A demonstration was held outside the Joiners Arms, Hackney Road, on Saturday, January 21 to mark the two-year anniversary of the legendary LGBT+ venue’s closure.
It was organised by Friends of the Joiners Arms, a community group founded in 2014 to save the pub, and bring it into community ownership, so it becomes London’s first cooperatively owned, LGBT+ community centre, with the pub a central part of its operation.
The venue was forced to close in January 2015 as the owners – working with property developers – planned to bulldoze the venue to make way for luxury flats, but has remained empty ever since, with no plans submitted by the owners for development.
Friends of the Joiners Arms action were supported by other campaign groups, such as We Are The Black Cap and Stop The Blocks and members of the local LGBT+ community,to show the owners of the site that the fight continues to win back the venue.
Jon Ward, co-chair of the Friends of the Joiners Arms, said:“The Joiners was one the few late night LGBT+ venues in the east end, and its closure has left a massive hole in queer night scene and in our hearts. The venue closed because of greed and nothing else – why should such an important queer space be left to rot when it could be such an asset to the community?”
Amy Roberts, co-chair of Friends of the Arms, added: “London’s lost over a quarter of its queer venues in the last few years. This has left a huge hole in LGBT+ nightlife and has damaged the well-being of the queer community in London. This, coupled with the rise in homophobic hate crime, means LGBT+ people have fewer places to feel safe and to call home.”
Brighton Hove and District Samaritans are calling for a different type of volunteer to sign up for the Brighton Marathon on 9th April 2017.
They have five charity places to fill on their team and are looking for budding runners to join them in the race along the streets of Brighton and Hove, helping to raise money and the profile of the organisation along the route.
Registration for the Marathon normally costs £138.00 but Samaritan team members can sign up for just £25.00.
All they ask is for all volunteer runners to commit to raising as much sponsorship as they can for Brighton Hove and District Samaritans and to wear the Samaritans vests to show their support. Spectators will then be able to cheer them on knowing they are running for Samaritans.
If anyone is interested in volunteering to race for Samaritans, please email: brightonhovesams@gmail.com and get your charity running shoes on this April.
You can call Samaritans free anytime from any phone on 116 123, or email: jo@samaritans.org or view: www.samaritans.org or call Brighton, Hove and District Samaritans on 01273 772277.
Brighton & Hove City Council have been awarded £1.485m in funding from the Department for Transport for the city’s Brighton & Hove: Unlocking Growth with Active Travel programme.
The Department for Transport launched the Access Fund competition on July 5 last year with £60 million of revenue funding available for 2017-20. The competition was open to all English transport authorities outside London with the primary objectives of the Access Fund being “to support the local economy by supporting access to new and existing employment, education and training” and “to actively promote increased levels of physical activity through walking and cycling”.
Simon Kirby MP
The £1.485m will be awarded over a period from April 2017 to March 2020.
Simon Kirby, MP for Brighton Kemptown & Peacehaven, said:“This is great news for Brighton & Hove. Many more people will be encouraged to cycle and walk to work thanks to this Government investment.”
Andrew Jones MP
Transport Minister Andrew Jones, added:“We are committed to improving how people travel and this investment will ensure that people’s journeys are cheaper, safer and better for the environment. It will help people to become more active and better transport planning will reduce congestion on our roads – particularly at peak times. This investment will also help people access jobs, education and training – specifically targeting those looking to get back into work, as part of our relentless drive to make this is a country that works for everyone.”
Stephen Joseph
Stephen Joseph, Chief Executive, Campaign for Better Transport, said:“We strongly welcome this announcement of the access fund projects and the new cycling and walking to work fund. The evidence suggests that these kinds of projects can remove barriers to work, help local communities and businesses and also tackle local transport problems by giving people attractive alternatives to car use. We look forward to working with the Government, the authorities involved, and other organisations to develop and learn from these projects.”
Cllr Gill Mitchell
Councillor Gill Mitchell, chair of the environment, transport and sustainability committee, said:“This funding recognises the council’s commitment to helping families, workers, students and visitors to choose travel options other than the car. This in turn reduces congestion, improves bus journey times and brings health benefits along with cleaner air for everyone in Brighton & Hove. The project will help people to access work and training, which will contribute to the local economy, and make Brighton & Hove a successful and prosperous city as we move into the 2020’s.”
Trust for Developing Communities (TDC) will march in protest at Brighton & Hove City Council’s plans to make 80% cuts to Brighton & Hove’s Youth Services on Saturday, January 28.
The march will start at 1pm from the Old Steine war memorial, via the clock tower where there will be some speeches and finishing at Brighton Station at 2pm.
Organisers invite people and organisations to join the march and send a clear message to the council toProtect Youth Services.
Adam Muirhead, Youth Project Manager for TDC has written about some of the issues young people face at the moment, why youth funding is important, and what would happen if funding was lost.
Brighton Dome mark International Women’s Day 2017 with a specially selected series of performances and events.
International Women’s Day Open House event at Brighton Dome on Saturday, March 5 2016
These will include a talk on ecofeminism by Germaine Greer, stand-up comedian Bridget Christie’s take on Brexit, a live recording of The Guilty Feminist podcast, and a day-long marketplace of performance, art and debate in collaboration with Brighton Women’s Centre and Brighton Museum.
In the wake of last year’s referendum result, comedian Bridget Christie (March 4) ditched the show she was preparing to take to Edinburgh Fringe and wrote a whole new one about Brexit, Because You Demanded It. The award-winning comic, newspaper columnist and writer, brings her new show to Brighton Dome following a sell-out run at Edinburgh Fringe. It has been expanded and updated to include developments such as the growth of the “alt-right” and the election of Donald Trump.
Germaine Greer
Australian-born writer Germaine Greer (March 4) discusses ecofeminism in a special event for International Women’s Day, Women for Life on Earth:The Inevitability of Ecofeminism. She takes the view that feminists can be found wherever the planet and its inhabitants are in trouble, and if the planet is to survive and human beings continue to inhabit it, this female energy must be unleashed. When Welsh women turned up to protest at the RAF base at Greenham Common in 1981, they were carrying a banner that read Women for Life on Earth.
A live recording of Deborah Frances White’s hit comedy podcast The Guilty Feminist (March 4) will take place at the Old Courtroom, co-hosted by Margaret Cabourn-Smith with special guest Jen Brister. Deborah and her guests discuss topics ‘all 21st century feminists agree on’ while confessing the insecurities, hypocrisies and fears that underlie their lofty principles. Margaret Cabourn-Smith is a comedy writer and performer who has appeared on the likes of Fresh Meat and The IT Crowd, while Jen Brister is a stand-up comedian from South London.
Taking place in Brighton Dome and Brighton Museum, and joining forces with Brighton Museum and Brighton Women’s Centre, is International Women’s Day, with a programme of inspiring speakers and a marketplace of ideas, workshops and activities for all ages (March 4).
Award winning artist, Emma Frankland is looking for people to take part in development workshops for her new project Hearty. The workshops will facilitate conversations and unity over shared experiences between women undergoing hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for gender transition, or as part of menopause. Emma’s work focuses on issues around gender and identity (relating to her own transition as a trans woman) with a playfully destructive DIY aesthetic. Email artisticplanning@brightondome.org
Event: International Women’s Day Celebration
Where: Brighton Dome and Brighton Museum
When: Saturday, March 4
Time: 10am – 5pm
Cost: FREE
Event: Germaine Greer – Women for Life on Earth: The Inevitability of Ecofeminism
Where: Brighton Dome Concert Hall
When: Saturday, March 4
Time: Noon
Cost: £10, £8.50 concessions
Event:The Guilty Feminist Podcast
Where: Old Courtroom
When: Saturday, March 4
Time: 5pm
Cost: £7
Event: Bridget Christie: Because You Demanded It
Where: Brighton Dome Concert Hall, Church Street, Brighton
“We are millions. Let us stand together and show it. Let’s reject the politics of division and hatred. Let’s make tomorrow better than today.”
One Day Without Us, a National Day of Action on February, 20 2017 coincides with UN World Day of Social Justice and will celebrate the contribution of migrants to the UK.
For 24 hours, migrants from inside and outside the European Union, and everyone who supports them, will be invited to celebrate the contribution that migrants make to the country.
Some may choose to do this symbolically, by wearing badges and lanyards, posting selfies or pictures that show their support, or by putting posters in their windows.
Some may wish to have a communal meal or a party with the migrants they have known as friends, colleagues, workmates and neighbours. Workers may take a five-minute silence or a mini-rally at lunchtime or tea-time.
There are also those who may wish to highlight migrant contributions to the UK in more direct ways by preferring a march or to go to a rally. Others may decide to stop work or leave their classes for ten minutes or an hour or the whole day.
There are many ways that you can take part in this day. Do what you feel able to do and what you feel is most appropriate to your situation.
Whatever your nationality and place of origin; wherever you live and work, make February 20 a day of protest, solidarity and celebration.
The three biggest fetish brands in the South come together today to chase away those winter blues, bring you a weekend of hard partying and raise money for Rainbow Fund.
First on Friday 10 is the UK biggest sports kit fetish night The Big Scrum bringing their attitude free, fun, cheeky and horny club night for men that love rugby kit and all sportswear.
Saturday 11 the hard men of Leathermen South return bringing the raunch of a Berlin cruise bar to Brighton. Expect loads of leather and horny men.
Opening early on a Sunday afternoon is the annual Brighton Bear Black Valentine party. The bears will be down in the caves enjoying the meaty delights. Enjoy a toast to being single or being a couple. Wear black for discounted entrance.
Subline is the home for all three events. Check the listing page on the Subline website for the various entry times and different door charges.
All three events will be raising money for the Rainbow Fund who give grants to LGBT+/HIV organisations in Brighton & Hove who deliver effective front line services to LGBT+ people in the city.
Stephen Littlewood
Stephen Littlewood from the Big Scrum, said:“The Big Scrum is the UK’s biggest dedicated Sports Kit Club Night! With regular events in Manchester and Brighton and occasional events in Blackpool, Birmingham & Dublin. If you like men in Kit, free shots on entry and a fun, friendly, attitude-free and slightly cheeky night – Subline is the place to be! We’re teaming up in February with Leather Men South and Brighton Bear to present the BIG 3 WEEKEND. Sports kit on the Friday, leather and fetish on the Saturday followed by Black Valentines – for all those bears and admirers looking to hook up on Sunday. There is something for everyone over the weekend and it’s all in aid of The Rainbow Fund. So not only will you have a fun weekend to remember, you’ll also being supporting the gay community as a whole”
Carl Patrick
Carl Patrick from Leathermen South, added:“Leathermen South is delighted to be ‘coming together’ with the sexy rugby guys and the hot furry bears for a Valentine weekend of events at Subline in aid of the Rainbow Trust. Our Leather event takes place on Saturday 11th Feb, but we can all enjoy the events on Friday night and Sunday afternoon as well. It’s going to be great fun and we really look forward to seeing you all out and about.”
Graham Munday
Graham Munday from Brighton Bear Weekend, said:“It is so good to bring an event together at a time when we can all do with a pick me up. It has been so easy to work with the other groups. Subline is so generous and professional. We know everybody will have a great weekend after all it is always better when three come together”
Morgan Fabulous chats with Reece Roberts the manager of Legends on Brighton seafront.
Reece has been general manager of Legends for almost 10 years and is kept extremely busy running the hotel, bar and nightclub. He is full of praise for his team of friendly staff who he says are always there to support him and make him smile.
Born in Anglesey, North Wales, he had a happy upbringing and his parents were fully supportive when he came out.
One of his closest friends was also gay, but there wasn’t anywhere for them to socialise and be fully accepted in Anglesey, so at the age of 17 Reece moved to Manchester, where the gay scene was thriving. After a few years on the Manchester scene and having gained managerial experience with Johnson Cleaner he managed to get a transfer within the company to the South Coast and Brighton and when his friend, Collin Day, who was manager at Revenge asked him if he fancied a bar job at the club, he accepted.
Like many people who worked on the gay scene at that time, Reece felt his colleagues were more like family than workmates.
Tony Chapman owned Revenge at the time and Reece says was a great person to work for. Tony looked after his staff well, so when he bought Legends Hotel, Reece was happy to take the manager’s job there.
For many, Legends is the hub of the gay community in Brighton. I am a frequent visitor there as I like the clientele it attracts, and there’s always a warm friendly atmosphere.
I had never really considered what the hotel above is like, and I know it sounds like I’m writing a yelp review but I was very pleasantly surprised at the very high standards of rooms I saw, when I got a guided tour. With constant refurbishment and additions to the furniture and decor, the rooms are fresh, sophisticated and modern. Most importantly the staff are really friendly and the rates extremely reasonable for a hotel on Brighton seafront. If you have friends or relatives visiting for the weekend, I highly recommend you push them in the direction of the hotel.
The upstairs bar is currently undergoing an £80,000 refurbishment which includes new glass doors, a new floor, new tables, new wall coverings and reupholstered furniture. I got a sneak preview of some of the designs, and it’s going to look fab ul ous! The bar and club will remain open, while the refurbishment is being completed.
Reece lives with Justin, his partner of 16 years and their cat Dinky in Peacehaven and in his spare time loves cooking, socialising and keeping fit.
February. St Valentine’s Day. Ancient Roman fertility celebration? Christian Priest Valentine who defied his Emperor and performed marriages without his blessing?
There are a lot of conflicting takes on the origins of Valentine’s Day but no amount of reading and history takes the sting out of the tail for this time of year for me.
Being an absolutely hopeless romantic, I am always so happy to see others in love. It brings a tear to my eye when I see friends and family have ‘that look’ in their eyes as they look at their partner. I feel a great deal of happiness but those feelings are occasionally smeared with feelings of sadness that I don’t and have never really experienced those feelings for myself.
I haven’t been lucky in love over my 35 years construed as male. This has never been for lack of suitors lining up to do what so many have failed to do before them – get me to settle down. I have experimented in relationships with men and women over the years, but of course both sexes were looking for a boyfriend or husband, none of them were looking to me as a girlfriend or wife. If I had £1 for every person that has told me how sexually an attractive man I was over the years I would have enough money to pay for the facial feminisation surgery (FFS), gender conformation surgery (GCS, vaginoplasty), breast augmentation (BA), hair transplant, laser hair removal and every other expensive treatment that I’m never likely to ever afford to allow me to live the life I deserve, the life I should have been born into, the life that cisgender people take for granted – to have my sex match my gender.
“I looked at myself in the mirror and I said, ‘you can be an attractive man or an ugly woman – which is itto be?’. Suicidal ideation made that decision for me and thankfully I began transition”
I don’t wish to seem ungrateful as the NHS in England will, for some transwomen, pay for hormones, eight sessions of hair removal and GCS. Whilst I’m grateful that I live in a country with a health system, and a health system that recognises the transgender community being in medical need, and in no way claim to have it as bad as my sisters across the world (a plight that I intend on becoming more active in this year), there are places where the coin would have fallen more favourably towards me and the health service would pay for BA and FFS, the latter being such an important part of safety for so many women like myself who, to be able to move through the world without fear of abuse or much worse, need some tweaks to their facial appearance.
And there we have it. Plain and Simple. Why can I not maintain a relationship? Why have I remained mostly single throughout my life despite being regarded as highly desired? Because my sex does not match my gender – it never has. It doesn’t matter how many compliments I’ve been paid in the past, those compliments have been directed at my sex, and however well-meant those compliments, they fed into my gender dysphoria (GD).
At one point in the turbulent year that lead up to the beginning of my transition, when I never saw a time in the future that I would be viewed as a woman, and to be honest, I still don’t feel that way now most days, I looked at myself in the mirror and I said, ‘you can be an attractive man or an ugly woman – which is it to be?’. Suicidal ideation made that decision for me and thankfully I began transition.
I’m in a place now where I’m truly happy with my gender, not my appearance, but my gender. I’m a woman. I know I’m a woman. I feel like a woman, but do I look like a woman? Unfortunately not. This has led to a years worth (so far) of celibacy for me. When I knew that I was a woman but presented male I was able to pass as male, I was able to have sex with gay men or straight women but now I’m way past that stage, I can’t pretend to be male for the sake of sex even if I wanted to – which I most certainly don’t!
Oestrogen is working well for me and there are too many things that now, naked, free of make up, clothing and wigs give me away as not male. I have no body hair, my voice is changing, my skin is softer, I smell different, 75% of my facial hair has been lasered off, my testicles and penis have shrunk, I am unable to get an erection and I have breast growth.
So where does this leave me, both sexually and romantically on Valentine’s 2017? Well, it puts me in a pretty good place actually; a better one than I’ve ever been in before as I’m finally being true to myself. My true aesthetic potential may not be realised yet but I go into this year with my mind open to dating and finding people who will accept me for the woman I am with the physicality I currently have whilst I am under transition. Will I get the new body and face I so long for in the coming years? Will I find someone to love me?
Who knows, but until then I’ll just have to make the most of what I have and put a brave face on – even if it isn’t mine.
The city council’s business tourism arm, VisitBrighton Convention Bureau, has secured the return of the Liberal Democrats Annual Conference for 2018.
The conference will take place at the Brighton Centre in September 2018 and usually attracts a delegation of over 5000 people, generating up to £10m in economic benefit for the city.
The LibDem conference team has appointed VisitBrighton Convention Bureau as the sole accommodation partner for the event which means all attendees and exhibitors will book their accommodation through VisitBrighton’s on-line booking system.
For the conference, the VisitBrighton team has negotiated preferential rates and held room allocations at a range of VisitBrighton accommodation partners including the Old Ship Hotel, Mercure Brighton Seafront, Queens Hotel, Gullivers Hotel and the Hilton Brighton Metropole.
Howard Barden
Howard Barden, Brighton & Hove City Council’s Head of Tourism & Venues, said:“We’re delighted to be welcoming back the LibDems and thrilled they’ve chosen to use our accommodation booking service which we know can take out the leg-work and uncertainty of finding accommodation across the city.”
Cllr Alan Robins
Chair of the council’s economic development and culture committee Alan Robins added:“Conferences of this size are great for local businesses, drawing in extra visitors to boost trade at times of the year that are often quieter. A political conference also generates media coverage and puts our city on the map of destinations capable of hosting large-scale events.”
Lydia Dumont, Head of Conferences at the Liberal Democrats, said:“Our decision to go back to Brighton was based on the positive feedback received from delegates who attended our Autumn Conference in 2016. The city is a preferred destination for our members because it has so much to offer outside of conference and this just adds to the whole delegate experience.
“Brighton is an exciting and vibrant city with all venues situated close to the city centre and local amenities which offers delegates variety and flexibility throughout conference.
“The space at the Brighton Centre is ideal for on site registration which sometimes has to take place at a different venue in other cities. The LibDem conference team particularly enjoy working with the Brighton Centre staff who are extremely helpful, professional and flexible”.
VisitBrighton Convention Bureau promotes Brighton & Hove as a place to hold meetings, conferences and business events, works on behalf of the whole city and offers impartial support to event planners throughout the organising process.
The three biggest fetish brands in the South come together today to chase away those winter blues, bring you a weekend of hard partying and raise money for Rainbow Fund.
The city council’s business tourism arm, 
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