Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London Caroline Pidgeon says she will guarantee to continue funding London Pride at the current level of £100,000 for the whole of the next Mayoral term when elected.
Caroline says she would also use City Hall resources to explore further corporate sponsorship for Pride by ensuring City Hall match-funds pound for pound all additional corporate sponsorship beyond that secured last year up to an additional £50,000.
Caroline, who marches regularly at London Pride with London Liberal Democrat members, said: “London is home to people from many different backgrounds who come together as one of the most diverse and tolerant cities in the world. London’s LGBT+ community is a vital part of our city’s appeal and success, and the London Liberal Democrats have a long and proud history of supporting and championing it.
“Pride is an essential cultural celebration for the LGBT+ community. Not only the march, but also all the many hundreds of events that surround it bring hundreds of thousands of visitors into London every year and we should so all that we can to ensure the event continues for many years to come.”
Following a public vote on cakes made for anti-bullying week in November, 2015, 12 schools will compete in the live final of the Edu-cake & Cel-a-bake Great Rainbow Bake-off on February 12, 2016.
The final celebrates LGBT History Month where the theme this year is religion, faith and philosophy.
Bakers in the competition will attempt to reflect this theme in their bakes. Noisy entries will be scored highly as the qualifying round of the competition was during anti-bullying week under the title Make a Noise about bullying.
Judging the competition is renowned chef and columnist Jack Monroe who formally came out as non-binary transgender in October 2015. They write a column in the Observer and are in the process of publishing a follow-up to their number 1 bestselling cookery book ‘A Girl Called Jack’ with a new publication ‘Cooking on a Bootstrap’.
Jack Monroe
They said: “I’m not a brilliant baker myself, my birthday cake efforts over the years have relied on wonky kook and Instagram filters, but I use baking to thrash out issues and worries, especially with my 5-year-old son. We punch and knead dough to de-stress, carefully ice biscuits, and chat about more difficult things while we do. We meet friends over cake and tea to catch up and talk, hold coffee and cake mornings to fundraise for charities and bake cakes for celebrations – baking is synonymous with love, conversations and jubilation. I’m honoured to be judging this year’s Rainbow Bake Off, to explore what LGBT History month means to people”.
Elly Barnes
Elly Barnes CEO of Educate & Celebrate also a judge, said: “Our Great Rainbow Bake-off is an accessible and fun way to help schools increase visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people and their history. The idea has really taken off, we were overwhelmed with entries from schools across the UK in our second year of the competition. Having Jack as a judge in the live final is the icing on the cake!”
The Edu-cake & Cel-a-bake competition is an easy way for teachers to confidently engage with students via the medium of baking! Last year the winning cakes included the pink triangle, the genderbread person and rainbow layers all of which are an educational way to highlight the LGBT+ struggle on the journey to positive change
One of the finalists Keziah from Big Creative education spoke about her qualifying cake: “My cake represents the different people in society. Anti-Bullying means that we have to educate and spread the word more than ever before. We have to highlight different themes and issues throughout anti-bullying week and what we can do as a society and college to help prevent it long-term, not just for the week.”
Another competitor at qualifying stage, said:“My cake which is a rainbow sponge is a baked representation of the LGBT+ flag, something that shows unity within the community.”
The competition is run in partnership with Gay Star News.
The final will take place at Urswick School, London on February 12, 2016.
For further information on the competition plus how to access training and resources, click here:
Celebrate the DVD release of Dressed as a Girl, a ‘frockumentary’ documenting London’s alternative East End drag phenomenon, with a screening of the film, a Q&A session with its director Colin Rothbart, and an after party with John Sizzle at The Glory, London on Friday, February 26, from 5pm.
Filmed over six years,Dressed as a Girl is both a record of a fascinating style of hyper-costumed performance and an insight into the fragile personal lives of its most celebrated performers, including Jonny Woo, John Sizzle, Holestar, Scottee, Amber, Pia and Ma Butcher.
Every ticket purchased to the screening also includes a free copy of the film on DVD (worth £12) loaded with bonus extras, including music videos, interviews and performances. Also up for grabs is a chance to win one of three signed posters by the stars of the film.
Organisers will be playing tracks throughout the night and Lauren Harries will be performing some of her hot tracks from the Hit Parade!
Event:Dressed as a Girl Screening
Where: The Glory, 281 Kingsland High Street, London, E2 8AS
When: Friday, February 26; doors at 5pm, the film at 8pm.
Transgender activist Sophie Cook incredulous at transphobe, Germaine Greer’s latest award.
Sophie Cook
Last week, Germaine Greer was awarded the Iconoclast of the Year Award by The Oldie Magazine.
Greer, 76, hit the headlines in October 2015 when she met with accusations of misogyny over comments about trans women after she’d been booked to speak at Cardiff University.
Her opinions on trans women first appeared in a chapter of her 1999 book The Whole Woman entitled Pantomime Dames in which she denounced transgender women as “men who believe that they are women and have had themselves castrated.”
In a BBC Newsnight interview last year Greer accused trans women of misogyny after Caitlyn Jenner was named as one of Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year.
“I think misogyny plays a really big part in all of this,” Greer told the BBC, “that a man who goes to these lengths to become a woman will be a better woman than someone who is just born a woman.”
Following criticism of these comments she responded with statement, claiming: “Just because you lop off your dick and then wear a dress doesn’t make you a fucking woman. I’ve asked my doctor to give me long ears and liver spots and I’m going to wear a brown coat but that won’t turn me into a fucking cocker spaniel.
“A man who gets his dick chopped off is actually inflicting an extraordinary act of violence on himself.”
In response to the news of her award local transgender activist Sophie Cook, said: “Gender dysphoria is not something that we choose, it is an intrinsic part of our very souls and to deny it led me and many other trans women to a lifetime battling self harm and suicidal feelings.
“As well as being deeply hurtful and dismissive of transgender people’s very real pain Greer’s bigotry attempts to lend a factual sheen to transphobia and this award is an obscene validation of dangerous hate speech disguised as intellectual thought.
“Bigotry makes strange bed fellows and the thought of the feminist Greer and the misogynist Jeremy Clarkson uniting against a shared enemy is truly bizarre.
“Where once her views were at the vanguard of feminist thought she increasingly looks as out of touch with the times as the sexists, homophobes and racists of the 60s and 70s.”
Transformational speaker, Sophie is an ex-RAF, motorbike racer, newspaper editor, rock photographer, self harm and suicide survivor and the first transgender woman to work in the Premier League.
In her live shows she talks about the fears that held her back in life – of loss, of failure, of success, of being sad, of being happy, of being outed, of being loved – and how she overcame them to be true to and, finally, start loving herself.
Sophie is the Patron of the LGB&T Dorset Equality Network, a Healthwatch Dorset Champion, and a member of the Pan-Dorset LGBT Health Advisory Group.
For more information about Sophie’s work, click here:
The Good Son has been selected for the City Reads event, taking place as a part of Brighton Festival.
Brighton-based author Paul McVeigh’s novel The Good Son has been chosen for City Reads 2016, when the big read for adults returns to it’s cultural home as a part of Brighton Festival’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
Sarah Hutchings, the Artistic Director of City Reads, said: “Choosing one book for a whole City to read, share and celebrate is a wonderful thing because it brings people together. Brighton-based Northern Irish writer Paul McVeigh’s incredible book was the perfect choice, particularly as 2016 marks the centenary of the Easter Rising, a rebellion that led to the eventual signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the creation of Northern Ireland. I defy anyone not to fall in love with its protagonist Mickey Donnelly. He’s clever, naive and hilariously funny. I hope you love it as much as we do at City Reads.”
McVeigh is delighted to have been chosen as this year’s author, and will be speaking at Brighton Festival on May 29.
Born in Belfast, Paul McVeigh began his writing career as a playwright before moving to London where he wrote comedy shows. His short stories have been published in literary journals and anthologies, read on BBC Radio 5 and commissioned by BBC Radio 4. He is also the co-founder of London Short Story Festival.
He said:“When I moved to Brighton a few years ago, one of the first things I did was volunteer for City Reads to celebrate books and get to know my new city. Who could believe that just a few years later my book would be chosen and my adopted city would adopt me right back. That it will be part of the 50th Anniversary of the Brighton Festival is such an honour. I can’t wait to get started.”
For more information, about City Reads, click here:
Following a public vote on cakes made for anti-bullying week in November, 2015, 12 schools will compete in the live final of the Edu-cake & Cel-a-bake Great Rainbow Bake-off on February 12, 2016.
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