03/12/2019 – Scene Magazine – From the heart of LGBTQ+ Life

Gscene & Royal Pavilion Ice Rink Festive free ticket Competition

Posted on 03/12/2019 by Gscene Editorial Team

In a spirit of festive freebie frostiness Gscene have partnered up with the Royal Pavilion Ice Rink to offer two lucky winners a delightful skating session for free!

One lucky entry will win a magical romantic skate for two at the twinkling Royal Pavilion Ice Rink to be booked on a date of your choice, subject to availability. The other lucky winner can take four friends or a family ticket at the family friendly frosty Royal Pavilion Ice Rink to be booked on a date of your choice again subject to availability.

The south east’s most beautiful Christmas attraction, Brighton’s Royal Pavilion Ice Rink, returns for its 10^th year, powered exclusively by wind and solar energy and is open until 19^th January 2020. Set right in front of Brighton’s iconic royal pleasure palace, the huge 880 square metre rink and separate 130 square metre beginners’ rink are lit magically at night and for many of their visitors, heralding the arrival of Christmas. The main rink offers plenty of space for more confident skaters and the separate beginners’ rink with penguin skate aids provides a safe area for younger skaters to build their confidence.

For those looking to just sit back and soak up the festive atmosphere, there’s no charge for spectating from the toasty warm cosy rink-side Bar & Kitchen or from its 40-metre terrace next to the ice.

The very difficult competition questions are:

For the adult tickets: in what year did British figure skater John Curry OBE become Olympic and World Champion Figure skater?

For the family ticket: What animal are the ice rink skate aids modeled on?

Answers please to info@Gscene.com with ‘Royal Pavilion Ice Rink Festive Freebie’ in the subject line.

Only one entry per question please. Winners will be drawn at random on Friday 13th December and the winner emailed notification.

Gscenes decision is final.

If you’d like to go along and skate -tickets cost from £10 for full price tickets (aged 12 and over), £7 for juniors (under 12) and the one-hour skate times run from 10am to 9.15pm daily. Children under five can skate for free in all off -peak sessions when accompanied on the ice by an adult paying full price. There are also great multiticket offers for those who want to skate regularly and concessions for students. The box office is open from 9.30am to 9.45am, but it is advisable to book tickets in advance.

Find out more at www.royalpavilionicerink.co.uk.

Brighton charity, Same Sky, invites local support to help keep the much-loved winter solstice event running

Posted on 03/12/201902/12/2019 by Eric Page

Brighton charity, Same Sky, invites local support to help keep the much-loved winter solstice event running

Brighton charity Same Sky launched their crowdfunder and the theme for Burning the Clocks 2019, offering exclusive rewards to raise £6.5k to help fund the event.

The annual event will take place at 6.30pm on Saturday 21 December 2019, starting with a parade which runs from New Road to the seafront. The event’s organisers are expecting around 20,000 spectators to attend with 2,000 people taking part in the parade.

Burning the Clocks has a unique theme every year and this year it is a reflective one, in response to the current challenges of global warming, community cohesion and migration. The title is taken from Marcel Proust’s masterpiece “A la recherche du temps perdu”. The theme relates to shared memories, lost things, things we want to keep and treasure and moments that we hold dear and that have “made us”. Above all how we all have a common humanity forged by sharing our lives, loves and memories.

The crowdfunder rewards people with different prizes based on the size of their donation, including personalised lanterns for the parade, limited-edition prints and many gifts from local restaurants and businesses. Donors can also receive VIP passes to watch the event from a prime location on the beach. More info on these deals here:

Same Sky is offering 30 personalised lanterns to crowdfunders who donate £55 or more, which will be decorated with a word of their choice. These also come with two VIP wristbands, allowing donors to bring friends and loved ones with them.

The event will also be supported by a range of restaurants from across the city, offering dining experiences for people donating between £105 and £155. These include Chilli Pickle, Kooks, Terre a Terre, Moshimo and The Ivy in the Lanes. Brighton Dome is also offering four tickets to the ‘Super Sunday’ Christmas show to the person that donates £135 or more.

This year will be local artist Graham Carter’s seventh year creating original prints for Burning the Clocks. To celebrate, Graham has created 30 limited edition prints to people that donate £85 or more. These include A2 giclee prints representing this years’ theme ‘Temps Perdu’.

Local restaurant, The Chilli Pickle, is also sponsoring the event, adding a donation of £1 to every table bill up until 21 December, which will go towards helping Same Sky reach their fundraising target for this year’s Burning the Clocks.

Burning the Clocks receives no guaranteed funding, and relies on fundraising and the support of local businesses to raise the costs needed to run the event. Onlookers watching the parade are asked to contribute funds to donation buckets to help secure the future of the event.

John Varah, Same Sky artistic director said “Our crowdfunder for Burning the Clocks is essential to keep this event alive, as it costs over £30,000 to produce each year and doesn’t receive any guaranteed funding. We’ve been overwhelmed in the past with support from the public who make donations along the route and this is also crucial to cover the growing costs for this fabulous winter parade and celebration on Winter Solstice.

“I’d like to encourage anyone who wants to join us on the parade, or anyone who has enjoyed it in the past, to take a look at some of our new prizes on offer this year. I’d like to say a huge personal thank you to all of the local restaurants and organisations who have donated prizes to help us raise crucial funding.”

As in previous years, Brighton residents can purchase lantern kits to take part in the parade. Lantern kits cost £30 to £33 and contain materials, and four wristbands for people to take part in the parade. These will in stores to purchase t the Brighton Pavilion shop, HISBE supermarket in York Place and Book Nook in Hove.

Check out the Facebook site where you can also order the kits and find more information.

Christian evangelical backlash to LGBTQ Sex and Relationship Education.

Posted on 03/12/201903/12/2019 by Gscene Editorial Team

British Christian evangelical organisation backlash to LGBTQ Sex and Relationship Education.

The chief executive of Christian Concern, Andrea Williams, has told The Times that Stonewall’s inclusive guidance for LGBTQ inclusive relationships education, was shielding a “manipulative agenda aimed brazenly at our youngest and most impressionable” She went on to state that the proposed curriculum was “deeply subversive” and called for it to be scrapped.

Williams’ comments come less than a week after a judge in Birmingham permanently banned anti LGBTQ education protests outside schools in the city, protests largely led by parents of Islamic faith.

According to Stonewall, 45 per cent of LGBTQ school pupils are bullied – and the campaign group believes this would be less likely to happen if other children are taught about these issues.

The comments from Christian Concern landed just ahead of reports from parents at two Jewish Orthodox secondary schools claiming the schools are pressuring parents to remove children from such lessons which become mandatory for state schools in September 2020, known as RSE.

In emails sent to the BBC Victoria Derbyshire programme Lubavitch Senior Girls’ School in north London – has written to parents asking them to prevent RSE classes. The email sent by the school and shared with the BBC by a parent states:

“the government is making the subject mandatory in September 2020. However, parents have the right to opt out. Please exercise your right to prevent it being taught by responding to this email and saying that you do not wish your daughters to receive lessons in RSE.”

Another parent reported that despite agreeing with RSE as a necessary part of her daughter’s education, she had done as the school asked for if she did not, she feared she would be ostracised by her religious community and thought of as not Jewish. Both schools reported to the Derbyshire programme are state funded.

Stonewall has issued guidance to primary schools stating that children should be taught about lesbian, gay and transgender issues in every subject from the age of five with the aim of tackling bullying. Stonewall issued the guidance to coincide with the launch of new relationships and sex education (RSE) lessons that begin next September, and whilst parents are allowed to remove their children from sex education lessons ones covering relationships are compulsory. Sex education is not taught at primary age but the relationships component of RSE is.

In its materials, Stonewall include quotes from children who have been left disappointed in their schools for not teaching about LGBT issues.

The London schools named by the BBC have described accusations of parental coercion as false.

The accusations come hot on the heels of the ultra orthodox Judge Gavriel Krausz describing LGBT relationships as an “abomination” just two weeks ago. He stated that people of the Jewish faith should “give up their lives” rather than follow new government guidelines to teach children about LGBTQ relationships

Krausz’s comments have been condemned by Jewish and LGBTQ organisations alike. RSE education for state funded schools becomes part of the curriculum in September 2020.

Christian Concern is the trading name of CCFON Ltd, a British Christian evangelical organisation in the United Kingdom which seeks to introduce a more conservative Christian voice into law, the media and Government. Williams is reported on record as stating that the Human Fertilisation Bill was “the work of the devil”, that homosexuality is sinful, that abortion should be illegal, and that the world is just 4,000 years old.