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Day: February 11, 2015

US national anti-sexism group calls for fairer pay for women pro soccer players

Posted on by Paul Gustafson

More than 20,000 people have joined American national anti-sexism group UltraViolet in a new campaign calling on FIFA, the international governing body for soccer, to pay soccer players equally regardless of gender.

Women's World Cup

UltraViolet cites that women athletes broke records in 2011 when the Women’s World Cup final became ESPN’s most viewed and highest rated soccer match of all time. But six months from now, campaigners say that women who will play in the next World Cup will compete for less than half of what male players made.

This campaign is part of ongoing work by UltraViolet to promote economic equality for women. From fighting for the rights of pregnant workers to shaming states across the US for their pay gaps, the group aims to pressure both corporations and politicians to end gender-based pay and allow women equal access to economic opportunity.

Shaunna Thomas, co-founder of UltraViolet, said: “Women’s soccer, and especially the Women’s World Cup, is enormously popular in America. But FIFA is stuck in a bygone era, paying women astronomically less than their male counterparts. This has to end: we demand FIFA pay professional soccer players equally, regardless of gender.”

To sign the petition, click here: 

For more information about Ultraviolet, click here:

PREVIEW: Singing workshop for International Womens Day

Posted on by Besi

Aneesa Chaudhry, will be running one of her popular singing workshop to celebrate International Women’s Day in March.

Aneesa Chaudhry

ANEESA is musical director of the Rainbow Chorus, Brighton’s only LGBT choir and has a wealth of experience running singing and motivational workshops.

The workshop is on Sunday, March 8 and will include a gig with performances from participants and soulful, uplifting songs from Aneesa herself.

Tickets for the workshop cost £30 and the event takes place at The Open House, 146 Springfield Rd, Springfield Road, Brighton

For more information, click here:

Event: International Womens Day Singing Workshop with Aneesa Chaudhry

Where: The Open House, 146 Springfield Road, Brighton

When: Sunday, March 8

Time: Noon

Cost: £30

 

Celebrate a Big Day for the LGBT Community in Philadelphia

Posted on by Alice Blezard

This year Philadelphia is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the city’s first gay rights protests.

 

Philadelphia

FAMOUSLY nicknamed the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia is well-known for its links to the gay community, which stem back to the principles that the city was founded on more than 300 years ago: equality and freedom of expression.

In the 1960s Philadelphia was home to some of the first gay rights protests in the United States, and the city has since gone on to welcome and embrace the gay community.

WEB.600.2

Today the city has a bustling gay village, which is fondly dubbed the Gayborhood. The area boasts urban cafe-culture as well as vibrant nightlife; it’s cobbled, tree-lined streets are home to coffee shops, bookshops, restaurants as well as many lively gay bars and clubs.

LGBT visitors from all over the world are encouraged to visit the city which is so embracing and celebratory of LGBT culture – and 2015 is a great year to visit.

The 50th anniversary celebrations taking place this year, are in honour of the 1965 picketing that took place at the city’s famous Independence Hall.

Philly

On Independence Day, gay rights activists gathered outside the hall demanding legislation that would secure the rights of LGBT Americans. 50 years have passed since this marked day of protest, and the LGBT community has a lot to celebrate.

Philadelphia has a full calendar of events to mark the anniversary, as well as the city’s annual Pride, Black Pride and National Coming Out Day celebrations.

Philadelphia Black Pride –  April 22-26, 2015

Five days of celebrations will mark the 16th anniversary of the Philadelphia Black Pride event (formerly Philadelphia Black Gay Pride) featuring everything from a poetry slam and a dance party to creative arts evenings and cocktail parties.

For more information, click here:

Philly Pride Day Parade

Philly Pride Parade and Festival – June 14 & July 5 2015

Philly Pride Parade and Festival is one of the largest LGBT pride celebrations in the world, attracting over 25,000 people each year. The 2015 theme is the 50th anniversary of the Annual Reminders picketing of Independence Hall that took place on July 4, 1965. Three weeks after the Pride celebrations, the picketing will be reenacted at Independence Hall on July 4.

For more information, click here: 

50th Anniversary of One of the First Gay Rights Protests – July 2-5, 2015

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of one of the U.S’s first gay rights demonstrations, the city plays host to many activities across the city centre with the iconic Independence Hall taking centre stage. On July 4, Independence Day, visitors can join a who’s who of LGBT icons and allies in front of Independence Hall for a ceremony commemorating the Gay Pioneers and celebrating 50 years of LGBT civil rights achievements.

Following this, on July 5 in the city’s ‘Gayborhood’ thousands of rainbow flag-wearing visitors are expected, for a huge block party celebration.

For more information, click here: 

Philadelphia Outfest – October 11, 2015

In true Philadelphia style, the city will welcome the world’s largest National Coming Out Day (NCOD) celebration in the heart of its Gayborhood on October 11 2015. Now in their 24th year, the festivities start at noon and continue until 7pm with over 30,000 people expected.

Visitors will take over the streets, decorating them with a multitude of rainbow flags as the party atmosphere gears up for the annual block party. In 1990, Philadelphia was one of the first cities to organise a large scale event to celebrate NCOD, and each year as the event has grown it has become a mecca in the city’s must-do gay events calendar.

For more information, click here:  

Stephen Fry urges everyone to sign new petition to pardon 49,000 men prosecuted in the UK for being gay

Posted on by Paul Gustafson

Stephen Fry is helping step up the campaign to pardon all those prosecuted under British Law for being gay by urging everyone to sign an online petition.

Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry

ALONG with Benedict Cumberbatch, Mr Fry was recently among the signatories of an open letter calling on the government to pardon all 49,000 men historically prosecuted for homosexuality, including around 15,000 who are still living.

Cumberbatch recently played World War II codebreaker Alan Turing in the Oscar nominated film The Imitation Game. Turing was a national hero but in 1952 was convicted of “gross indecency”. He underwent chemical castration, and tragically killed himself in 1954.

In 2013 Turing was officially pardoned by the British Government, but a current, high-profile campaign is asking for those who were similarly prosecuted to be unconditionally pardoned.

Urging people to sign the new petition, Stephen Fry writes: “Turing was not the only man convicted for being gay under the laws of “gross indecency”. These were pernicious, cruel laws that fortunately don’t exist now but whose shadow still looms over too many”. 

“More than 49,000 men were convicted under these and similar laws. Their lives were destroyed. They suffered humiliation, violence and total estrangement from their families which in some cases also led to suicide. That is why I’m lending my support to calls for Her Majesty’s Government to pardon all the men, alive or deceased, who, like Alan Turing, were convicted under ‘anti-gay’ laws.”

To sign the petition, click here:

Gaydio radio plans nationwide launch

Posted on by Besi

GaydioGaydio, the UK’s only radio station for gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans people has announced that it is part of a bid to launch nationwide on DAB Digital Radio.

LAST week bids closed for a second UK-wide DAB multiplex, known as Digital 2, which will carry 18 new stations. The station is part of a bid by Listen2Digital, one of two consortia competing for the licence.

Station Director Toby Whitehouse, said: “We know that people already listen online from Penzance up to Inverness, so making the station accessible via their home and car radios is hugely exciting”

Gaydio started life as a pop-up station to support Manchester Pride in 2006 before launching full-time in 2010 on an FM licence for Manchester.

In 2013 the station re-launched following the acquisition of DAB Digital Radio licences for London and the Sussex Coast that had previously been operated by Gaydar Radio.  Since then, the station has trialled temporary broadcasts in Liverpool and Central Scotland in preparation for launching nationwide.  Gaydio estimate they have around 850,000 listeners per month, making it the world’s largest LGBT radio station.

Ofcom is expected to announce the successful bid in Spring 2015, with the new service launching in the first half of 2016.

Details of the bid are available at listen2digital.co.uk and the station is asking listeners to support the bid by letting Ofcom know the importance of a nation-wide service for LGB&T people.

Gaydio currently broadcasts on DAB Digital Radio across London & Sussex and on 88.4fm in Manchester.

To listen to Gaydio, click here:

Lib Dem candidate takes fight on tuition fees to students

Posted on by Besi

“If Labour had achieved what we have, It’d be shouting from the rooftops:” Chris Bowers.

Chris Bowers: Lib Dem Candidate for Brighton Pavilion
Chris Bowers: Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Brighton Pavilion

THE Liberal Democrats’ candidate for Brighton Pavilion has taken the battle on tuition fees to Brighton’s students, saying: “If Labour had achieved what we’ve achieved on fair access to university, it would be shouting the news from the rooftops.”

Chris Bowers, who is standing against Caroline Lucas MP in Brighton Pavilion on May 7, addressed students at the University of Sussex last night (February 10) on the Lib Dems’ thorny issue of tuition fees.

In a 20-minute speech, he told students the Lib Dems had had a tricky decision to make in late 2010 having pledged not to raise tuition fees before the May 2010 election, but despite the flak they had taken, he says the decision had proved a good one.

“We pledged not to raise fees because our 2010 manifesto included a costed policy to phase out first degree tuition fees over six years,” Bowers said: “But with the Conservatives and Labour committed to the Browne report which recommended no cap on fees, we either had to stick by our pledge and watch higher education be massacred, or use the influence we had from students’ votes to go into bat for a better deal.”

“We chose to go for the best available deal for students, and the result was a series of vital concessions that have turned tuition fees into a graduate tax in all but name, and one that has made it a lot easier for youngsters from lower-income families to go to university. That is a big step towards equality of opportunity, and something anyone who cares about fairness should be proud of.”

Before attending last nights meeting Bowers tweeted “Off to the lions’ den” and quoted recent figures from the university admissions service Ucas which show the rate of disadvantaged students applying to study in higher education at an all-time high, with 18-year-olds living in the most disadvantaged areas of England 72 per cent more likely to apply to higher education in 2015 than they were nine years ago.

Beth Johnson-Dawes, chair of the University of Sussex Liberal Democrats, said: “It was good to hear the full story about tuition fees, and everyone in the audience listened politely. I spoke to people after the meeting who said it had never made sense to them that the Lib Dems got all the blame for tuition fees, and now they understood why. It just takes longer to explain the full story than you have in most print or broadcast media.”

The Liberal Democrats recently committed to protecting the education budget from cradle to college if they form part of the next government.

‘Men Get Eating Disorders Too’ National Conference in July

Posted on by Besi

Men Get Eating Disorders Too (MGEDT) will be holding their first ever National Conference in central Brighton, on July 10, 2015.

Men Get Eating Disorders TooTHE programme of speakers will include an eclectic mix of people working to improve understanding and awareness of men with eating disorders.

Confirmed speakers and presenters include:

• Dr Russell Delderfield: MGEDT Trustee and PhD student on the experiences of men with eating disorders. He will be the keynote speaker.

• Ulla Raisanen: Senior Researcher, Health Experiences Research Group, University of Oxford.

• Dr Laura Markham: Clinical Psychologist at Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health at Great Ormond Street, London.

• Laura Benton: Founder of B.O.D.Y.

• Danny Bowman: Body Dysmorphia Campaigner.

• Paul Donald: Founder and Chairman of Men and Boys Eating and Exercise Disorders Service – Scotland.

• Pam and Chris Nugent of The Laurence Trust in Northern Ireland.

• Jenny Langley: Author of Boys Get Eating Disorders Too.

Other presenters/speakers and workshops will be announced in due course.

Early-bird rates with 20 per cent reductions are available. Tickets cost £44 for the early-bird rate, otherwise £55 if booked after February 27.

Any charities and community groups that book early-bird tickets will be offered a free stall in the exhibition area

The conference is aimed at professionals from across all sectors, as well as carers and others in a supporting role with an aim to improve the support men receive.

For further information, provisional programme and how to book, click here:

For further information, enquiries and bookings email:

Bingo Bears at the A Bar

Posted on by Besi

Brighton Bear Weekender are organising a benefit for the Rainbow Fund on Sunday, February 15 at the A Bar on Marine Parade.

Bingo Bears

IT’S eyes down at the A Bar this Sunday (15) when the fabulous and multi-talented Mysterry Drag-Queen will be groping out the balls and calling out the numbers to help raise money for the Rainbow Fund, which makes grants to LGBT organisations in Brighton and Hove providing effective front-line services to LGBT people in the city.

There are large cash prizes to be won and you can always try your luck on the raffle.

Starting from 6 p.m., it will be a fun night for Bears and their friends, daddies and admirers.

Event: Bears Bingo

Where: The A Bar, 11-12 Marine Parade, Brighton BN2 1TL

When: Sunday, February 15

Time: From 6 p.m.

For information about Brighton Bears, click here:

Action plan to tackle health inequalities for men who have sex with men

Posted on by Besi

Public Health England (PHE) has launched an action plan to address the health and well-being inequalities affecting gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM).

Public Health England

THE plan focuses on three interrelated areas in which MSM are disproportionately burdened with ill health: sexual health and HIV, mental health and the use of alcohol, drugs and tobacco.

Research shows that:

•  MSM continue to be the group most affected by HIV infection.

•  MSM are twice as likely to be depressed or anxious compared with other men.

•  Adult MSM are twice as likely to be dependent on alcohol compared with the rest of the male population and smoking rates are higher.

•  MSM have higher rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD), asthma and diabetes.

•  MSM are less likely to seek help from health and social care services and to reveal their sexual identity to those providing their care.

Key determinants for improving inequalities include:

•  Reducing the number of new HIV infections

•  Closing the gap in self-reported mental ill health between MSM and the general male population

• Reducing the proportion of MSM who are drinking above lower-risk levels and reporting use of harmful substances

• Reducing smoking prevalence amongst MSM

Prof.Kevin Fenton
Prof.Kevin Fenton

Professor Kevin Fenton, Director of Health and Wellbeing at Public Health England, said: “Despite vast improvements in social acceptance over the years, lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people continue to face discrimination. As a result, this community faces barriers in accessing health services and remains disproportionately burdened with ill health.

“This structured programme of action will work with and support the public health system and private and third sector organisations to actively respond to the needs of these communities locally.”

Prof. Jane Andersen
Prof. Jane Andersen

Professor Jane Anderson, Expert Advisor on HIV, Sexual Health and Reproductive Health at Public Health England, added: “Men who have sex with men are amongst those most affected by HIV and other sexually transmitted infections in the UK, and numbers continue to rise.  If we are to make a real impact on the HIV epidemic and improve sexual health it is crucial that we tackle the wider determinants of health set out in this framework”

 

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