Twenty four teams competed at the annual Brighton Lesbian And Gay Sports Society (BLAGSS) ten Pin Bowling Tournament on Tuesday, February 26 at the Bowlplex in Brighton Marina to decide who is this years top bowling team. BLAGSS took over the compete Bowlplex at Brighton Marina for the night and every lane was filled by an LGBT organisation. The atmosphere was brilliant and it was great to see so many organisations socialising and chatting with each other.
The crown was taken by the Brighton Lesbian and Gay Sports Society (BLAGSS) Badminton Team with BLAGSS Bowling Team second and their Tennis team third. Brighton Gay’s Mens Chorus came top of the non sports groups taking part in the tournament coming in fourth.
Final placings were:
1. BLAGSS Badminton Group
2. BLAGSS Bowling Group
3. BLAGSS Tennis Group
4. Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus
5. BLAGSS Football Group
6. BLAGSS Softball Group
7. GELtoday.com
8. Girls in Golf Society
9. Beardy Boys
10. BLAGSS Walking Group
11. BLAGSS Running Group
12. Outdoor Lads Group
13. Gscene Magazine
15. Bear-Patrol
16. LGBT Switchboard
17. New Steine Hotel and Bistro
18. Terrence Higgins Trust (THT)
19. Bowl-in-One
20. Bear-Patrol Beavers
21. REALBrighton.com
22. Stonewall Stars / Walking Group
23. Allsorts Youth Project
24. Sussex University LGBTQ
BLAGSS are holding a Mega Charity Quiz to benefit MindOut, the LGBT mental health project on Wednesday, March 13, at the A-Bar on Marine Parade. Get there at 7.30pm for an 8pm start.
Registration is £3 per person which includes a raffle ticket. Teams can show up on the night but if possible pre-register at chair@blagss.org if you can.
What: Mega Charity Quiz to benefit MindOut Mental Health Project
When: Wednesday, March 13, 19:30 for 20:00 start
Where: The A Bar, 11-12 Marine Parade, Brighton BN2 1TL
Cost: £3 per team member, including a raffle ticket
In a move to encourage better sexual health amongst students, HIV and sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) will offer a free postal HIV sampling service to gay and bisexual men attending Student Pride in Brighton on Saturday March 2.
Staff from the Terrence Higgins Trust will be based at a stall inside the Brighton Dome from 12.00pm to 5.00pm, where gay and bisexual men will have the opportunity to sign-up to receive an HIV sampling kit through the post. The service requires the user to provide a finger-prick of blood, which they then send to the lab for testing. Users should receive their result within a week of them returning the sample, either by text message (if the result is negative) or with a telephone call to provide support and refer to specialist HIV services (if the result is reactive).
Staff and volunteers from the charity will also hand out free condoms and offer advice on safer sex and the importance of regular testing, as well as talking to students about the sexual health services on offer in their area.
Gay and bisexual men remain one of the groups most at risk of HIV infection in the UK. However, one in four gay and bisexual men with HIV is unaware that they have it. This has been identified as a key factor driving the epidemic among this group. Home sampling schemes provide an alternative method of testing for men who are unable to access their local sexual health clinic or who want a more private way to test.
Justin Harbottle from Terrence Higgins Trust in Brighton, said:
“With a higher proportion of younger gay men being diagnosed with HIV than there have been in previous years, it is vital that sexual health services engage with the younger members of the gay community. Student Pride provides us with the perfect opportunity to do this. Our home-sampling service makes testing for HIV even more convenient, and we look forward to telling those attending the event about it.”
Student Pride will be held at the Brighton Dome and Corn Exchange on Church Street on Saturday March 2.
For more information on Terrence Higgins Trust’s services in Brighton email:
Zoe Lyons, one of the UK’s top comedians, will host Stonewall’s 2013 Brighton Equality Walk in May.
Zoe, a Brightonian herself, will be at the start line to spur on the hundreds of supporters raising money for the gay equality charity’s work to tackle anti-gay bullying in schools.
Registrations for this year’s Walk have already topped 100,
Zoe said:
“It’s 2013 – anti-gay bullying in schools just shouldn’t be happening. It’s shocking that young people in schools still have to go through this – and Stonewall’s work tackling homophobic bullying is absolutely crucial. That’s why I’m proud to be hosting this year’s Brighton Equality Walk and I urge lesbian, gay and bisexual people near and far to support this event.”
Now in its tenth year, the walk has raised nearly £400,00o over the years for Stonewall’s Education for All Programme. Last year more than 600 people participated raising in excess of £65,000. This years walk is on Sunday, May 5.
Zoe, who has a regular presence on television and the club circuit, took to the stage for Stonewall last September as part of the inaugural all-female comedian line-up benefit gig Girls Night Out. That show also raised funds for Stonewall’s Education for All campaign. More than half of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) young people experience homophobic bullying in Britain’s schools – and almost all (99 per cent) hear phrases such as ‘that’s so gay’ or ‘you’re so gay’ in school.
The council’s budget for 2013-14 will be debated tomorrow, Thursday 28 at full council.
The Conservative group have attacked the Labour Party for not supporting their proposals to freeze the councils budget at current levels.
While the Green Administration are proposing to increase council tax next year by 2% the Conservatives want it frozen. The Labour Group has announced that they will be backing the Green’s proposals meaning that the increase will be voted through.
Other amendments being proposed by the Conservatives include:
• supporting local business by proposing a reduction in the cost of Trader and Business Parking Permits
• reversing the Green Administration’s proposed cut to the Council’s children’s Music Service
• increasing the amount of grant funding available to charities and voluntary groups
• reopening the award-winning Norton Road public toilets for 7 days a week, and
• establishing a new annual prize for schools which show the best performance in improving the results of all their pupils. Their proposals would be funded from a number of sources including:
• savings in back office functions such as Human Resources, Communications, the European Office and Scrutiny
• reducing the amount of taxpayer funded Trade Union activity in the Council, and
• extending the existing voluntary redundancy scheme
Cllr Geoffrey Theobald
Conservative Group Leader, Cllr. Geoffrey Theobald, said:
“The Labour Party are natural bedfellows with the Greens when it comes to high tax and high spend so their decision to support the rise is no surprise. We have seen it nationally with the last Labour Government which borrowed one pound in every four it spent and we saw it with the last Labour Council Administration in Brighton & Hove which more than doubled council tax. But for the Government ruling that any rise over 2% must be approved by the public in a referendum, I’m quite sure that they would have put it up even more. It is now clear that they only supported our freeze proposals last year in the hope of gaining votes in the Westbourne by-election.”
Cllr Anne Norman
Conservative Group Finance Spokesperson, Cllr. Ann Norman, added:
“I would have liked to have done a lot more and had we still been in Administration we would have continued with our value for money programme and properly tested the market for more of the Council’s services. However, in addition to proposing a council tax freeze we have still tried to help as many groups as we can and I would urge the Labour Party to support us on these.”
The Labour and Cooperative Group will move amendments at this Thursday’s budget which they say will protect frontline services, give support to those affected by the government’s welfare changes and help struggling parents with childcare costs.
Labour’s amendments will concentrate on four key areas:
• Sure Start Children’s centres
• Homelessness
• Welfare support and advice and
• Library Services
Labour claim their amendments are fully costed and will mean that:
• Sure Start services keep on running whilst keeping fees down for parents,
• that money proposed to be cut by The Greens is put back into the preventing homelessness and temporary accommodation budget,
• that those affected by the governments welfare changes receive advice and support and
• that the much loved Mobile Library service is saved from the Green Party axe.
The amendments will be financed by taking money from existing budgets, including:
• additional funding for proposed Traveller services
• The Biosphere project, where the Councils contribution will be cut by 50% and funding sought from other Local Authorities within the Biosphere area and
• from the Councils Communications unit.
Cllr Gill Mitchell
Leader of Labour & Cooperative, Cllr Gill Mitchell, said:
“The Green Party wanted to raise council tax by 3.5% which is something we could never have supported, whilst the Tories in government are raising council tax by up to 25% for some of the most vulnerable and hard pressed families across the city to pay for their economic failure.
“Last year we managed to freeze council tax by bringing forward savings already identified and we would have liked to be in a position to support a freeze, but the Tory led government have placed such great financial pressure on local councils that we simply cannot justify it and at the same time prevent the misery of debt and homelessness affecting more and more local families”
She continued:
“This is about priorities.
“Would elderly people on outlying estates who look forward to choosing books with their neighbours from the Mobile Library rather have that service preserved than pay more into an already substantial Traveller Services budget? – We think they would.
“Do residents expect the council to focus on giving prompt Welfare advice to needy people by cutting down on beaurocracy and getting partner organisations to pay their fair share of the Biosphere costs? We think they do.
“Do people want to know that every penny that can be is going towards saving families from the misery of homelessness? They do.
“And that at a time of such squeezed household budgets, money spent on keeping nursery school fees down for children under three is money well spent”
The Actually Gay Men’s Chorus brought the B.Righton.On LGBT Arts Festival to a close on Friday, February 22, with a wonderful concert at St Mary’s Church in Kemptown. The concert was performed against the backdrop of a spectacular laser light show produced by Protech Productions, which was projected from behind the chorus over the audience and into the church helping create a different atmosphere for each number the choir sang.
The show opened with what I can only describe as a “a wall of sound” as the 24 strong chorus exploded into song, with Requiem from Evita and the title song from Phantom of the Opera featuring the soprano Samantha Howard singing at the very top of her vocal register. It was a spine chilling moment as the chorus filled the magnificent surroundings of St Mary’s and the soprano’s voice soared into the rafters of the church. Rarely will you experienced such a relatively small number of singers produce such a massive sound. It was wonderful to listen to.
A selection from Moulin Rouge followed including renditions of Roxanne, The show must go on, Nature boy, and One day I’ll fly away featuring Samantha Howard once again. The arrangements were excellent and the light and shade the chorus brought to their performance accentuated the romantic focus to these particular numbers.
Jason Pimbett’s arrangement of Albinoni’s Adagio and Rodriguez’s Concerto De Aranjuez for chorus followed. Both were ideally suited to the wonderful acoustics of the church and for me personally the combined choral sound the choir achieved was at its very best during these two numbers. A particularly poignant rendition of England My Lionheart followed.
The first half ended with a taster from the chorus’s coming shows during the Brighton Fringe Festival entitled The Music Of The Night, a celebration of West End musicals which they will be performing at St Andrews Church, Waterloo Street on April 26 and 27. Tonight they sang Andrew Lloyd Webber numbers including: Memories from Cats, Music of the Night and Prima Donna from Phantom of the Opera, I don’t know how to love him from Jesus Christ Superstar and Go GoJoseph from Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. The audience roared their approval.
The second half of the concert was turned over to songs from the choirs new album. Somewhere for me. After signing a recording deal with Universal Records in 2011, the company recorded but did not release their first album last year. The choir have released it themselves and it is simply stunning.
My favourite performances on the night were Hurt by Trent Reznor, the albums title track, Somewhere for me by Thea Gilmore and God loves everyone by Ronald Eldon Sexsmith. Other tracks performed included: The Last Goodbye by The Enemy, A heart needs a home by Richard Thompson and the lovely arrangement of Playgrounds and City Parks by Ian McCulloch.
The Actually choir are expertly directed by Jason Pimblett who produces many of their arrangements and has trained them into an impressive and musical vocal machine. They can do loud, they can do quiet, they can do soft, they can do hard, but most importantly they have the ability to communicate their love of music to their audience. I have heard them sing many times over the years. This was the best sound I have heard them achieve and it was perfectly suited and enhanced by the majestic surroundings of St Mary’s Curch.
For more information about the Actually Gay Men’s Chorus: click here:
For more information about Protech Productions,click here:
Staff and volunteers from HIV and sexual health charity Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) were at The Hart pub’s ‘Ultimate Pyjama Party’ on Saturday, February 23 to promote safer sex. Around 100 guests were dressed in pyjamas, dressing gowns and onesies for the night, while members of the charity’s Eastbourne team also attended to hand out free, glow in the dark condoms and promote local sexual health services.
Since November 2010 the Government has been naming, shaming and fining hospitals if patients are placed in mixed-sex wards.
Three years ago within Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust region the number of people placed in mixed sex accommodation was 377. Today it has fallen to zero.
Across the country the incidents of patients being placed in mixed sex accommodation has fallen by 97 per cent.
Simon Kirby MP for Kemptown and Peacehaven constituency has welcomed the progress made.
He said:
“It is fantastic news that mixed sex wards in Brighton have been eradicated. When people are ill and feeling vulnerable the last thing they need is to feel like their privacy is being invaded and I know that the Government’s action to stop that happening is very much appreciated by my constituents.”
The EU Commissioner for Enlargement Štefan Füle has refused a Conservative MEP’s request to suspend human rights funding to the Turkish Cypriot community following slow progress on the repeal of the ban on homosexuality in the northern part of Cyprus.
The current law on homosexuality in the northern part of the island dates back to British colonial times and has never been repealed or amended, despite of the fact that homosexuality is no longer illegal in Turkey or the Republic of Cyprus.
Marina Yannakoudakis, who is a member of the European Parliament’s High-Level Contact Group for Relations with the Turkish Cypriot Community, has been lobbying Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Derviş Eroğlu to repeal the ban. Last month she wrote to the Commissioner calling on him to put more pressure on the north of the island including by withholding financial assistance to the Turkish Cypriot Community in the field of human rights.
EU-funded experts have been involved in preparing a draft of a law which includes an abrogation of articles 171-174 thereby repealing the ban on homosexuality. The draft has been ready since October last year but has not yet been set before the legislature.
Marina said:
“I welcome the EU’s efforts to fund amendments to this outdated and discriminatory law, but the Turkish Cypriot Community needs to realise that EU taxpayers – to say nothing of the north’s LGBT community – deserve deeds not words.
“To ensure that EU aid is used effectively in the northern part of Cyprus, the Commission must ensure progress. And if this means withholding assistance then so be it.”
Commissioner Füle in his reply to Mrs. Yannakoudakis said that he:
“Will obviously continue underlining the importance of urgently repealing the criminalisation of homosexuality” but rejected the Conservative MEPs proposal to stop aid saying that it “would deprive Turkish Cypriots, who are EU citizens, of a concrete token of our European solidarity.”
The first Gonorrhoea Resistance Action Plan for England and Wales has been published, and recommends a heightened national response to combating the serious threat posed by the emergence of untreatable gonorrhoea.
The Action Plan was developed by the Gonococcal Resistance to Antimicrobials Surveillance Programme (GRASP), established by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) to monitor the growing global problem of emerging resistance over the last decade in the absence of new therapeutic options.
Gonorrhoea is the second most common bacterial sexually transmitted infection (STI) in England. In 2011, new diagnoses rose to nearly 21,000, jumping 25 per cent in one year. Over a third of cases were in men who have sex with men, up from around a quarter in 2010. GRASP 2011 data suggest that up to third of reported cases were repeat gonorrhoea infections.
Professor Cathy Ison, lead author of the GRASP Action Plan, HPA, said:
“Ensuring treatment resistant gonorrhoea strains do not persist and spread remains a major public health concern. The GRASP Action Plan raises awareness of this important issue and sets out practical, measurable actions to extend the useful life of the current recommended therapies in England and Wales.”
In England and Wales, the risk of gonorrhoea resistance developing in current first-line therapies (ceftriaxone and azithromycin) fell slightly for the first time in five years in 2011. However, cases of treatment failure have now been reported globally and, with no new antimicrobial agents in the pipeline, England’s Chief Medical Officer recently advised government to add the threat of infection resistance to frontline antibiotics to the civil emergencies risk register.
Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer, said:
“We have seen a worrying rise in cases of drug resistant gonorrhoea over the last decade. Antimicrobial resistance to common drugs will increasingly threaten our ability to tackle infections and the Health Protection Agency’s work is vital to addressing this threat. As Chief Medical Officer, and with the Department of Health, I am supporting the work of the HPA with my forthcoming annual report Volume Two, which focuses on infections and antimicrobial resistance, and the Department’s new UK five year Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy and Action Plan.”
The GRASP Action Plan supports the public health control of gonorrhoea, and gonorrhoea resistance, by providing guidance on robust and timely data collection, rapid detection of treatment failures, adherence to management guidelines, and actions to reduce gonorrhoea transmission.
Dr Gwenda Hughes, head of STI surveillance at the HPA, said:
“We are seriously concerned about continuing high levels of gonorrhoea transmission and repeat infection, suggesting we need to do more to reduce unsafe sexual behaviour. The GRASP Action Plan advocates comprehensive health promotion programmes to encourage safer sexual behaviour, particularly in higher risk groups such as men who have sex with men, alongside maintaining good access to STI screening and sexual health services.”
Paul Ward, Deputy Chief Executive of Terrence Higgins Trust, said:
“The emergence of drug-resistant gonorrhoea poses a very real threat to the gay community, which already has a worryingly high level of infection. It is vital that men are aware of the risks and armed with the knowledge to protect themselves and their partners. Condoms are the best protection against gonorrhoea. However, men can carry the infection without being aware and even those who believe they have been safe might have been at risk, particularly through oral sex. Having gonorrhoea also makes it far easier to pick up or pass on HIV. This is why we recommend gay and bisexual men go for a sexual health check up at least once every six months if they are having sex with new or casual partners.”
Cardinal Keith O’Brien who was nominated as Bigot of the Year in last years Stonewall Awards is stepping down as leader of the Scottish Catholic Church following allegations of inappropriate behaviour made by three practicing priests and one former priest stretching back to the 1980s.
The cardinal, Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric, and Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh contests the claim but did not rebut them in his statement this morning.
The Cardinal apolologised to “all whom I have offended” for “any failures” during his ministry and confirmed he will not take part in electing a new pope, leaving Britain unrepresented at the coming conclave in Rome.
The Vatican confirmed the cardinal had stepped down from his post and his resignation had been accepted on February 18. Cardinal O’Brien confirmed he had tendered his resignation earlier this month as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh to take effect when he turned 75 next month, but Pope Benedict ruled the resignation would take effect from today.
The cardinal said:
“For any good I have been able to do, I thank God. For any failures, I apologise to all whom I have offended”.
The Cardinal expressed particular strong views on abortion and homosexuality and was particulary offensive to gay people in the debate around same sex marriage in Scotland.
Alex Salmond, MP
Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond commented:
“It would be a great pity if a lifetime of positive work was lost from comment in the circumstances of his resignation.
“None of us know the outcome of the investigation into the claims made against him but I have found him to be a good man for his church and country.”
Colin MacFarlane, director of the equality charity, Stonewall Scotland, which last year named the cardinal as Bigot of the Year said he hoped there would be a full investigation and that the cardinal’s successor would “show a little more Christian charity towards openly gay people than the cardinal did himself”.
The Equality Network, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality charity that led the Equal Marriage campaign in Scotland, where quick to respond to the news of the cardinals resignation.
Tom French
Tom French, Policy Coordinator for the Equality Network, said:
“It would be inappropriate for us to comment on the allegations made against Cardinal O’Brien. Of course we hope that the Catholic Church in Scotland will use the opportunity new leadership brings to reassess its opposition to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality. The Catholic Church does a huge amount of good work on issues like poverty, and it’s a shame that this important work is so often overshadowed by its position on issues of sexuality.”
Under Cardinal O’Brien’s leadership the Catholic Church in Scotland has made issues of sexuality a major focus, actively campaigning against every major step towards LGBT equality in the UK, including the introduction of Civil Partnerships, same-sex adoption, and same-sex marriage. Prior to Cardinal O’Brien’s tenure the Church also played an active role campaigning against the equal age of consent, and the repeal of Section 28 in Scotland.
The council’s budget for 2013-14 will be debated tomorrow, Thursday 28 at full council.
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