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International study on Covid-19’s effects on sleep

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An international group of researchers led by Professor Colin Espie from the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford is investigating the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on sleep and daily rhythms in adults.

Sleep is at the heart of physical and mental health. It is essential for tissue repair, cell regeneration, immune functioning, memory functioning and consolation, and for the regulation of daytime emotion. When people are sleep deprived or develop a persistent sleep disorder, the consequences include loss of energy, sleepiness, impaired concentration and memory, and disturbed mood. Inadequate sleep has been associated with increased risk of hypertension and type 2 diabetes, and risk of developing anxiety or depression.

This study will look at changes in sleep quality in relation to social confinement such as a national lockdown or self-isolation, risk of exposure to the virus, and psychological symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress. Researchers aim to understand how sleep problems have emerged, and to investigate how sleep during Covid-19 has interacted with lifestyle, health and wellbeing.

Professor Espie says: ‘Particularly in times of high stress and disrupted daily routines, sleep is all the more important for our health and overall wellbeing. Sufficient good quality sleep helps us cope, so it’s worrying to see trends of poor sleep during this pandemic. We are hoping to study this development in more detail with this nationwide survey. I’m delighted to be leading this initiative. The results from this study will help us not only understand the challenges, but also to figure out solutions to keep the population well-slept and healthy.’

Click here to learn more or take part in the study.

Heart Research UK help you choose a healthier takeaway

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Helen Flaherty, Head of Health Promotion at Heart Research UK, a charity which inspires and invests in pioneering medical research, ground-breaking training and education, and in communities to improve their heart health, shares her top tips to help you make good choices when ordering a takeaway…

The number of takeaway food outlets has risen in recent years and this may have contributed to the rise in rates of obesity in the UK. Takeaway food is often cheap, convenient and tasty, but it also tends to be high in fat, salt and sugar.

Regularly consuming takeaways can have a negative impact on your heart health as well as your waistline. Swapping your usual takeaway for a healthier option may be a good way to cut down on fat, salt and sugar. We have some tips to guide you on choosing healthier takeaways.

Choose a food outlet that has healthy options on the menu

Compare the menus for takeaway food outlets and try to choose one that provides some healthier options. Some takeaway food outlets list calories on their menus and this can help you to make a healthier choice.

Choose wisely from the menu

Try to avoid foods that are deep fried, such as fish in batter, chips and fried chicken. Swap large deep-pan pizzas and pizzas with stuffed crusts for smaller pizzas. Select lower fat pizza toppings, such as mushrooms, peppers, sweetcorn, chicken and ham, rather than pepperoni or extra cheese, which are both high in fat.

Keep an eye on portion size

Be careful not to buy too much food when ordering your takeaway. Instead of ordering starters, mains, sides and desserts, why not just have a main course and finish off with some fruit and yoghurt. You could share a dish or freeze a portion of your takeaway for another time to avoid eating too much.

Make your own ‘Fakeaway’ at home

Try making healthier versions of your favourite takeaway dishes at home by finding healthy recipes online. If you can’t live without your favourite takeaway dish, you could try swapping side dishes, such as chips, garlic bread, fried rice or naan bread for brown rice or wholemeal pitta bread that you prepare at home.

Think about what you drink

Rather than buying sugary drinks with your takeaway, try drinking tap water or low calorie drinks instead. If you usually have alcoholic drinks with your takeaway, try to reduce the amount you consume by having a glass of water in between each alcoholic drink and try to choose drinks that have a lower alcohol content. Not only will this reduce your calorie intake, but it may also reduce the cost.

For more healthy tips, recipes and info, visit: www.heartresearch.org.uk

London GLF veterans to mark 50 years on Saturday, June 27

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Whilst this year’s Pride in London parade has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, veterans from the London Gay Liberation Front (GLF) 1970-74, including Peter Tatchell, will march on the same day, along the same route, that the official Pride Parade was due to follow on Saturday, June 27 at 1pm from outside the BBC in Portland Place W1.
On the march, ex-GLF marchers, some in their 70s, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the London GLF, and will wear face masks and ensure social distancing.
The march, which will follow the planned official Pride route down Regent Street, Piccadilly Circus and Haymarket to Trafalgar Square, will comprise only of elderly GLF veterans and is not open to the wider LGBTQ+ community in order to ensure compliance with the Covid-19 regulations and to protect the health of vulnerable at-risk veterans from the early 1970s. There will be a small group of chosen supporters to give the GLF veterans back-up.
The GLF march organiser, Peter Tatchell, was one of about 40 people who helped organise the UK’s first Pride march in London in 1972. He has attended every Pride in London parade since then. This will be his 49th.
Peter Tatchell, who is now Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, said: ‘Homophobia did not defeat us, so we’re not going to let the Covid-19 pandemic stop Pride. We GLF veterans confronted anti-LGBT+ bigots 50 years ago. We faced down police harassment, far right extremists and homophobic political and religious leaders. We are marching as Pride was planned, with face masks and social distancing.
‘We support Black Lives Matter and the just demands of black communities, just as we did in the early 1970s.
‘GLF did not seek equal rights within a flawed, unjust status quo. It campaigned for the transformation of society to end straight supremacism and stood in solidarity with all other oppressed communities. This same agenda of radical social transformation is needed now as the UK faces the quadruple whammy of Covid-19, economic meltdown, endemic racism and climate destruction.’
See here more info on the Peter Tatchell Foundation: 

OutRight: “a despicable move by Trump Administration”

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OutRight Action International has reacted to a Department of Health and Human Services ruling in the United States, which effectively erases protection from discrimination based on gender identity by doctors, hospitals and health insurance companies.

The organisation, which works at a global, regional and national level to eradicate the persecution, inequality and violence lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) people face around the world, say this is one of numerous efforts of the Trump administration to restrict the definition of gender to one of biological sex, and thus erase multiple protections for trans people put in place under the Obama administration.

A press release issued by the Department of Health and Human Services highlights that the department will be ‘returning to the government’s interpretation of sex discrimination according to the plain meaning of the word ‘sex’ as male or female and as determined by biology.’ Jessica Stern, Executive Director of OutRight Action International, said: ‘This is an absolutely despicable move by the Trump Administration. Erasing protection from discrimination in healthcare for trans people during Pride month, when the spotlight shines on equality for LGBTQ+ people, cannot be a coincidence.

‘It is a direct attack on the basic rights of trans people, it marks a step backwards for gender justice, and stands in stark contrast to international human rights standards. Countries as diverse as Pakistan, Uruguay and Portugal have taken strides in recognising trans identities and codifying protections against discrimination in law in recent years.

‘OutRight unequivocally condemns this callous move. Trans rights are human rights. There can be no debate about it.’

To see the full release, click here.

For more info on OutRight Action International, click here.

Hair Off? Sab Samuel to shave off his locks for Mermaids

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Sab Samuel from Drag Queen Story Hour UK has pledged to shear off his lovely locks to raise at least £1,000 of vital funds for Mermaids, the British charity and advocacy organisation that supports gender variant and transgender youth.

Sab, who has raised £260 at the time of writing, says: ‘Hi there, my name is Sab Samuel and I run Drag Queen Story Hour UK. I am pledging to shave off my beautiful long hair if we can all raise £1,000 in two months! Please help this cause!”‘

You have till Tuesday, August 25 to donate.

To donate, hop over to Sab’s gofundme page 

More info on Mermaids.

For more info on Drag Queen Story Hour UK.

Russia: LGBT Artist Faces Jail

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An LGBT artist in Russia has been charged with distributing pornography after posting drawings of vaginas on a body positive social media site. Yulia Tsvetkova, 27, has been under house arrest from November 2019 until March in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Khabarovsk, East Russia. Yulia told Russian media this week that the authorities are now pressing charges. ”The charge has been brought after six months of investigations. I`m now officially charged with the distribution of pornography. With criminal intent and other particularly grave charges” she said on her Facebook page. “I’m, as never before, ready to go all the way, to fight until the very last. I’ve never felt stronger.”Yulia faces six years in jail on the pornography charges for posting to her site, Vagina Monologues. Yulia has previously said that she believes that the authorities are using the pornography charge as a pretext for cracking down on LGBT activists because it is easy to pin on people and carries a long sentence. Her arrest prompted an online flash mob where artists posted pictures of vaginas.

Yulia has previously been fined 50,000 roubles (approx. £572) in Russia over charges relating to a controversial law prohibiting LGBT propaganda towards minors. Yulia has hosted lectures for the LGBT community and run classes on sex education which is banned in Russian schools. Amnesty International has taken up her case, saying she is a prisoner of conscience and that the case against her is absurd. Yulia has received death threats and she requested that  the police investigate. The request was denied and she was warned not to “abuse her right of contacting the police.”

 

Russia decriminalised homosexuality in 1993 but homophobia is widely practised making Russia an often dangerous place to be LGBT.

Amnesty is campaigning to have Yulia released and the charges dropped, you can support her here

Council announce limited lifeguard service

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Brighton & Hove City Council (BHCC) has announced a limited seasonal beach lifeguard service, adapted to take into account the Covid-19 restrictions, will run from Saturday, June 13 until Sunday, September 6, 11am-6pm.

Lifeguards normally patrol the city’s beaches from the end of May until the end of the school holidays in September. However, the Covid-19 pandemic and social-distancing restrictions interrupted the usual recruitment drive for lifeguards, which meant adapting the service to ensure all seafront staff and public are kept safe from the virus. On a practical basis this has limited the number of beaches that can be lifeguarded safely and reduced the number of available lifeguards.

BHCC, which has taken into account social distancing and introduced increased hygiene procedures and cleaning of equipment, has recruited 29 seasonal beach lifeguards and a further 15 will undertake an induction process in the near future.

There will be a lifeguarded bathing area on Brighton central beach and another in Hove near the King Alfred Leisure Centre. The lifeguard patrol boat will provide an emergency response, enforce byelaws for motorised vessels and monitor outlying areas.

The bathing areas have been selected where there is the highest footfall and access to facilities for both staff and public. The bathing zones will be larger than usual to accommodate physical distancing while in the water and each location will have two lifeguard posts. Each beach will have two seafront officers on quad bike to support the lifeguards in emergency response.

Extra signage has been put in place to indicate where the lifeguarded zones are with further safety information within these areas.

Councillor Carmen Appich, chair of the Tourism, Equalities, Communities and Culture committee, said: ‘The Covid-19 pandemic has created enormous challenges for the seafront team and they have been using their expertise to develop a seasonal lifeguard service aimed at keeping staff and the public safe from the virus.

‘The team have developed new procedures for water rescues, first aid and life support techniques. This is a huge challenge given the need to maintain social distancing and increase cleaning regimes.

‘Lifeguarding on the beach is already a significant challenge due to the nature of the role in a difficult environment and it is simply not possible to operate the lifeguard service as in previous years.

‘There are no official national procedures for running a lifeguard service during a pandemic, so we are in new territory. The absolute priority is to reduce risk and keep people safe. We urge the public to help the team by behaving responsibly on the beach and in the sea.’

For more additional info, click here. 

Black Lives Matter protest event Brighton seafront, tomorrow

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Organisers have announced there will be a safe, silent, social distanced Black Lives Matter protest held on Brighton’s Madeira Drive on Saturday 13th June for 1pm. This event is before the main protest which is planned for outside the Pier at 13:30pm.

The ‘safe’ protest is going on tomorrow, it will be appropriately socially distanced and silent. 1pm,  Madeira Drive, Brighton.

There will be a designated families and disabled people area. Facemask wearing is mandatory. Please listen to the stewards.

Please ensure you take extra care to observe social distancing and this is best understood by carefully following all signs and directions from the stewards on duty.

The event is described as a ‘peaceful silent protest’ with no chanting or shouting and people or asked to take care not to group together. People are encouraged to bring banners or hand made signs in support of the event.

The organisers urged that if the protestors have symptoms of COVID-19 then to stay at home and do not attend.

It comes after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked a surge of protests across the globe.

You can learn more about the UK’s fully inclusive  Black Lives Matter movement here

Read here for some ideas on how you can learn to be a better, and more effective LGBTQ ally.

 

This is a very good youtube broadcast from 2018 by the University of Washington professor Dr. Robin DiAngelo who reads from her book “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,”

Her bestselling book explains the phenomenon, and discusses how white people can develop their capacity to engage more constructively across race.

NAT comment: ‘HIV markers still used by English Police’

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National Aids Trust

Following today’s announcement from Police Scotland, spearheaded by HIV Scotland, National AIDS Trust (NAT) has highlighted that the practice of recording HIV status within a ‘contagious’ indicator are still being used in England and other parts of the UK, and they are pushing for this to change.

Kat Smithson, Director of Policy at National AIDS Trust, said: ‘Markers do nothing to protect police officers, but feed misconceptions about HIV and the idea that people living with HIV are ‘contagious’. We welcome Scotland’s Police Service decision to no longer hold information about a person’s HIV status. This is significant, but long overdue. 

‘We urge forces in other parts of the UK to also come to the same view that these markers breach data protection law and take steps to ensure that information about a person’s HIV status is removed across the force’s systems. 

‘We are aware in England that there are markers on the police national computer and the systems used by individual forces to label HIV and other blood borne viruses, often without proof of a person’s medical condition. Forces have the power to record if a person refers to HIV as part of a threat of harm, regardless of their status or whether there was actually risk of transmission, which there is not in the vast majority of cases. This is not justified, and we know from our discussions with police officers that HIV status is often recorded in other unnecessary circumstances.’

For more information on NAT, visit: www.nat.org.uk

Police Scotland stop labelling HIV as ‘contagious’

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HIV Scotland has been successful in forcing Police Scotland to halt their practice of recording HIV status on the Scottish Intelligence Database (SID) within a ‘contagious’ indicator, believing it to be a fundamental breach of human rights, data protection legislation and contrary to modern medical science.

The charity, which makes sure people living with and those affected by HIV have their say on the issues that matter, were alerted to this from a whistle-blower, who informed them of the way intelligence is gathered, coded and registered against people living with HIV.

HIV Scotland’s Chief Executive, Nathan Sparling, wrote to Police Scotland’s Chief Constable, Iain Livingstone in March to ask if Police Scotland hold information regarding an individual’s HIV status on the SID. Furthermore, the letter asked if this information was stored under an ‘infectious’ marker.

In a response dated March 20, 2020, Assistant Chief Constable Alan Speirs wrote to confirm that an indicator for ‘contagious’ was applied to nominals who are classed as contagious through ‘any intelligence received’, which includes HIV status. The letter confirmed that this indicator was currently being added to nominals who have HIV. The Assistant Chief Constable went on to say, ‘having identified this practice, and in line with current policy on the Criminal History System (CHS) and the Police National Computer (PNC) where HIV is not recorded, I have instructed that this is immediately reviewed.’

In a new letter received by HIV Scotland on June 10, 2020, Police Scotland confirmed that a review had taken place, which has resulted in Police Scotland amending its practice and policy and now ‘no longer records HIV status on SID within the contagious indicator field.’

Whilst HIV Scotland welcome this news, they believe many questions remain:

  • Will Police Scotland proactively remove information about someone’s HIV status from the intelligence database?
  • Will Police Scotland review activity that has led to people living with HIV being targeted or discriminated against because of their HIV status?
  • What training has been provided to officers from constable to higher ranks to ensure that any knowledge intelligence – information that is known to officers but not stored in SID – is not used to discriminate against people?
  • Can Police Scotland clarify why the information was retained in the first place, and if not, will they refer themselves to the Information Commissioner’s Office?

Nathan Sparling, Chief Executive of HIV Scotland, said: ‘We happened upon this practice by chance. We have uncovered a systematic issue that could have impacted the lives of people living with HIV. It begs the question – what other information is stored about us on the Scottish Intelligence Database and what relevance does it have to the Police?

‘People could have had intelligence stored on SID regardless of their HIV status, but simply because they were perceived to have HIV. We hope that Police Scotland will not stop at simply reviewing and changing current practice but look at what the impact could have been on individuals and ensure Officers have access to up-to-date information about the modern-day realities of HIV.

‘Because that reality is that many people living with HIV who are on treatment cannot pass it on to their sexual partners, and the risk of transmission through other routes is significantly reduced. This is due to treatment being so effective that it reduces levels of the virus to a level that is undetectable in the blood.

‘People living with HIV should no longer be the victim of decades-old stigma. Systemic issues must be rooted out, and we are glad that in this case we have uncovered an issue, and that it has been acted on. These questions need answers, and we will continue to campaign to ensure systems change for the better.’

HIV Scotland is asking anyone who may feel like they have been inappropriately targeted or discriminated against by the police because of their HIV status to email info@hiv.scot or 01315583713.

For more info on HIV Scotland, visit: www.hiv.scot

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