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March of the Mermaids returns on July 15

The fifth annual March of the Mermaids takes place on Saturday, July 15, 2017.

March of the Mermaids is not just for mermaids! Mermen, sea mammals, crustaceans, pirates, sailors and all forms of sea life are invited to take part – It’s a day out for all the family.

Meet on Hove Lawns (closest to the Peace Statue) from 2.30pm then at 3pm parade along Brighton seafront to celebrate our seas, sea life and raise awareness of marine conservation.

The parade will end at 4pm at the joint after-party venues, the Fortune of War and The Tempest Inn on Brighton Beach for music and entertainment until the wee hours!

This year there are no charges to take part in the parade or entry to the after-parties but a donation of £3 would be appreciated by the organisers.

All profit raised will be donated to Surfers Against Sewage.


Event: March of the Mermaids

Where: Peace Statue on border of Brighton and Hove

When: Saturday, July 15

Time: 2.30pm for 3pm start

Cost: Free entry, but suggested donation of £3

To make a donation, click here:

For more information, click here:

Serial gay killer investigation moves into interview phase

Seventeen police officers to be questioned as Stephen Port investigation moves into interview phase.

Stephen Port
Stephen Port convicted of murdering four gay men

The Independent Police Complaints Commission’s (IPCC) independent investigation is progressing into the response of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to the deaths of Anthony Walgate, Gabriel Kovari, Daniel Whitworth, and Jack Taylor, who were murdered following blunders in the early part of their investigations by officers who failed to link the deaths together.

Stephen Port was convicted of four counts of murder plus a number of other offences in November 2016, and was sentenced to life in prison. He had administered fatal doses of the date rape drug GBH to his victims who he met on gay dating websites and then dumped their bodies very close to his home in East London.

Cindy Butts
Cindy Butts

IPCC Commissioner Cindy Butts, says: “Over the coming weeks our investigators will be undertaking interviews with the 17 officers who have been served with notices as part of the investigation. These interviews are an important milestone in the investigation as we continue to build the picture of the police response to the deaths. Misconduct notices are not judgemental in any way.

“We are grateful for the information provided to us by the family and friends of Anthony, Daniel, Gabriel, and Jack, as well as members the LGBT community and the wider public, and MPS officers. In an investigation of this magnitude, centred upon the tragic murders of four dearly missed young men, every piece of information counts and we continue to wish to hear from anyone who can assist this important work.

“My thoughts remain with everyone affected by Port’s horrific crimes, and they can be assured that we are committed to providing them with thorough conclusions as soon as we are able.”

As part of the investigation IPCC investigators have so far collected and carefully analysed over 700 individual documents and around 200 statements.

Following the interview process, which will take a number of weeks, investigators will be in a position to complete the analysis of the evidence at hand, and begin preparing the IPCC’s final report.

Anyone with information should contact the IPCC on 0800 151 0021 or email: barking&dagenham@ipcc.gsi.gov.uk

US Government appoints ‘hate group’ to UN delegation

US Department of State appoints two organisations known to oppose the UN human rights system, LGBT+ rights, and women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights to its official delegation to the 61st annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

The Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM) is labeled a ‘hate group’ by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Heritage Foundation who in the past have called for a cut in funding for programs combatting violence against women and claims that anti-discrimination laws grant LGBT+ people “special privileges.”

Jessica Stern
Jessica Stern

Jessica Stern, Executive Director of OutRight Action International, the international LGBT+ human rights organisation, commented on the US Delegation to the UN CSW.

She said: “In their Senate confirmation hearings, Secretary of State Tillerson and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley repeatedly pledged to uphold the right to be free from discrimination as an American value.

The appointment of these organisations to the official US delegation undermines their positions. I urge Secretary Tillerson and Ambassador Haley to ensure that the US delegation maintains non-discrimination at the CSW in the face of obvious pressure from these newly appointed members of the delegation.

Fundamentalist notions about how women and girls should behave should never be the basis of advising or negotiating US foreign policy.

It is also a bad sign that two organizations that have tried to delegitimize the United Nations and human rights internationally now sit on the official US delegation. Maybe the violent mentality that got C-FAM labeled a hate group successfully panders to their base, but the US government must ensure protection for the world’s most vulnerable people.”

C-FAM regularly releases homophobic vitriol on its website, has called for the criminalisation of homosexuality and has even espoused violence.

Its president, Austin Ruse, has said, “The penalties for homosexual behaviour should not be jail time, but having some laws on the books, even if unenforced, would help society to teach what is good, and also would prevent such truly harmful practices as homosexual marriage and adoption.”

In defiance of evidence, Ruse has asserted that, “the homosexual lifestyle is harmful to public health and morals.” During an interview in 2014, Ruse commented that he hoped his children would attend private colleges, “to keep them so far away from the hard left, human-hating people that run modern universities, who should all be taken out and shot.”  The Southern Poverty Law Center has considered C-FAM a hate group since 2014.

The Heritage Foundation and its sister organisations has at least 11 past employees now working in the Trump Administration and has provided much of the domestic and foreign policy blueprint the Trump Administration used in its first days in office.

In its call to cut funding for programs combatting violence against women, the Heritage Foundation said such programs amount to a, “misuse of federal resources and a distraction from concerns that are truly the province of the federal government.”

The organisation continually purports that anti-discrimination laws inclusive of sexual orientation and gender identity are unjustified. It alleges that such laws, “do not protect equality before the law; instead, they grant special privileges.”  The organisation steadfastly rallies against the rights of transgender people. It claims that, “[W]e are created male and female and that male and female are created for each other.”

Jessica Stern continued: “Practically speaking, the US should support CSW conclusions that condemn discrimination on any basis, support family diversity, and support the full range of conditions that enable women’s economic empowerment, including comprehensive family planning. While these ideas might seem like a leap of faith after the appointment of these organisations, these positions are the logical application of the principle of non-discrimination. Human rights are based on indivisibility, which also means that the US cannot credibly support non-discrimination for LGBT+ people while opposing family planning. Women’s rights, reproductive choice, LGBT+ rights, climate justice, and the strength of the international human rights system all go hand-in-hand.

Many Americans have recently asked themselves, what does foreign policy matter to human rights at home? Now, we have our answer. The same groups advocating against women’s rights, immigrants, Muslims, the Affordable Care Act, and LGBT+ rights in the US are taking these views to the international stage. What the US says about women from around the world at the CSW will be a sign of things to come for American women, so it is essential that the US uphold American values and prevent all forms of discrimination at the CSW. Domestic and foreign policy are two sides of the same coin.”

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