Day: October 15, 2014

A huge crowd answered the call from the University of Brighton Students Union to protest at Sainbury’s Supermarket in New England Street, Brighton this evening, (October 15) and take part in a Big CONSENSUAL Kiss In.

THE PROTEST follows an incident in the store on World Coming Out Day when a Sussex University student, Annabelle Paige, was asked to stop kissing her female partner by a Sainbury’s security guard or they would be asked to leave the store. The request followed a complaint from a woman shopper that the show of affection was “disgusting” and she was “concerned about her child’s safety”.

Sainsbury’s have since issued an apology, said the incident should not have happened and offered to pay £100 to a charity of Annabelle’s choice.

The Big CONSENSUAL Kiss In, organised by the University of Brighton Students Union brought together students, politicians, old school activists, and straight allies to highlight how important it is for everyone to be able to show affection to the person they love in public.

Despite the rain more than 500 trans people, men, women, boys, girls, babies, mums, dads, young people, old people and disabled people turned out to show their support for the two women. The atmosphere of the protest was friendly and good humoured. Sussex Students Union provided security marshalls so that Sainbury’s regular customer could get through the massed crowds outside the store to do their shopping.

The event was hosted by performance artist Lydia L’Scabies who introduced speakers including the Deputy Leader of Brighton & Hove Council, Cllr Phelim MacCaferty, and NUS LGBT officer, Fran Cowling who both gave rousing speeches before Student Union Comms Officer Michael Segalov invited everyone into the store to count down for the first of many Kiss Ins.

Phelim MacCaferty said: “This evening we are here to show our solidarity with the two women who were told to leave the store for doing nothing other than kissing each other. But we are also here to say that never again will be hounded into silence about who we are and who our lovers are.

“When I was coming out in the mid-nineties there would be mass kiss-ins in Piccadilly Circus to assert publicly that we would not be silenced about our sexuality. Hundreds of same-sex couples assembled under the statue of Eros, the Greek God of love. LGBT people kissed defiantly in protest at the arrest of queer couples for doing nothing other than that which the young women were doing at the weekend- expressing affection in public places.

“Today we must once again say that we will not be silenced about our sexuality. It takes no amount of money to give people respect, no one else has to compromise to give us our rights. There is no place for transphobia biphobia or homophobia in our society and today we say that loudly to Sainsburys but we need to carry on saying it after today too!

Let me say this:

“In a city which has won the top awards for the teaching of LGBT issues in our classrooms and has won awards for our work on trans equality, we are never going back to the days where LGBT people apologised for being ourselves and for doing that wonderful sign of affection: kissing in public.

“Tonight is a brilliant and innovative way to make a very serious point:

We are never going back to being afraid to be ourselves because of the people who find us repulsive and disgusting.

My final three thoughts are:

“COME OUT – in the words of the late Harvey Milk: “Coming out is the most political thing you can do.” If you are in a relationship and are unsure about showing your feelings for your other half, if in doubt, show the world first.

“STAY OUT – don’t be intimidated into not being as expressive as you otherwise would be. These are our streets and our supermarkets too. We deserve respect.

“BE PROUD – Stand up and be counted in the hope for a better world. Never, ever let the bigots set the agenda again.”

The student have three demands. A public apology from Sainburys, a substantial donation to a charity that helps fight homophobia and a review of Sainsbury’s equality and diversity training.

Writing in the Guardian today, Michael Segalov said: “It feels slightly strange demanding money from a protest, but it feels necessary. If Sainsbury’s are going to claim they are taking this incident seriously, their multimillion pound profit margins must be able to take a slightly bigger hit. Whether Sainsbury’s likes it or not, this incident has been a stark reminder that we have a long way to go to combat homophobia. The onus is on them now to do something about it.”

Sainsbury’s laid on free biscuits and bottles of water for the hundreds of protestors who were allowed into the store for the CONSENSUAL Kiss Ins which took place behind the mushy peas and at the meat counter.

Sainsbury’s were the only supermarket in St James Street not to contribute to Brighton Pride this year. Tesco, Morrisons and the Co-op all made donations of £1,000 toward the cost the the Pride Village Party. Sainbury’s do not feature in the Stonewall Top 100 Gay Friendly Employers Index.

A spokesperson for Sainburys, said: “We have always welcomed everyone into our stores and will do so as usual this evening.”