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Leading gay historian to speak in Croydon

 

Matt Cook, leading gay historian, will be speaking in Croydon on Tuesday May 17 at a meeting of the Croydon Area Gay Society.

Matt Cook
Matt Cook

His talk, entitled “From ‘evil men’ to ‘frenetic faggots’,” is a history of London gay life “from the 1950s to the 1970s and back again”.

The meeting will be upstairs at the Spread Eagle, Katharine Street at 8pm, is organised by Croydon Area Gay Society (CAGS) and is open to everyone (no charge).

WEB.200Matt Cook is Professor of Modern History at Birkbeck University of London, and a renowned expert on gay history. He is a fascinating and entertaining speaker, and his talk promises to be one of the highlights of CAGS year.

Professor Cook’s latest book, Queer Domesticities, Homosexuality and Home Life in Twentieth Century London, was published by Palgrave in 2014.

His previous books include London and the Culture of Homosexuality (2003), A Gay History of Britain (2007) and Queer 1950s: Rethinking Sexuality in the Post-War years (2012).

The meeting is being held on IDAHOT day, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, marked every year worldwide May 17. Other events are being planned in Croydon during IDAHOT week.

This is the latest in CAGS’ series of open meetings, under the title The Brief Encounter. Previous speakers have included Brian Paddick, Peter Tatchell, Stella Duffy, and the Bishop of Croydon.

For more information about CAGS, click here:

For more information about The Brief Encounter series of meetings, click here:

For more about IDAHOT events in Croydon, click here:

Lunch Positive – Emergency Food Pantry for people with HIV

Lunch Positive the HIV charity and lunch club has started a new initiative, building on its previous emergency food parcels given to people with HIV in financial crisis.

 

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The Friday Pantry will offer a weekends worth of healthy food stocks for people until they are able to access more specialist support during the week ahead. The charity will also offer advice on where to find financial and welfare advice and debt support, budgeting support, and referrals to food banks.

People can access the pantry service by contacting Lunch Positive, or if supported by other HIV organisations contacting them and be signposted or referred.

The service is being led by one of Lunch Positive’s volunteers Phil who says: “At Lunch Positive we’ve met increasing numbers of people who find themselves in financial crisis, we really want to help and ensure no one should ever be deprived of food that they need. I’m really looking forward to getting The Friday Pantry off the ground and supporting our community.”

Gary Pargeter
Gary Pargeter

Gary Pargeter, Lunch Positive Service Manager added: “Even in our seemingly affluent city, food poverty still exists, and impacts hard on people with HIV and chronic illness. No one should be embarrassed about asking for support where it is provided and we hope people with HIV who are going hungry and in financial crisis will come to us if needed. The Pantry will help address these periods of crisis, and support people to find longer term help and solutions. We’d like to thank our many supporters who have helped stock the pantry including FareShare Sussex for ongoing food donations, BLAGSS, and Coop Funeral Care who raised a much needed £210 to start up the service.”

 

For more information, click here:

Charles Street R.I.P.

Charles Street an active and much-loved member of the local LGBT community died suddenly at his home in Brighton last week.

Charles Street
Charles Street

Charles moved to Brighton from London in 2014 and made Brighton his home very quickly.

He was a bursting bubble of life, honest, genuine, full of personality and a major part of the local community attending, supporting and helping to organise many fundraising events benefitting all sections of the city’s diverse communities.

Charles adored the cabaret scene and would often be found in various cabaret venues in Brighton ‘With his biggest Fan’ and friends, laughing, joking and quite simply enjoying life to the full !!

Charles had a positive impact on so many people shown in all the wonderful messages attributed to him on social media since he passed away.

Funeral arrangements and a memorial service for Charles will be posted online in due course once they have been organised.

                                                                                                                                         written by Danny Dwyer

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