For more information about Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus, click here:

Review by Brian Butler

Outspoken: an evening of music and film for Parkersburg Pride

Imagine being sacked from your job or prevented from renting a flat simply because of your sexual orientation or gender identity.

AS there’s no national law in the USA preventing this kind of discrimination, it happens all the time.

Outspoken, will take place on Saturday, October 12, to shine a light on this issue while raising money and awareness for Parkersburg Pride, a group in West Virginia that’s working on the front lines of LGBT+ rights.

The evening will feature the UK premiere of Emily Harger’s brand new documentary Outspoken, a film that calls us to reimagine the power of LGBT+ people in small town America.

Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds
Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds

Top choirs Resound and Rebelles will also perform songs by John Denver and the Dixie Chicks, and they’ll be joined by award-winning folk artist Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds whose Appalachian album Singing It All Back Home was recently named The Guardian’s album of the month.


Event: Outspoken: Celebrating Parkersburg Pride

Where: The Old Courtroom, 118 Church Street, Brighton BN1 1UD

When: Saturday, October 12

Time: 8pm

Cost: £12/£10

To book tickets online, click here:

 

Martlets to host special nurse recruitment day on September 28

Martlets is inviting local registered nurses and healthcare assistants – at all levels of experience – to visit the hospice in Hove for a Recruitment Day on Saturday, September 28, 2019.

THE Recruitment Day will offer nurses the chance to join a dedicated and friendly team working in a rewarding area of healthcare making a real difference to local people living with a life-limiting illness. Martlets nurses provide person-centred holistic care both at the hospice inpatient unit and in the community, spending time with patients and their family and friends giving them the care and support they need in the precious time they have left together.

A range of jobs are available offering full and part-time positions with flexible working hours, transition and career opportunities.

Nurses working for the hospice will be able to develop skills in palliative care in a supportive and fulfilling working environment.

Martlets nurse Teresa Evans said: “I’ve worked here for ten years and I love it because there’s a sense of satisfaction having time and opportunities to give first class care to the patients and their families and every day is different.”

To attend the recruitment day call 01273 273 400 or click here: to book a time slot at either 1pm-2pm or 2pm to 4pm for a tour of the hospice and to meet the Marlets team.

REVIEW: Me and the Girls @The Devonshire Theatre Eastbourne

Me and the Girls is a paradox – a ‘new’ Noel Coward play.

IT is in fact a clever musical adaptation of a short story which the Master wrote on holiday in Jamaica, and published in 1962.

Coward’s dialogue- witty, precise, clipped and often stingingly accurate – shines out of his stage work. But not really out of this confection, created by Richard Stirling.

James Gaddas, well-known to TV addicts and soap fans, is the clapped-out cabaret singer/impresario, stuck in bed in his final days in a Swiss clinic, while he waits to die.

It’s not at first sight a promising idea for a light musical comedy play. And it only really works when the very many bed-based monologues to the audience give way to the routines of the manager’s six blonde bombshells – the girls of the title.

They play sax, violin, trumpet, cello and flute; they sing cutely; they tap their troubles away , and they are easily the best element of the show.

Gaddas makes us like his character George Banks, and it’s not difficult. He displays the dying man’s spirit of being totally at ease with his love of other men, tinged with a slight ache of not having seen his name in lights. He half-sings, half-speaks some of his songs and lets the girls take the strain of doing the dance steps but in If Love Were All, he really hits an emotional chord which soars above the rest of his performance.

All 6 girls are terrific in their little cameo roles but Josephine Brydges as the bouncy, ever-optimistic Sally and Nicola Bryant’s older, acerbic love-lorn Mavis take the acting credits.

Director/choreographer Stewart Nicholls moves the show on at a fair pace and he’s helped by the lack of any scenic effects except the central brightly-lit hospital bed. The dancing owes more to the end of the pier than the Palladium but this is supposed to be a tawdry third-rate touring group so it works well enough.

The musical interludes give us some of Coward’s best musical numbers – not least the laconic Sail Away and the innuendo-filled Chase Me Charlie and Would you like to stick a pin in my balloon daddy ?

When it features the  ‘tits and teeth’ song and dance numbers, the show really is delightful to watch and it would play more effectively in a smaller cabaret-style venue, but as a piece of Coward memorabilia, it is certainly collectible.

Me and the Girls plays at the Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne until Saturday September 21 as part of a UK tour.

Review by Brian Butler

Proud Eden celebrates LGBT+ culture for third year

Proud Eden returns in style to the Eden Project on Saturday September 28 for what promises to be its biggest celebration of LGBT+ culture to date.

THE colourful evening will feature a dazzling mix of top music performances, inspirational spoken artists and unique poetry.

Zak Abel
Zak Abel

Headlining this year’s event is North London singer/songwriter Zak Abel. Zak first gained popularity as the featured artist on Gorgon City’s 2014 hit Unmissable, which reached number 19 on the UK Singles Chart.

His 2018 single Love Song has been streamed more than 15 million times on Spotify and he is featured on Duke Dumont’s new single The Power.

Zak shares the stage with an impressive array of talent, forming a packed evening of entertainment.

Rising transgender singer Shea Freedom is a songwriter with a voice of an angel and lyrics that sing of equality and freedom. Shea describes his music as mixing folk music with hip-hop. Shea will also be hosting a TRANSend 101 workshop.

Grace Savage
Grace Savage

Grace Savage is a Beatboxing champion turned electro-pop artist. Her unique electronic sound and lyrical venom has seen her become a prevalent voice for women in music and wider society.

Lots Holloway
Lots Holloway

Lots Holloway is a Newquay-born multi-instrumentalist artist who creates, writes and produces both emotional and infectious music. Based around guitar and piano, her music is inspired by the sixties and seventies but with a unique and fresh new spin.

Also gracing the stage is Kat Lyons. The Bristol-based poet, performer, storyteller and multiple slam winner mixes serious subjects with a light touch. She explores themes as diverse as mass extinction, ageing, the #metoo movement and grief-induced bad haircuts.

Robert Garnham is a spoken word artist who is bringing his own brand of LGBT- whimsy and humour to audiences across the UK at fringes and festivals, poetry nights and comedy cabarets.

The Beyoncé Experience features international Beyoncé impersonator Aaron Carty. Having wowed the judges on Britain’s Got Talent and becoming a viral smash, Aaron has performed for Pride in London at Trafalgar Square four years in a row.

Benji Matthews is a young male vocalist who in 2017 won acclaim from Simon Cowell for his song-writing abilities when he reached the six-chair challenge on ITV’s X Factor.

Also appearing is critically acclaimed performer MCMC Spoken, also known as Cornish artist Megan Chapman. MCMC Spoken has been a favourite at Proud Eden since day one with her poetry rap, freestyle and spoken word.

A Little Twisted are a female duo from Cornwall who will put their own spin on numerous classic tracks. Their extremely diverse set includes music Alanis Morissette and Bruno Mars.

Completing the bill is Bristol Bi-Poet and spoken word artist, 1990s Chris. His open and honest poems on sexuality have gone down a storm, with BBC New Creatives Project recently commissioning him to create an original series of poems.

Proud Eden will also feature a screening of Ashley Joiner’s ARE YOU PROUD? The documentary brings together rare archive footage and interviews from across a spectrum of campaigners to celebrate the progress that has been achieved by the LGBT+ movement.

Imogen Penny, Eden’s Programme Lead, said: “We wanted to make our third Proud Eden event bigger, bolder and brighter than ever before and we can’t wait to showcase all of the exciting performers taking to the stage this year.”

Tickets for Proud Eden on September 28 are £10 per person. Doors open at 4pm and the event starts at 6pm and no general Eden Project admission ticket is required.

There is adult content at this event so accompanied under-16s are welcome at the discretion of their parent or guardian.

For more information and to buy tickets click here:

LETTER TO EDITOR: Labour must do better say the Greens

I’m horrified to see that Labour has allowed some of the UK’s biggest carbon polluters to host events at this year’s Labour Conference. More surprising is the fact that the party is allowing these companies to do so under the guise of caring about the environment, when nothing could be further from the truth.

Cllr Elaine Hills
Cllr Elaine Hills

HEATHROW Airport is simulating an ‘exclusive airport-style lounge’ in the Sandringham Room at the Hilton Brighton Metropole on September 23-24. The company’s doublethink is staggering: it plans to discuss ‘Parliament’s momentous decision in favour of Heathrow expansion’ while holding a ‘Big Environment Talk’. Heathrow is already the biggest single source of greenhouse gases in the UK, and a third runway will all but blow our chances of meeting our targets for cutting emissions.

So why are Labour, who say they are committed to ‘radically transform economically’ to focus on climate change, making space for events like this to happen?

Meanwhile, BP is hosting a public event along with the New Statesman: ‘Net zero: imagining a decarbonised UK’, at the Hilton on September 24. And there are reports alleging that Shadow Secretary for Business and Energy will be taking  part. As we all know, BP is one of the ‘Big 2’ global oil producers, making its huge profits out of polluting our air by pumping massive amounts of carbon into it daily. The company is responsible for one of the worst environmental disasters in history, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, from which the environment will never recover.

Major fossil fuel companies like BP are hardly role models for tackling climate breakdown.  As Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas, said: “BP and Shell have been barriers to climate action for years. These two fossil fuel dinosaurs are clinging to their out-dated and out-of-touch business models while the climate crisis worsens.” 

Furthermore, while Shell has stated that it plans to take steps to reduce the carbon footprint of the fuel it produces, BP has said taking responsibility for the fuels its customers use would limit the flexibility the company needs.

Does Labour really think that a company with such a blatant disrespect for the natural world is a suitable advocate of good environmental practice and deserves a platform?

By allowing these events to take place, the message Labour is putting out to our biggest polluters is business as usual. As Greens, we know radical transformation to a carbon-zero economy is key to avoiding the most damaging effects or climate change. It is because of the poor practices of companies like these that we need such dramatic action in order to survive.

This is very disappointing – and we expected better from Labour.

Elaine Hills

Green Councillor for Hanover and Elm Grove
on behalf of the Green Group of Councillors, Brighton and Hove City Council

 

Jack Lynn takes to the New Venture stage

Jack Lynn, who sings with the Actually Gay Men’s Chorus and is also one of our photographers here at Gscene, will shortly be appearing in the title role of Gabriel by Moira Buffini at the New Venture Theatre.

JACK is relishing this new string to his bow: “I am enjoying this challenge and the opportunity to work with such a talented group of actors and crew. It is a gripping tale that deftly explores themes of loneliness and belonging, memory and imagination, and the lies people tell themselves to escape the darkness.”

The action takes place in Guernsey in 1943, during an almost forgotten period of our history – the German occupation of The Channel Islands. A young man (Gabriel), naked and barely alive, is washed up on a beach. Believing him to be an RAF pilot he is taken by the women of the Becquet family into their home and hidden… a dangerous and illicit action. As he recovers consciousness it is apparent that he is fluent in both English and German but with no recollection of who he is, who might this mysterious outsider be… and on which side?

The bonds between the women in the Becquet household are complicated – not always easy and set within a community in crisis (the Occupation). The arrival of the young man stirs up all sorts of feelings. The presence of a newly arrived German officer on the Island and the emerging relationship between him and one of the women complicates matters further.

“A fascinating play by a highly original and inventive playwright” wrote an American reviewer of a U.S. production.

The action builds to a tense and dramatic climax.

Gabriel is directed by Gerry McCrudden.


Event: Gabriel by Moira Buffini

Where: New Venture Theatre, Bedford Place, Brighton

When: October 4-12

Time: 7.45pm – Sunday October 6, 2.30pm

Cost: £10

To book tickets online, click here:

Or telephone: 01273 746 118

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