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Rainbow Fund award record grants

The Rainbow Fund Awards on Tuesday, September 8 at the Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel saw more than £78,000 in grants awarded to local LGBT/HIV groups and organisations who deliver effective front line services to LGBT people in the city.

Rainbow Fund Chair, Chris Gull
Rainbow Fund Chair, Chris Gull

The awards were hosted by comedienne and Rainbow Fund Patron, Zoe Lyons who was joined by Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne, Conservative Group Leader Cllr Geoffrey Theobald, his wife Councillor Carole Theobald and LGBT community leaders to make presentations of the grants to LGBT/HIV organisations in Brighton & Hove who deliver effective front line services to LGBT people in the city.

The Mayor of Brighton & Hove who was at another function sent a message of support congratulating Brighton Pride on their fundraising achievements and the Rainbow Fund for their work supporting LGBT and HIV organisations in the city. She emphasised how important Pride is to the city and highlighted the financial impact the event has on local businesses.

Chris Gull, Chair of the Rainbow Fund read the Mayor’s message out and explained that the £1 a head donated by Pride to the Rainbow Fund was not profit made by Pride but a ring fenced fixed cost.

Brighton Pride is a CIC company and any profits have to be ploughed straight back into the company. If it rains one year the Rainbow Fund still gets the £1 a head on any tickets sold while Pride could well struggle to pay its bills and the city would lose it biggest public event.

All three local MPs sent apologies for not being able to attend as they were sitting in Parliament. No local Green or Labour councillors responded to the invitation to attend the awards.

A total of £100.000 was raised by Brighton Pride in 2015. £90,000 has been donated to the Rainbow Fund, bringing the total raised by Pride over the last two years for good causes to over £200,000. A further £10,000 has been set aside for a new social impact fund for areas in the city affected by the Pride main event and Pride Village Party.

In this funding round £78,304 was awarded to the following organisations:

Rainbow Awards: GEMS

♦   GEMS: Received a £2,500 grant towards core funding costs: Presented by Pride Ambassador David Raven.

Rainbow Awards: Peer Action

♦   PEER ACTION: Received a £7,500 grant towards core funding costs, and providing complementary therapies and yoga sessions for people affected by HIV: Presented by Danny Dwyer from Bear-Patrol.

Rainbow Awards: Older & Out

♦   OLDER AND OUT: Received a £5,000 grant towards providing continuing support for social activities, lunches and representation for LGBT elders: Presented by Carol Theobald Conservative Councillor for Patcham.

Rainbow Awards MindOut

♦   MINDOUT: Received a £4,889 grant towards Suicide Prevention Programme ‘Out of the Blue’ and continuing support for social group: Presented by Rainbow Fund Grants Panel Member, Christopher Sandland MBE.

Rainbow Awards Switchboard

♦  BRIGHTON and HOVE LGBT SWITCHBOARD: Received a £5,000 grant to pay for external clinical supervision for counsellors: Presented by Andrew Kay from Latest TV.

Rainbow Awards Trans Alliance

♦  TRANS ALLIANCE: Received a £5,775 grant towards core funding costs and delivering Trans Awareness training to businesses and employers: Presented by Brighton Pride Ambassador Alice Denny.

Rainbow Awards Clare Project

CLARE PROJECT: Received a £4,910 grant towards core funding costs and continued support for ‘Living Well Courses’: Presented by Brighton Pride Ambassador Alice Denny.

Rainbow Awards Sussex Beacon

SUSSEX BEACON: Received a £4,350 grant towards equipping Rainbow Fund Treatment Room for use of nurses and service users of the Sussex Beacon: Presented by Chair of the Gay Business Forum and St James Street Pubwatch, Alex Matthews.

Rainbow Awards

LUNCH POSITIVE: Received a £7,500 grant towards core funding costs and continued support for weekly lunches: Presented by the Golden Handbag Favourite Landlord Adam Brooks.

Rainbow Awards LGBT Safety Forum

BRIGHTON AND HOVE LGBT COMMUNITY SAFETY FORUM: Received a £7,485 grant towards core costs, safety training and information sessions to be delivered from a portable trailer in St James Street: Presented by Katy Bourne, Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner.

Rainbow Awards Accessibility Matters

♦  ACCESSIBILITY MATTERS: Received a £7,495 grant towards core funding costs, BSL signers at Pride and a Hate Crime Needs Assessment: Presented by Katy Bourne, Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner

Rainbow Awards Small Groups Network

♦  SMALL GROUPS NETWORK: Received a £2,820 grant towards meeting room hire costs: Presented by Chair of Rainbow Fund, Chris Gull.

Rainbow Awards Rainbow Families

RAINBOW FAMILIES: Received a £2,580 grant towards funding a range of activities and events designed to engage older children within LGBT families to develop friendships: Presented by Pride Ambassador Aneesa Chaudhry.

Rainbow Awards Radio Reverb

RADIO REVERB: Received a £3,000 grant towards sponsoring 52 one hour weekly radio shows for the HIV community called The HIV Happy Hour: Presented by Leader of the Conservative Group, Cllr Geoffrey Theobald.

Rainbow Awards Rainbow Chorus

RAINBOW CHORUS: Received a £2,500 grant to establish a new singing group with more assessable rehearsal times with less pressure of performance, creating greater social inclusion: Presented by star of Gogglebox Chris Steed.

Rainbow Awards Allsorts

ALLSORTS: Received a £5,000 grant towards delivering services to trans children and LGBT young people: Presented by members of Brighton Bear Weekender.

There will be a second funding round in Spring 2016. Details will be announced on the Rainbow Fund website in the new year.

All grants have been awarded under condition that small groups attend the quarterly meetings of the LGBT Small Groups Network and all LGBT/HIV groups send a representative to the LGBT Community Safety Forum’s four quarterly public meetings.

The next public meeting for the LGBT Community Safety Forum is their AGM on Wednesday, October 28 at the Queens Hotel at 7pm when they will be presenting the findings from the 2014 Police Trust and Confidence Survey.

For more information about the Rainbow Fund, click here:

 

PICTURE DIARY: Alternative Panto ‘Sinderfella’ launched at QA

Sinderfella receives official launch at the Queens Arms with the announcement that local drag legends Dave Lynn and Maisie Trollette have joined the company for the star-studded panto, written by Andrew Stark, directed by Quintin Young with musical direction by Marc Yarrow.

Sinderfella

Dave and Maisie will be joining Miss Jason, Lola Lasagne, Davina Sparkle, Jason Lee, Allan Jay, Wezley Sebastian and Christopher Howard in the star-studded panto which will run at the Sallis Benney Theatre between February 4-14, 2016.

The party doubled as Peter Storrow’s champagne birthday party and was hosted by Davina Sparkle with entertainment provided by Maisie Trollette, Christopher Howard, Sally Vate and Wain Kara Douglas.

James Ledward received a surprise presentation from Peter Storrow, Tony Chapman owner of Legends and Paul Gray owner of The Brighton Sauna of a luxury cruise on the Queen Mary 2 with £500 onboard spending for him and his husband Besi, to thank James for the community work he had done over the last 21 years.

To book tickets for the panto, click here:

Or telephone: 01273 709709


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Sinderfella Launch

Sinderfella Adult Panto

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REVIEW: The Great Gatsby: Eastbourne

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The Great Gatsby

Blackeyed Theatre

Eastbourne

Watching this play at the Devonshire Park Theatre in Eastbourne last night I realised why I never finished F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby I really did not care for the players and the notion of the poor little boy become rich and then having everything taken from him did not satisfy me at all. The book is so full of snobby, wastefulness and mean, small unlikeable people. Fitzgerald’s appeal was to a somewhat naïve culture bloodied by its first serious experience of a terrible global war and a need for the amnesiac effects of frivolity, I’m not sure the same counts for the inhabitants of Sussex.

I wasn’t gripped by this production, the cast did an able job with an unattractive plot. The make-do geometric staging didn’t feel one thing or the other and had rather a lot of scuff marks on it which made it look shabby in the excellent lighting. The book is a monster to prune so it’s always going to be difficult to stage, but the young cast performed with integrity and verve and one scene ceded to another smoothly and colourfully.  Blackeyed Theatre have done some superb work in the past but I felt this was not one of their better adaptations.

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The cast did well but it never really caught fire, there was a lot of chop, change, interludes, reflection and some clever effects (the car accident scene being particularly good) but it somehow stayed disjoined.  I didn’t care about a single one of the characters, their demeaning love affairs, broken dreams or aspirations. The addition of a strong smoky voice for the jazz segues would have strengthened the musical interludes along with some amplification; why sing quietly into a mic that’s a prop when a mic is what’s needed. It’s a pity there was not really one single noteworthy performance. I left the theatre, much as one might have left one of Gatsby’s parties, kind of entertained, feeling that time had passed, witnessing some gossip and action but wondering if it was worth it. Gatsby was a wounded slender dreamer and I would have found it much more convincing had the brutish husband held the parties, made a pass at the kitchen maid or butler, while his vapid wife danced insanely with her one dimensional golfing friend, and then they all went out in a boat, holed by a spurned butler and drowned in the sound. Quietly.

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As I drove away into the silent darkness of the Sussex night with the roof down and the stars reflecting in the waxed and polished bonnet of my little car we roared over the cliffs and downs watching the moon reflect on the ocean and listening to the cosy babble of my glamorous international companion who insisted on suggesting a wit-off between Coward and Fitzgerald might be a fun way to spend an evening. I reflected on how close a lot of folks lives are to Gatsby’s, they are all carelessly rich folk, being careless with other people’s lives and then retreating into their money and privilege and letting other people clean up the mess they create. The story is very familiar, wealth, fame, dissolution, snobbery, money and a lack of meaning. Unfortunately there were no drunken floozies stepping out in front of the car waving their pearls and desperation at us, nor did my glamorous confidante grab at the wheel in a drunken panic, there were just a few bemused Sussex Sheep looking on as we giggled and sped off into the night. I felt less than thrilled.

I reflected that at least the journey was worth it, the Devonshire Park being a treat of a venue even if the show was lacklustre, (it’s a darling gem of a theater and the staff are lovely,) and was quietly glad that my vivacious companion was not lionising and glorifying Mr. Churchill, unlike the journey home following Rattigan’s Flare Path last month, some small mercy indeed. So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight.

This Great Gatsby is one for the ardent fans of Blackeyed or dedicated followers of Fitzgerald. I would suggest you get the film out instead but that was terrible, so don’t.

Until September 12

Devonshire Park Theatre

Eastbourne

For more info or to book tickets see the theater website here:

 

 

Rainbow Fund to equip treatment room at Sussex Beacon

Sussex Beacon awarded £4,350 at Rainbow Fund and Pride Business Awards to pay for essential equipment in one of their inpatient unit treatment rooms.

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The treatment room is where the medicine and specialist equipment that patients will need during their stay at The Sussex Beacon is stored and is used on a daily basis by nurses to do activities such as preparing a trolley for doing a patient’s dressing or preparing controlled drugs to administer to patients. It also acts as a central storage area for emergency equipment.

The equipment the Beacon will purchase with this grant will help to improve patient care in three key areas:

♦    Allow The Sussex Beacon to fully access patients’ mobility and independence and utilise the skills and knowledge of their occupational therapy and physiotherapy services.

♦    Enhance the standard of care they provide to their patients by giving nurses the equipment they need to administer specialist procedures such as IV medications and fluids. This will allow patients to return to independent living. It will also provide patients with the care and comfort they deserve during end of life care.

♦   Finally, the equipment will make sure that The Sussex Beacon has a treatment room that is fit for purpose, meets clinical standards and allows for the delivery of safe care in a modern environment.

The current treatment room is functional but not fit for purpose. Some of the equipment has broken over time and there has not been the funding to replace it. Other items have not been needed until now, for example, drip stands so that nurses can administer IV medications and fluids.

Patients who are being admitted to The Sussex Beacon have very different needs to when the centre first opened. Their treatment is becoming increasingly complex and many are highly dependent due to the progression of their HIV, the impact of ageing and changes in patients’ health and social status.

The room will be named The Rainbow Fund Treatment Room and a plaque will be put on the door.

Volunteers and staff joined Sussex Beacon CEO Simon Dowe, newly appointed Lead Nurse, Jason Warriner at the award ceremony last night to receive the grant from Alex Matthews, Chair of the Gay Business Forum and St James Street Pub Watch.

The evening was hosted at the Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel by comedienne Zoe Lyons who is patron of the Rainbow Fund. Hospitality was provided by the Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel and production was donated by Matt Constable and Ellis Johnson from Alpha Bass Sound & Light, James Tomlinson, Billie Lewis Productions and Chris Jepson.

LGBTI Awards celebrate contributions to equality in Scotland

Top QC to receive lifetime achievement award at Scotland’s first LGBTI Awards celebrating contributions to equality.

Derek Ogg QC
Derek Ogg QC

In recognition of one of his main achievements, and to mark the 35th anniversary of the decriminalisation of sex between men in Scotland, Derek Ogg QC from Glasgow will receive the Equality Network Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ogg’s activism began in the Scottish Minorities Group (SMG) in the early 1970s. SMG was Scotland’s first gay rights organisation, founded in 1969 – it later became the Scottish Homosexual Rights Group (SHRG), and later still, Outright Scotland.

In SMG, Ogg was one of the organisers of the first international Gay Rights Congress, held in Edinburgh from December 18 to 22, 1974. The Congress was attended by 400 people, and led to the setting up of the International Gay Association, which became today’s ILGA.

As a lawyer, Ogg was very much involved in SMG’s legal campaigning, including against employment discrimination, and to decriminalise sex between men, which in the 1970s remained a crime in Scotland.

On July 22, 1980, the House of Commons passed a decriminalisation amendment from Robin Cook MP, and decriminalisation (although with significant restrictions) came into effect on February 1, 1981.

In the 1980s, much of Ogg’s activism was focussed on AIDS/HIV. In 1983 he founded Scottish Aids Monitor, Scotland’s first and at the time only AIDS/HIV charity, and he was also much involved in the establishment of Milestone Hospice and Waverley Care.

While pursuing his highly successful career as an advocate, Ogg has continued to work for equality, and has been an invaluable advisor to Outright Scotland, and later the Equality Network, in the 1990s and beyond, advising on equalising the age of consent and removing other discrimination from the law, to move us close to full legal equality.

Derek Ogg QC, said; “I am delighted to have been selected for this Award and look forward to celebrating the other recipients’ awards too. The Equality Network is now an important national resource and helps our whole community to feel at ease with itself. We will all have a great night, then roll up our sleeves next day and continue the life enhancing campaigns still urgently needed.”

Four hundred guests, including the First Minister, key politicians, journalists including Lorraine Kelly, community groups and organisations from across the public and private spheres will attend the inaugural Scottish LGBTI Awards ceremony, which will be hosted by comedienne Karen Dunbar and will take place at Glasgow’s iconic Grand Central Hotel.

The awards will celebrate people and groups who have made important contributions to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) equality and human rights in Scotland during the past year.

The red carpet event has been organised by the Equality Network, Scotland’s national LGBTI equality and human rights charity and will feature performances by singer-songwriter Horse McDonald, Pop Idol winner Michelle McManus and Glasgow favourites Robert and May Miller.

There are fifteen award categories and two special awards for the first Scottish LGBTI Awards on the night, including Politician of the Year, Outstanding Campaigner Award and Journalist of the Year.

WEB.200Scott Cuthbertson, of the Equality Network, said: “We are very excited to be hosting the Equality Network’s inaugural Scottish LGBTI Awards. The past year has been an amazing year for LGBTI equality with the first same-sex marriages happening across Scotland after many years of campaigning. Progress on LGBTI equality and human rights would not be possible without the hard work and support of many people, groups and organisations from all over Scotland, it’s those people we are celebrating at these awards. Our nominees represent the best advocates for equality and human rights in Scotland.”

He continued; “Today we are delighted to announce the winners of our two special awards in advance of the awards gala later this week. Our ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ has been awarded to Derek Ogg QC for his numerous accomplishments in the field of LGBTI equality over many years, and in particular his work on the decriminalisation of sex between men in Scotland, which took place thirty-five years ago this year. The second special award, Equality Network ‘Friend for Life’ has been awarded to Anne and Joe Patrizio, from Parents Enquiry Scotland, for their long-standing work supporting parents of LGBT people. We would like to congratulate all the winners and look forward to announcing the winners of the other categories on at our gala event on Thursday 10th September.”

Anne and Joe Patrizio from Parents Enquiry Scotland in Edinburgh, will receive the Equality Network ‘Friend for Life’ award, for their long-standing work supporting other parents with young LGBT people.

Anne and Joe Patrizio
Anne and Joe Patrizio

Mr and Mrs Patrizio’s son came out to them as gay, in the late 1980s, at the age of 23. Recognising how difficult it had been for him growing up gay and feeling unable to confide in anyone, and how helpful it would be for parents, whose children come out, to access support, Mr and Mrs Patrizio became involved in developing Parents Enquiry Scotland.

Parents Enquiry is an entirely voluntary organisation which provides information and support for parents whose children have come out as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. It offers a range of information leaflets and booklets in addition to telephone helplines. Through their work with Parent Enquiry, the Patrizios have provided invaluable support to countless parents of young LGBT people, for 25 years.

In 2004, Anne Patrizio received an MBE from the Queen at Holyrood Palace, in recognition of her support of the LGBT community in Scotland, and in 2013, Parents Enquiry Scotland received the Outstanding Achievement Award from LGBT Youth Scotland. The Patrizios also appeared as one of the six couples featured in the Equality Network’s 2013 equal marriage campaign video, It’s Time! http://tinyurl.com/itstime2013

Anne and Joe Patrizio said: “‘It was a complete surprise to hear about the Friend for Life Award, and we are very grateful to the Equality Network. We are looking forward to Thursday and think it will be a great opportunity to meet other people who have been involved over the years.’”

For a full list of the nominees, click here:


Event: Equality Network Lifetime Achievement Award

Where: Grand Central Hotel, 99 Gordon Street, Glasgow G1 3SF

When: Thursday, September 10

Time: From 6.15pm

For more information about Equality Network, click here:

 Equality Network

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