Camden LGBT Forum Update
November 24th 2011
Hello Forum Members!
The next Forum meeting will take place on Tuesday 6th December, Committee Rm 2, Camden Town Hall, Judd Street from 6.00pm.
If there are any items that Forum members would like raised on the agenda, for example news items featured in the newsletter, ideas, events etc, please email the forum on forum.admin@camdenlgbtforum.org.uk. If you have any information you would like adding to the next newsletter – do let us know.
Lou, Peter & Tessa
!!!Stop Press!!!
We still have a few places left for “Stamping Your Identity”
Tuesday 6th December | 2pm – 4pm | The British Museum, Great Russell Street
Camden LGBT Forum in partnership with the British Museum, are hosting a one day ceramic workshop inspired by the Grayson Perry’s exhibition – The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman. This practical workshop will be run by Duncan Hooson using clay and plaster to create a ceramic interpretation of ‘who you are’ or ‘who you would like to be’.
Participants will be asked to undertake some homework prior to the workshop. During the day, their design will be carved into a plaster stamp at the workshop. This will be used to press into clay medallions as repeated designs.
If you wish to apply, please contact the Forum ASAP – places are first come, first served and that the Forum will provide the full brief before the workshop.
To book your place, please email forum.admin@camdenlgbtforum.org.uk or telephone: 0207 470 8760
CONTENTS
Local Events and Opportunities
- Camden LGBT Evening Frolic! (CLEF) at The Constitution Pub
- Volunteering Opportunity – Forum Ambassadors
- Drill Hall Listings
- Training Course: A Guide to Working From Home
National Community News
- BBC newsreader Jane Hill confirms plans for civil partnership
- Liverpool church which “helps people out of homosexuality” linked to “home exorcisms”
- Hampshire police appeal after anti-gay, racist group attack
- Celebrity fitness instructor Angie Dowds dies after cliff fall
- Trans woman will be first to stand for Scottish council elections
International Community News and Events
- Lithuanian lesbians send handwritten postcards to every MP
- Mugabe calls UK’s human rights-dependent aid arrangement “satanic”
- High HIV rates in the Bahamas blamed on homophobia
- Peruvian mayor concerned tap water “will turn town gay”
- US lesbian couple “unsure whether to file complaint” over refused wedding cake
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Local Events and Opportunities
Camden LGBT Evening Frolic! (CLEF) at The Constitution Pub
Monday 28th November 2011 | 7.00pm -11-00pm | Constitution Pub, 42 St Pancras Way NW1 0QT
This evening sees CLEF welcoming the fabulous Holly Hayes (performance artist working with maths, the internet, music and words) and Catherine Brogan (winner of the BBC Edinburgh Fringe Poetry Slam 2011 and host of Incite! poetry) on stage at the Constitution.
Come and join us for an evening of frivolity, drinks and fun. Meet other LGBT people from Camden and find out about Camden LGBT Forum’s plans for exciting future events
Please note; the bar is partially accessible from the canal entrance but only after 7pm.
For more information, please telephone 0207 470 8760 or email forum.admin@camdenlgbtforum.org.uk or visit: https://www.facebook.com/camdenlgbtforum
Volunteering Opportunity – Forum Ambassadors
Would you like to spend an evening talking to LGBT people in Camden at your local LGBT venue or LGBT group about the Forum? We need to let as many people as possible know about the support we can offer and how to report hate crime, harassment and discrimination. This crucial role helps get the message out that LGBT people don’t have to put up with hate crime, harassment and discrimination and gives them information about how to make a report (including completely anonymously if wanted) and in confidence to the Forum.
This is a sociable role; you get to chat with some great people in Camden about what we are doing, find out what they are doing and how we can help. All volunteers receive an induction and on the job training as well the opportunity to develop other skills.
For more information, please contact the forum on 020 7470 8760 or 07798 705 324 or email forum.admin@camdenlgbtforum.org.uk
Drill Hall Listings
Tuesday 29th November 2011 | 1.00pm-3.00pm, 5.00pm-7.00pm | 16 Chenies Street WC1E 7EX
LAMDA: Twelfth Night
“If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken and so die.”
Shipwrecked upon the shores of Illyria, the beautiful Viola soon finds herself entangled in a web of mistaken identity and unrequited passion.
Considered one of Shakespeare’s greatest comedies, Twelfth Night is a captivating tale of love, ambition, pride and cross-dressing.
For more information and booking: Up to six tickets to any performance can be booked free of charge, but are encouraged to make a donation to LAMDA. Groups of seven or more will be charged £10 per ticket (with exception of schools and youth groups, who will not be charged).
For group bookings, please contact LAMDA on 0844 847 0550 (Mon-Fri 12pm-5pm) or email boxoffice@lamda.org.uk
Training course: A Guide to Working From Home
15th December, 10.00am – 1.00pm, 26th January, 10.00am – 1.00pm | Somers Town Community Association, 150 Ossulston Street, London, NW1 1EE
This training is specifically designed for people who are:
- Planning to start working from home or out of the office
- Supporting or managing remote workers
- In a more senior role & exploring working from outside of the office one or more days per week
- Looking to find out more about the advantages and disadvantages of remote working
Community & Voluntary Sector/ not-for-profit organisations £45.00 Private & statutory groups £125.00 For more information please contact: Ashley Adkins admin@openpathways.org.uk – 0208 1234 246
National Community News
BBC newsreader Jane Hill confirms plans for civil partnership
Newsreader Jane Hill has announced on Twitter that she will enter into a civil partnership with her partner, Sara. Hill, 42, who came out publicly in 2009, has worked as a newsreader on the BBC’s 24-hour channel for 14 years.
She wrote on Twitter: “Yes, Sara & I are getting hitched.” She added: “Still a bit shocked I think! (and hungover).”
Liverpool church which “helps people out of homosexuality” linked to “home exorcisms”
The Frontline Church, Liverpool, which runs courses “helping Christian men and women out of homosexuality” has been described as being part of the “Dark Ages”. The church’s courses are connected to the American LIFE Ministry, whose website instructs gay readers on home “exorcism”.
A document published on the Liverpool church’s website claimed people became gay as a result of “pain in childhood”. The Homosexuality Fact Sheet, now removed from its website, included instructions on spotting people “struggling with homosexuality”. The church said women “women may appear and dress in a more masculine way” and “men may appear somewhat effeminate, although this is not always the case”. Church bosses today conceded the statements were “simplistic”, but denied homophobia. They added they believed “the ways a person chooses to express their sexuality can change”. The church claimed to have had success with some congregation members.
Prime Minister David Cameron and Nick Clegg have both “met staff to discuss grass roots issues in Liverpool”, according to the Frontline Trust’s accounts. In a statement, the church said: “Liverpool LIFE Ministry is an internal pastoral support group for Frontline Church members who have requested extra support around their own sexuality.’
Conversion therapy has been criticised by the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Psychiatry and the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy. The Royal College of Psychiatry has said: “There is no sound scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed.” The national Lesbian and Gay Foundation’s Andrew Gilliver said: “The issues about ‘childhood pain’ are nonsense. The pain is often caused by people who don’t understand what they’re going through. We are born gay, but we learn prejudice. This is Dark Ages stuff.”
Hampshire police appeal after anti-gay, racist group attack
Police in Hampshire are appealing for witnesses after a man and a woman were attacked by a group on men in Gosport. A 28-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman were followed by three men along Gordon Road in Gosport at around 1.30 on the morning of 5 November. At the junction with Bury Road, they made homophobic comments to the man before two of them knocked him to the ground. He was kicked and punched. The 19-year-old was racially abused before the pair escaped. The man was left with cuts and bruises, and the woman was not hurt.
One of the men was white, about 21, with short ginger hair which was shaved at the side and spiked on top. He had blond eyelashes and eyebrows and wore a white tracksuit with blue reflective strips down the arms and legs. The second man was white, around 19 years old, with short, dark hair in a bobbed style. He wore dark jeans and a buttoned-up shirt. The third man was between 17 and 20 years old, with long, dark hair. He wore a green and black checked shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
Anyone with information should call PC Tina Abrams Fareham CID on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Celebrity fitness instructor Angie Dowds dies after cliff fall
Reports have emerged that gay celebrity fitness instructor Angie Dowds has died after falling from a cliff on the south cost of England. Her body was found on Sunday by police at Beachy Head, near Eastbourne in Sussex. Dowds is believed to have separated from her partner, Corrie Preece, earlier this year. They had been intending to enter into a civil partnership.
Since 2005, she had appeared on the ITV weight-loss challenge programme The Biggest Loser. Davina McCall, who worked with Dowds on the ITV programme, tweeted “Rest in peace Angie Dowds @angechops. So so sad.”
A Sussex Police spokesman said: “Just after 4.30pm on Sunday, members of the public reported that a woman was seen to jump or fall from the top of cliffs at Beachy Head. Coastguards found the body of woman at the foot of the cliffs about an hour later. There are no suspicious circumstances.”
Trans woman will be first to stand for Scottish council elections
A social worker and former police officer is set to become Scotland’s first transgender election candidate. Carol Mapley plans to contest the Castle Douglas and Glenkens seat 2012 council elections, the Dumfries & Galloway Standard reports. The 53-year-old said: “I want to raise the profile of trans-genders, lesbians and gays. We are pretty marginalised. Society is more accepting of gays than transgenders. I want to bring people out of the shadows. There are 14 and 15-year-olds out there who are scared to be who they really are because they fear being picked on. ’ve been there. I know what it feels like – and attitudes need to change.”
She is the Labour Party’s UK transgender officer and said that while her party had been supportive, she wanted to challenge the views of others.
International Community News and Events
Lithuanian lesbians send handwritten postcards to every MP
Gay, bisexual and trans women in Lithuania have written postcards to all the country’s MPs with the slogan, “Let’s speak”. The female contingent of Lithuania’s LGBT population is severely under-represented, according to the country’s gay rights association Lithuania Gay League. LGL’s on-going project Empowering LBT Women saw a group of volunteers send postcards to every member of the Lithuanian Parliament earlier this month. The project is designed to promote dialogue and promote the population’s visibility at a national level.
The direction for gay rights is uncertain in the European country. Earlier this year, legislators were considering a draft law which would alter the Code of Administrative Offences in order to punish those found to be “promoting” homosexuality with a fine of between £500 and £2490. In 2006, Lithuania amended the Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information. According to the current legislation, “propaganda of homosexuality and bisexuality” has a damaging effect on minors. Information on homosexuality and bisexuality should, it states, be banned from schools and any other places where it can be accessed by young people.
Lithuania has a ban on same-sex marriages and no provision for civil partnerships, but gays and lesbians are allowed to serve openly in the military.
Mugabe calls UK’s human rights-dependent aid arrangement “satanic”
The President of Zimbabwe has described UK plans to divert aid away from governments who fail to recognise citizens’ human rights “satanic”, Zimbabwean state media reports. Mugabe told a crowd in the central African state on Wednesday: “It becomes worse and satanic when you get a prime minister like Cameron saying countries that want British aid should accept homosexuality. To come with that diabolic suggestion to our people is a stupid offer.” Earlier this month, a Ugandan presidential official, John Nagenda, told the BBC his country was “tired of these lectures” and that the Commonwealth nations should not be treated like “children.
In October, the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe Morgan Tsvangirai performed an apparent volte-face on previous homophobic views, saying he believes gay rights are “human rights”. However, Mugabe said in his speech: “Do not get tempted into that (homosexuality). You are young people. If you go that direction, we will punish you severely. It is condemned by nature. It is condemned by insects and that is why I have said they are worse than pigs and dogs.”
This week, the government confirmed plans to redirect aid away from overseas governments who fail to recognise human rights, including gay rights, but said it will still ensure aid reaches those in need.
High HIV rates in the Bahamas blamed on homophobia
An HIV policy expert in the Bahamas says the island’s high infection rates of the virus in gay and bisexual men is due to stigmatisation and discrimination. Director of the National HIV/AIDS Programme, Dr. Perry Gomez, was responding to comments made by the Baptist Bishop Simeon Hall. In a statement, last week, he declared that homosexuality is “anti-family” and also a “deadly practice”. Hall made the comments after the island’s Nassau Guardian newspaper reported that gay and bisexual men, account for 14 per cent of all HIV infections in the country’s population. Dr. Gomez, who was speaking at the close of the island’s 2011 Caribbean HIV Conference, said that the Bishop’s comments were not helpful, but added if: “you live in a free society […] you have to go with the flow. The issue with MSMs [is] that they are a very private group. It has been difficult in getting information from that group of people over the years and part of the issue is stigma and discrimination”.
According to a UN study, the figure has nearly doubled since 2008. In June of this year, the Bahamas Government expressed support for a UN Human Rights Council resolution promoting equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation. However, same-sex marriages and civil unions remain illegal on the island.
Peruvian mayor concerned tap water “will turn town gay”
The mayor of a small town in Peru is concerned that mineral levels in the water could lead to an increase in homosexuality, LGBT Asylum News reports. José Benítez, the mayor of Huarmey, a coastal town in the Ancash Region of Peru, made the comment at the launch of a local project designed to increase access to water. The town of Huarmey is famed for its abundant shrimp and long beaches, but the mayor has become concerned it may gain a different sort of reputation due to high levels of strontium in the tap water. The metal, he claimed, reduces male hormones and could cause an increase in homosexuality among the population.
The water comes from Tabalosos, a town which a Lima-based television station famously said in 2000 was inhabited by 14,000 exclusively-gay men. Dr. Robert Castro Rodriguez, the dean of the College of Pharmaceutical Chemistry of Lima, told a radio station that strontium can cause bone cancer, anaemia and cardiovascular problems. A link with homosexuality has yet to be identified.
US lesbian couple “unsure whether to file complaint” over refused wedding cake
A lesbian couple from Iowa have said they are unsure whether or not to pursue a civil rights complaint over the refusal of a Christian baker to make their wedding cake. Victoria Childress had told Trina Vodraska and Janelle Sievers she would not be able to provide the ceremonial dessert.
In an interview with Iowan TV station KCCI, Childress said: “They came in, and she introduced herself, I shook her hand and I said, ‘Is this your sister?’” On hearing that it was a lesbian couple she was being asked to provide a cake for, Childress explained that she was a Christian and did not want to continue. She said: “I didn’t do the cake because of my convictions for their lifestyle. It is my right as a business-owner. And it’s not to discriminate against them. It’s not so much to do with them as it’s to do with me and my walk with God, what I will answer to him for.” Childress added that the couple were “very pleasant”.
Vodraska, one half of the engaged couple, said: “I appreciated her being honest.” But she added: “I know Jesus loves me, I didn’t need her to tell me that. I didn’t go there for that, I went there for a cake.”
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