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Nominations open for ‘National Diversity Awards’

 

Peter Tachell

Nominations for The National Diversity Awards 2013, an evening celebrating the outstanding achievements of positive role models and community organisations throughout the UK, will open next month.

On September 20, 2013, The Queen’s Hotel in Leeds will play host to Britain’s most inspiring people who will come together to recognise the individuals and groups from grass roots communities who have contributed to creating a more diverse and inclusive society.

An astonishing 8,000 nominations were made at the 2012 awards, with political campaigner Peter Tatchell scooping The Lifetime Achiever Award.
 
Paul Sesay, Chief Executive of The National Diversity Awards, said:

“We received an overwhelming amount of nominations for this year’s ceremony, if ever there was a time to celebrate and elevate the truly staggering diversity of talent the UK has to offer – it is now.
 
“I know another fantastic spectacle of role models will be delivered and recognised next year.”

Award categories including Positive Role Model, Community Organisation & Entrepreneur of Excellence.

Awards will be split into 5 categories including Age, Disability, Gender, LGBT and Race/Faith/Religion.

You can also nominate for a Diverse Company and Lifetime Achiever.

To nominate view:

NATIONAL DIVERSITY AWARDS
 
For a nomination form email:

EMAIL

 

 

LGBT Switchboard Annual General Report

Natalie Woods, the services and development manager at Brighton & Hove, LGBT Switchboard presented the annual report at LGBT Switchboard’s AGM on November 30.

She said the last year saw significant successes and challenges for Switchboard, the LGBT counselling service, which in its 37th year needed to raise £20,000 to continue to deliver its telephone and face-to-face counseling services to those in Brighton and beyond.

Ten counsellors (later reduced to five due to lack of funds) received 61 requests for counseling, and counselled 45 people. The service had an average waiting time of 8-12 weeks, and at the time of writing there are 21 people waiting for counselling with an average wait time of 5 months. Twenty-one volunteers delivered the help-line service and a ring-back service was started where callers can now leave a message and receive a call back.

Despite the challenges, Switchboard have survived that turbulent year and have been able to continue providing high quality help-line and counselling services to meet LGBT people’s needs.

Key achievements in 2011-2012:

•      Provision of help-line services to over 900 callers
•      Provision of 331 counselling sessions to 45 clients
•      Grant funding secured from The Lloyds TSB foundation towards core costs.
•      Grant funding from The Cooperative Community Membership Fund to recruit and retain a trans identified counsellor for 12 months
•     Significant funds raised from community fundraising activities
•     Recruitment of a qualified trans identified counsellor
•     Development and delivery of a training programme for local counsellors/therapists to increase their knowledge and understanding of the issues that affect LGBT people
•     Co-management of LGBT Health and Inclusion Project (HIP) in partnership with THT – the project achieved success in engaging with the LGBT community on a number of important issues including: mental health experiences and needs, sexual health needs of bi and trans people.

Whilst 2011-2012 was a financially challenging year by the end of the year Natalie reported they were on the road to recovery and had begun to identify strategies to:

•     Develop fundraising strategy and action plan to strengthen our sustainability
•     Build a stronger, sustainable Trustee Board
•     Aim to increase capacity within the counselling service.
•      Increase staff hours to increase organisational capacity
•      Secure a comfortable appropriate dedicated space for counselling
•      Develop existing partnership work and explore new partnership work to meet unmet needs of the LGBT community
•      Increase community engagement activity and strengthen community connections
•      Develop service user involvement initiatives
•      Improve outcome based monitoring and evaluation systems
•      Develop the website
•      Develop the use of social media

The Helpline is operated weekdays 5-9pm and weekends 5-7pm; for more information, view:

SWITCHBOARD

New! lesbian dating in a safe environment

Wow Women, a new lesbian dating online community with a green commitment, has been launched..

Run by lesbians, for lesbians and bi women, the website aims to redefine Internet dating, making finding a partner easier through member-created groups, social events, live chat, VIP dating, speed dating and Facebook connect.

It is equipped with software to weed out fake profiles and photographs, making online dating a safer experience.

Wow Women plans to be a green company by minimising the impact they have on the environment, and are members of 1010 Global and the Bike to Work scheme.

Julianne Balai, Wow’s Founder, said:

“I have been continually asked by my members to create an online dating platform for them to interact on a more personal level in a safer environment, run by gay women who understand their needs. After months of hard work, now we are ready to introduce the most comprehensive dating website ever for lesbians”.
 

For more information view:

WOW WOMEN

Allsorts Youth Project to host LGBT Children, Young People and Families Day in Brighton on February 5, 2013

Young People’s Voice, the LGBT youth campaigning and engagement project at Allsorts Youth Project, will be hosting an LGBT Children Young People and Families Day on February 5 at the Hotel Du Vin in Brighton.

The event, which will coincide with LGBT History Month, aims to celebrate LGBT youth identity and community, with the theme of togetherness.

A tea party in the ballroom of Hotel Du Vin for community voluntary sector, statutory practitioners and commissioners will showcase the project, then there will be a prom for young people and a Champions Dinner for business people, head teachers, councillors and others to promote the project and encourage people to commit to making the changes they can in their environments to improve the experience of LGBT young people.

Jess Wood MBE, Allsorts Project Director, explained:

“LGBT children and young people are often portrayed in the media as the victims of other people’s negativity whether that is bullying, exclusion or harm. The LGBT young people we know at Allsorts have often faced enormous challenges. So have their families and so do children with LGBT parents. But that is only one side of the story. In fact, one page in a big book of strength, humour, fun, solidarity, extended generational support, complexity, diversity and above all, nurture and warmth.
 
“The purpose of LGBT Children, Young and Families Day is to celebrate once a year all that is wonderful about belonging to an LGBT family, whether you are parents or carers or children or part of a LGBT youth friendship group. We want the Day to become an annual focal point for schools and youth projects to jump on the Allsorts bandwagon and shout:  LGBT children, young people and families are great, let’s celebrate!”

For more info, view:

ALLSORTS

Or visit:

FACEBOOK

to ‘like’ the page and spread the word.

BBC publishes report on depiction of LGB in the media

The BBC has published a new snapshot of the views of audiences and experts on the portrayal of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people in UK programming, which will provide a robust benchmark to track future changes.

Split in two parts, the report includes a survey of the opinions of around 3,500 people, including more than 500 people who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB), as well as an in-depth consultation of individuals and members of expert organisations including Stonewall, actors’ union Equity and the Lesbian and Gay Foundation.

The report found that whilst the vast majority of audiences are comfortable for the depiction of LGB people within UK media, many LGB people felt they were still-under-represented by all broadcasts, not just the BBC. Experts urged for more mainstream inclusion in news and current affairs, and more creative and realistic depictions in factual and drama television.

Acting director general Tim Davie, acting BBC director general, chair of the BBC Working Group, which commissioned the review, said:

“The BBC has a fundamental obligation to serve all its audiences. In fact, it’s one of the BBC’s public purposes to reflect the diversity of UK life. I’m proud to have led this work for three years, and this review underlines our commitment and sets a direction for the work to continue.”

To see the full report, view:

VIEW REPORT

Review: War of the Worlds at the Brighton Centre

The War of the Worlds is a spectacular multi-media adaptation of H. G. Wells’ sci-fi classic. It’s a virtual assault on the senses which is part musical, film spectacular, concert and audiobook. With a giant fire-breathing Martian war machine.

The show – Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds: The New Generation – to give it its full title, has been rejigged from its previous incarnation. The journalist who narrates the events of the Martian invasion of earth is now played by a digital Liam Neeson in holographic form. This was the only disappointment in the show in that I was expecting some kind of floating 3D apparition – a bit like the one R2D2 produced for Princess Leia. The ‘hologram’ in War of the Worlds is a resolutely flat (at least as seen from the balcony) image projected onto a plastic screen.

Throughout the show’s two hours we see events unfold on a massive screen which is practically twice as wide as the CinemaScope format. Fantastic state-of-the-art computer animation brings the Martians realistically to life – think Doctor Who but with a bigger budget. The film brilliantly splices modern special effects to old silent footage of England – parks, trains stations, quiet villages – to create something genuinely eerie and strangely affecting. In front of the screen a sizeable orchestra (conducted by Wayne himself) takes centre stage which makes the evening feel more of a concert performance than a musical where the musicians are usually hidden in the pit.

Marti Pellow, Jason Donovan, Kerry Ellis and the Kaiser Chiefs’ Ricky Wilson give spirited performances. For sheer bravado the stand out amongst these must be Wilson as the slightly deranged artilleryman who sees the catastrophe as way of starting civilisation again from scratch.

War of the Worlds is defiantly a one-of-a-kind entertainment which defies categorisation. It succeeds partly through using every device possible to keep the audience enthralled and partly, of course, through its brilliant score. Everybody now: “The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one he said. The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one. Yet still they come!!!!’

Final performance this evening, December 17, at 8pm.

For more details and tickets click here.

Local artist wins ‘Voice of Germany’

Nick Howard

Brighton born singer/songwriter Nick Howard, won the German version of The Voice on Saturday night in Berlin. During the final which was broadcast live on German TV, Nick duetted with Emile Sande, his mentor Rea Garvey and he sang his own composition Unbreakable. This came after opening the show singing along with Robbie Williams and the three other finalists.

Nick is currently number one in the German and Austrian itunes charts and number 2 in Switzerland.

Hear his duet with Emile Sande:
EMILE SANDE DUET

Hear his duet with Rea Garvey:
REA GARVEY DUET

Hear Nick singing his own song Unbreakable:
NICK SINGS ‘UNBREAKABLE’

The result:
CLICK HERE

Local MP celebrates 20 years in politics

Simon Kirby, MP

Simon Kirby MP for Kemptown & Peacehaven is celebrating the 20th anniversary this month of first being first elected to public office.

Simon was first elected to represent the people of Brighton on the East Sussex County Council on December 17, 1992 and has since served on Brighton Borough, Brighton and Hove City Council, Mid Sussex District Council and East Sussex County Council before being elected as MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven in 2010, when he became the first Conservative MP to hold the seat since 1997.

In Parliament, he became a member of the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee as well as Vice Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on HIV/Aids.

More recently Simon was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Hugh Robertson MP, the Minister for Sport and Tourism.

Simon said:

“It has been a real privilege to have served in public office for 20 years, two and a half as the local MP. Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven is an unique and very special area and its diversity has made every day thoroughly interesting.   I have enjoyed meeting thousands of people across the areas I have represented. I shall continue to work very hard to be a strong voice for our area.”

Rainbow Reykjavik Festival 2013

Hera Björk

Rainbow Reykjavik the LGBT winter festival held in Reykjavik from January 31– February 3, 2013, has announced an outstanding programming of events including entertainment from Iceland’s top Eurovision stars, who will be appearing in the magnificent Harpa Concert Hall.

Some of Iceland’s most celebrated Eurovision icons will be performing on Friday February 1, providing a Gala night with something for everyone, including power ballads, disco beats and wild techno.

Two of the top acts confirmed for this year’s concert are Hera Björk (2010) and Paul Oskar (1997). Both have enjoyed international success following their participation in Europe’s most watched TV show and Britain’s ultimate guilty pleasure, the Eurovision Song Contest.

Paul Oskar

Other Icelandic Eurovision contestants will joining them on stage to perform their own songs as well.

In addition to this ultimately camp extravaganza, The Rainbow Reykjavik programme of events, includes tours to see the northern lights, geysirs, waterfalls and the great continental divide where the plates of Europe and the USA meet.  Great meals and dance parties are schedules as well as pure wellness and relaxation in the world famous geothermal spas.

A three night Rainbow Reykjavik package with accommodation at Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Marina costs from £926 per person including breakfast, airport transfers, selected meals and events and return flights with Icelandair from London Heathrow to Reykjavik departing on January 31, 2013.

For further information on Rainbow Reykjavik and what the package offers, view:

RAINBOW REYKJAVIK

For more information on Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Marina, view:

Reykjavik Marina Hotel

The Harpa Concert Hall

LGBTory urges you to act now!

Matthew Sephton

Following the announcement on equal marriage, LGBTory, the Conservative Party’s affiliated LGBT group have launched an online tool to make it easier for people to lobby their Member of Parliament.

Earlier this year, LGBTory Chairman, Matthew Sephton, urged people not to be complacent and to write to their representatives to request they support the legalisation on same-sex marriage.

At the time, he pointed out that the anti-equal marriage campaign was extremely vocal in their opposition and mobilising letter-writing campaigns to Parliamentarians, particularly through religious groups, against same-sex marriage.

While Matthew says he is “delighted” with the Equalities Minister, Maria Miller’s statement he says it is more important than ever that you lobby your MP to ensure as many people as possible support the legislation for equal marriage and counter the opposition from the far right and religious groups.

 Matthew said:

“The government’s proposals are a fantastic step forward in LGBT equality, but we must ensure they get as much support as possible in Parliament, across the Parties.  The fact is there are MPs on all sides of the House who have differing opinions on equal marriage.  We must therefore leave them in no doubt, as opinion polls have consistently shown, that this is a measure supported by a big majority of the public and so we have made this as easy as possible for people to do.”

 He continued:

“To help you write to your MP we have setup a simple email system on our website. Once you enter your postcode you will be taken to a page that tells you which way we believe your MP intends to vote. You then have an opportunity to compose a short email to them giving your view. We’ve added some notes we hope are helpful, but your email will have the most impact in your own words.  The final push is here so let each of us play our part in making history for LGBT people in Britain.”

Click here to email your MP:

LOBBY YOUR MP

 

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