Finola Brophy, Chair of the Rainbow Chorus will be the guest speaker at The Village Metropolitan Community Church on Sunday October 29.
Finola lives in Worthing with her partner of nearly 30 years, Liz, though she spends a lot of time and energy in Brighton committed to improving Brighton and Hove’s LGBT+ voluntary and community sector.
She identifies as many things including; lesbian, Irish, disabled, feminist, activist, socialist, atheist, cancer survivor, partner, mother, granny… and more.
She has a degree and social work qualification, and her goal is to use her skills and experience to help identify unmet needs, to redress the balance, and challenge homo/bi/transphobia.
Finola is currently on the Working To Connect management committee, Older and Out advisory group and is the Chair of The Rainbow Chorus which has doubled in size, become a registered charity and become much more inclusive under her leadership.
She is active in the development of a national and international LGBT+ choral movement and earlier this year received a Golden Handbag Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her services to the LGBT+ communities.
The Village MCC Brighton and Hove is a church created by LGBT+ christians, their families, friends, and allies, a Metropolitan Community Church called to support the LGBT+ communities in whatever ways it can offering a safe space where anyone can feel at home, fully affirmed in their sexuality and gender identity.
Church members are active in the larger community, offering emergency aid and support to the homeless and vulnerably housed.
Their minister, Rev. Michael Hydes, offers spiritual direction and pastoral care. You are welcome to join then for worship every Sunday evening.
Event: Finola Brophy: Guest speaker at The Village Metropolitan Community Church
Where: Somerset Day Centre, 62 St James’s Street, Brighton
Art on the Underground unveils artwork by late artist David McDiarmid at Brixton Underground station.
Art on the Underground has teamed up with not-for-profit gallery Studio Voltaire and This is Clapham, to celebrate the work of late Australian artist and activist, David McDiarmid who is well known for his work on issues relating to queer identity and HIV/AIDS.
Rainbow Aphorisms (1993-1995), are a series of short and bold statements set on full rainbow backgrounds which reference McDiarmid’s experience of the AIDS crisis. This is the first major presentation of the artist’s work in the UK.
The vibrant, rainbow coloured artworks, THE FAMILY TREE STOPS HERE DARLING, DON’T FORGET TO REMEMBER and GIRLFRIEND OUR LIFE IS ONE OF LIGHTS AND SHADOWS, will be displayed above the entrance to Brixton Underground station and at stations across London.
David McDiarmid
Speaking about his work in 1992, McDiarmid, said:“I wanted to express myself and I wanted to respond to what was going on and I wanted to reach a gay male audience.
“I wanted to express very complex emotions and I didn’t know how to do it … I was in a bit of a dilemma. I thought, well, how can I get across these complex messages. I didn’t think it was simply a matter of saying gay is good.”
Eleanor Pinfield, Head of Art on the Underground, added:“Art on the Underground enriches people’s journeys on the Tube each day with innovative approaches to public art. By partnering with Studio Voltaire on their first public project, we can bring the complex, colourful works of ‘Rainbow Aphorisms’ to a new audience across London, challenging familiar messaging around HIV / AIDS.”
Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture & Creative Industries, said:“I’m delighted that David McDiarmid’s colourful, poignant and powerful works will be displayed across London’s largest art gallery – the London Underground. McDiarmid was a trailblazing gay activist and the Tube network is the perfect way to showcase his messages about living with HIV/AIDS to a wider audience, particularly in the run up to World Aids Day in December.”
Over the course of a year, artworks will also appear on Studio Voltaire’s facade and neighbouring LGBT+ venue Two Brewers, and other temporary locations across Clapham and Brixton.
The project has been mounted with the support and involvement of the David McDiarmid Estate in Sydney.
There will also be a number of public events held – for more information click here:or here:
Ms Sugar Swan looks at her relationship with HIV as a trans woman.
Ms Sugar Swan
I’ve been HIV+ for the majority of my adult life. I was diagnosed in my early 20s shortly after the death of my mother. I didn’t take her death very well and ran away to Europe for three months where I undertook some risky sexual practice as I was in a dark depression. Most traumatically I was gang raped by four men who took it in turns to rape me multiple times which left me not only with mental scars, but physically torn.
On my return to the UK, I was diagnosed with HIV along with three other STIs that were quickly eliminated through modern medicine. Given my experience and the trauma to my anus, my diagnosis was inevitable.
As I approach 40 I can honestly say that HIV in relation to my health isn’t something that I think all that much about, if at all. I’m very lucky that I was diagnosed early before the virus had a chance to damage my immune system and I’ve responded extremely well to HAART. Thanks to religiously regular testing we can pinpoint my diagnosis to the three-month period that I was out of the UK.
Nowadays it’s seen as best practice to get newly diagnosed HIV+ people started on HAART quickly after diagnosis for a few reasons. One being to protect the person’s immune system and another that bringing a HIV+ person down to an undetectable viral load makes them one of the safest people a HIV- person can have sex with, as having an undetectable viral load is statistically a safer way of preventing the spread of HIV than condoms.
Having an undetectable viral load means that HIV cannot be passed by seminal or vaginal fluid. Yes that’s right, I’ll say it again for those who are hard of understanding – having an undetectable viral load means that HIV cannot be passed by seminal or vaginal fluid. Got it? Good. Let’s move on.
Post-diagnosis, in the days when it wasn’t best practice to put people on HAART immediately, I was monitored every six months and never saw a fall in my CD4 count or a climb in my viral load.
I was one of the lucky ones that coexisted with HIV without it bringing secondary infections to my body. When a new medical trial came out, although I wasn’t seen as needing HAART at the time, I was asked if I’d be prepared to take part in the trial of a new drug regime.
Being the kind of person that I am, and thinking of my mother’s death and the people before her who trailed the cancer treatments that afforded her some extra years, I thought that if I tried something experimental it could help those in the future. I signed up to the trial without hesitation.
Some 10 years later and I’m happy to report that after the initial two-year trial I’m still on that same combination of drugs and I’ve been undetectable since I started. I’ve a super high CD4 count of over 1,000 (greater than many a HIV- person). It warms my heart when a newly diagnosed person turns to me for support around medication and its side effects and I ask what combination of HAART they’ve been recommended and they report it’s the same regime that I was a guinea pig for, that works so well for me and that I still adhere to.
I’ve a very healthy immune system and HIV hasn’t held me back from doing anything. From a medical point of view I’m one of the HIV success stories. Unfortunately from a social point of view, especially as a trans woman, the same cannot be said.
Pre-transition, living in Brighton, and being viewed as an MSM (men that have sex with men), I found living with HIV pretty easy. There was very little stigma. MSM in Brighton are pretty clued up about HIV in my experience and disclosure of one’s status, whilst sometimes leading to sexual rejection, was fairly simple.
There’s a large community of MSM with HIV in Brighton and finding people to talk to, confide in, make friendships, have intimacy and relationships with, was pretty straight forward. There’s always been a huge push on education around HIV within the MSM community which I’ve been part of while working in THT’s Ship Street offices for many years seeing clients one to one to help them navigate the world.
It’s impossible to go for a drink in a gay venue without being educated with posters everywhere and free condoms and lube. There’s a lot of education on PeP and PrEP and freely available information on support groups and networks. The message is loud and clear, it’s getting through and that’s great. Living as an out and proud positive MSM was achievable.
However, things haven’t been the same since transition. I’ve felt like I’ve been forced back into the HIV closet and that’s somewhere I stayed in early transition. Living as a trans woman, in my opinion, carries a lot more stigma than living as a HIV+ MSM.
Living as a trans woman with HIV feels like you may as well just give up! Awareness is next to non-existent. Dating is a whole new minefield and people are completely shocked that I’m positive. Sexual rejection rates are much higher, which leaves me asking why?
I believe the answer is education. Sexual health awareness isn’t as highly publicised in other communities as within MSM. This means I’m left to educate people myself and after giving them trans 101, giving them STI and HIV 101, that is, to those who hang round long enough to listen, I’m spent.
I realised that there was a huge gap in education which led me to think that the sexual health needs of HIV+ trans women were not being met. This in turn lead me to Professor Rusi Jaspal who is working on The EXTRA Study (EXperiences of TRAns women living with HIV) and it’s the first UK study to explore HIV+ trans women’s experiences of living with HIV.
I was interviewed by Prof Jaspal for this study and he’s working to address the gap in knowledge around HIV in trans communities. Global studies suggest that trans women are at higher risk of HIV infection than other groups in society (up to 49% more likely); however, there’s no UK data at present.
It’s suspected that stigma around both HIV and being trans and worries of interactions between HAART and HRT, are keeping trans women away from coming forward and being tested.
I felt honoured to have taken part in this most valuable ongoing research. Having been a service user of the Claude Nicol Centre and Lawson Unit since 2002, it wasn’t long into transition that I was made aware of ClinicT.
ClinicT, a sexual health service for trans people, is run by Dr Kate Nambiar, Clinical Research Fellow & Speciality Doctor in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine. I find ClinicT a great resource – for me it’s a one stop shop where I can have my HIV and HRT blood levels checked at the same time as having a sexual health screen.
I asked Dr Nambiar about the service offered at ClinicT and she told me; “I was really glad to be able to start ClinicT. From a personal point of view, as a trans woman, I had spent a lot of my life running away and hiding from being trans. I think it was a personal revelation to be in a position where I could give something back and use not just my knowledge as a doctor but also my experience living as a trans woman.”
Dr Nambiar’s words resonate with me as running and hiding from being trans and now being in a position to give back, using my experience as a trans woman, is something that we both put into our work.
It’s my hope that by coming forward, outing myself so publicly and speaking of my experiences as a trans woman living with HIV, that I’ll bring other trans positive people out to talk about this, to take part in Prof Jaspal’s study, to go to ClinicT to get screened and ask for the help they need to navigate both sexual health and trans specific healthcare services. Failing that, just contact me and we can go for a cup of tea and share our experiences.
I look forward to seeing you at the WAD vigil at the AIDS Memorial on New Steine, Friday Dec 1 at 6pm!
London’s multi-award-winning LGBT literary salon Polari turns ten on November 24 with a special event at London’s Southbank Centre.
Paul Burston
Founded in 2007 in a bar in Soho, Polari moved to the Southbank in 2009 and also tours regularly, funded by Arts Council England.
Described by the Huffington Post as:“the most exciting literary movement in London, crackling with energy, ideas, excitement” and by the New York Times as “London’s most theatrical salon”, Polari is curated and hosted by author Paul Burston.
The salon is marking ten years of championing LGBT+ voices with its largest ever tour, funded by Arts Council England and taking in 16 towns and cities around the UK including Bradford, Dublin, Edinburgh, Hull and Newcastle.
Among the many writers appearing are Val McDermid, Neil Bartlett, Stella Duffy, Jake Arnott, David McAlmont and Rosie Garland.
The Tenth Birthday Party at Southbank Centre on November 24 forms the centrepiece of the tour and featuries Jonathan Harvey, Alexis Gregory, J Fergus Evans and many more.
Event: Polari Literary Salon Tenth Birthday
Where: Weston Pavilion, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London
Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool to showcase Perry’s dresses in the first display of its kind in the UK.
Grayson Perry outside Liverpool Walker Art Gallery: Photo by Gareth Jones
Dresses belonging to the artist Grayson Perry will be exhibited at Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery in the first display of its kind to be held in the UK.
Making Himself Claire: Grayson Perry’s Dresses runs from November 4 2017 to February 4, 2018 and will showcase 12 dresses, including the Bo Peep dress worn by Perry when he won the Turner Prize in 2003.
The free display explores Perry’s interest in cross-dressing, which has been part of his life since childhood. For the artist, the experience and its underlying eroticism are bound up with the formation of his psycho-sexual identity and his creative drive.
Perry has said:“I think of my dressing up as the heraldry of my subconscious.”
Since 2004, Perry has primarily worn dresses designed by the fashion students at London’s Central St Martins. They take part in an annual competition to create new designs. He then judges their work, awards prizes and purchases up to 20 of their creations every year.
Perry says: “I encourage them to make the dresses as bizarre and exciting as they can.”
Grayson Perry outside Liverpool Walker Art Gallery: Photo by Gareth Jones
Essex-born Perry calls his transvestite alter ego Claire and considers November 5, 1975 to be Claire’s birthday. While he didn’t adopt the name until later, when he began to visit transvestite clubs, it was on this date that, aged fifteen, he first walked around his local village wearing a chiffon headscarf over an auburn wig, a brown polyester blouse and a dog-tooth checked skirt, black court shoes and a beige mac.
Perry has described Claire’s earliest manifestations as a conventional ‘Essex housewife’ or ‘newsreader’ type. Later, finding being able to ‘pass’ as a woman no longer rewarding, he developed more flamboyant outward expressions for Claire, tapping into aspects of femininity that he had reached out for since childhood.
Pauline Rushton, Senior Curator of Decorative Arts at National Museums Liverpool, said:“Visitors who enjoyed Grayson Parry’s touring exhibition The Vanity of Small Differences at the Walker in 2014 will be familiar with the artist’s ability to explore complex social issues in a relatable, witty and engaging way.
“It is fascinating to see how themes of identity, social status, sexuality and religion are represented in a variety of symbols across Claire’s dresses, along with Perry’s own personal iconography. We’re sure that visitors will love seeing the dresses up-close and examining the detail represented.”
In his own work, Perry works with traditional media such as ceramics, cast iron, bronze, printmaking and tapestry. He uses their seductive qualities to make stealthy comments about society, including its pleasure, injustices and flaws, and to explore a variety of historical and contemporary themes.
Where: Walker Art Gallery, William Brown Street, Liverpool, L3 8EL
When: From November 4 2017 to February 4, 2018
Time: Open daily 10am-5pm
Cost: Free entry
For more information about Walker Art Gallery, click here:
Sussex Beacon charity shops on St James Street and London Road get in the Halloween spirit with a secret auction for a range of weird and wonderful items displayed in their windows.
As well as traditional Halloween decorations, the St James street shop window has an old apothecary style cabinet with jars and lights. The London Road store has a mad scientist lab display complete with a bubbling crocodile head in ‘formaldehyde.’
Items up for grabs include electric static energy balls, old Victorian magnifying glasses, books, bell jars and stuffed crows!
All the items in the window are included in the auction. Bids are placed in a sealed box until Halloween, when the box is opened and the highest bidders are revealed.
Simon Dowe
Simon Dowe, CEO at Sussex Beacon said:“Our Halloween Auction is amazing! If you’re looking for something unique, bizarre or a talking point, there are plenty of things to choose from. Even better, the winning bids will go towards our vital work, supporting people living with HIV across Sussex. It’s a great cause, so we hope to see plenty of people ‘coffin’ up.”
So if you want to have the willies put up you this Halloween get yourself along to one of the Sussex Beacon Charity Shops at 130 St James Street Kemptown or 72-73 London Road.
For more information about the Sussex Beacon, click here:
After 17 years as a main stay of the Brighton LGBT+ commercial scene, Charles Street bar will be holding a closing down party from 7.30pm on Sunday, November 12 called “Sally says – Drink Us Dry!” with special guest cabaret from Cinebra.
The venue will then close to the public for the following four weeks to undergo a major refurbishment.
Chris Marshall
Chris Marshall the General Manager, said:“When Charles Street first opened back in 2000, it caused quite a stir and quickly became known for its decor and premium products and service – so in many ways we’re going to take it back to its roots.”
The venue reopens as the Charles Street Tap on the evening of Monday, December 11, with a VIP launch weekend from Friday December 15 to Sunday December 17.
Chris continued:“We’re going to keep on doing what we’re so proud of, such as award-winning cabaret and DJ nights – but we’re going to add so much more – hence the name change, or rather addition. It’s going to be the same venue but in many ways also a new LGBT+ venue!”
As the name suggests Charles Street Tap will specialise in craft beers and ales, but also premium gin and cocktails. There will be an extensive new food menu served from 10am to 10pm daily.
But what of the refurb itself? Well, Chris is keeping his cards close to his chest at the moment. “It’s going to be a quite a surprise I think for a lot of people – it’s far from just a lick of paint as you would expect from a four-week close and there’s going to be lots of changes and additions to the bar. We’re covering everything from the basement toilets right up through the building and outside too! We’ll be almost doubling the amount of seating, which has meant quite a bit of creativity from the designers to achieve – but its pretty impressive what they’ve done I have to say. It’s going to be very Brighton!”
The Brighton Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum (B&H LGBT CSF) has its Annual General Meeting tonight at the Queens Hotel, 1-3 Kings Road, Brighton at 7pm.
Guest speak for the evening will beMelinda King, Communities Coordinator from the Partnership Community Safety Team who will take questions at the end of her presentation.
The current B&H LGBT CSF work plan will be discussed as well as plans for the future along with presentation of the treasurers report and a discussion about policy and procedures.
Billie Lewis
Billie Lewis, Chair of the Forum said:“Elections for posts on the B&H LGBT CSF committee will also take place tonight. If you wish to stand for committee arrive at the meeting early and register your interest with the secretary.
“We’re here to bring together the many LGBT+ groups across the city under the one umbrella of ‘Community Safety and Inclusion’. Only by combining our efforts and working together can we become a more powerful voice for the LGBT+ communities which will enable us to achieve so much more.”
B&H LGBT CSF is an established independent LGBT+ forum of eight elected unpaid volunteers working with the + Communities to address and improve safety and access issues throughout Brighton & Hove.
The forum undertakes cultural, educational and social safety community activities and any type of LGBT community/inclusion and accessibility initiatives.
The LGBT Community Safety Forum was formed to give the community a much-needed voice on a wide range of safety issues in Brighton and Hove and to serve as a bridge between the LGBT+ communities and statutory service providers such as the city council and Sussex Police, to enable there to be more accountability and transparency of the services they provide.
It’s very much a forum where members of the public can have their say and can ask direct questions to those in charge of community safety in the city.
For more information and to download the agenda and company accounts, click here:
If you have not moved home in the Brighton area over the last few years, then you probably won’t have noticed that he’s been away.
Shaun Johnson
The combination of the panic that comes from turning 40, along with an opportunity presenting itself to explore a different way of life, meant bye-bye England and hello Norway for Shaun Johnson who for many years ran his company Man with a Van in Brighton offering a bespoke removal service to the LGBT community.
Shaun says several years of living in a different culture and certainly a different climate has been a fantastic life experience for him but, is the grass greener on the other side?
He says: “No, in fact there is a distinct shortage of grass. Trees, rock and fjords are in abundance, snow can be plentiful, but beautiful green rolling countryside is in short supply.”
He found dealing with a proper winter was easier than expected. The properties have decent insulation and underfloor heating. The car had an engine pre-heater, which was handy when the temperatures were down to –20c. The air was dry and the snow was fluffy. Weather is no surprise; therefore, the nation is geared up to cope with it. Winter tyres are law and snow ploughs are everywhere, there is no excuse for not getting to work. On a bad day, public transport can be up to a couple of minutes late!
Norwegians are well paid, enjoy a solid welfare system, and overall, have a relatively high material standard of life. However, he found the quality and choice of food in the supermarket was dreadful, and the cost of alcohol, criminal.
After several years of adventure, making new friends and even quitting smoking, the great food and stunning countryside of Sussex beckoned and Shaun has returned to his roots.
Feeling refreshed and energised, www.man-with-a-van.com is now open again for business and getting down to some decent hard work with removals in Brighton once again.
He says: “Give us a call, after all, we have been established since 1999.”
To contact the Man with a Van telephone 07754 669457
Bear-Patrol and the Bedford Tavern raised £305.56 for MindOut the LGBTQ Mental Health Service at the Abigail’s Party fundraiser on October 6.
Adam, the owner of the Bedford Tavern, playing the role of Beverley to perfection, served cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks, quiche, nuts and olives and following a disaster in the kitchen with the vol au vents, prawn mayonnaise on french bread, as everyone watched the iconic drama on big screens. Special thanks to the volunteer buckets shakers on the night, Graeme Atack and David Crow who made sure everyone put their hands in their pockets and contributed to a good cause.
However, things haven’t been the same since transition. I’ve felt like I’ve been forced back into the HIV closet and that’s somewhere I stayed in early transition. Living as a trans woman, in my opinion, carries a lot more stigma than living as a HIV+ MSM.
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