Tea with the Old Queen, a one-man play based on the fictitious secret diaries of the Queen Mother’s real-life page and steward, will be staged as part of Newcastle Pride 2014.
Tea with the old Queen
The play will be performed at the North East Mining Institute, Westgate Road, Newcastle on Saturday, July 5 from 7.30pm.
The show, features a host of stories, fabricated for comedic effect, and stars Ian Stark as William “Backstairs Billy” Tallon, who served at Clarence House until HRH Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother’s, death in 2002.
Newcastle Pride starts on the weekend of Friday, July 18. The Parade, commences at midday on Saturday, July 19 and forms part of a three-day programme of events.
Other highlights for 2014 include live performances by big name acts including Sinitta, Shayne Ward and the Vengaboys at Newcastle’s Town Moor, where there will also be a fun fair, themed entertainment zones and various stalls open throughout the weekend.
For the first time in Newcastle Pride’s seven year history, this year’s event will also include a second stage outside the Centre for Life, where there will be live music from stars such as Steps singer Faye Tozer on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings.
The majority of the event is free, however a number of Gold, VIP and Platinum packages are also available incorporating hospitality and a reserved viewing area for the Town Moor performances.
For more information about Newcastle Pride, CLICK HERE:
Brighton & Hove Conservatives are incredulous that Preston Park has once again been allowed to be taken over by an unauthorised traveller encampment for the second time in as many weeks.
Travellers evicted from Wild Park by police and council officials on Wednesday have dispersed to a variety of locations around the city including Preston Park where the gates allowing caravan access to the park remained unlocked after the Wild Park eviction.
Lee Wares
Conservative council candidate for Preston Park Ward, Lee Wares, said:“When I spoke with residents of the City using Preston Park yesterday evening, not one person was in favour of the encampments. They find it incomprehensible that in planning the eviction from Wild Park nobody thought to close the gates preventing caravan access to Preston Park. It is incompetency to not consider that dispersing such a large group from Wild Park would lead to Preston Park being targeted. Without exception they feel that enough liberties have been taken and the Council should stop wasting money on tolerating the situation. They feel that the Police should equally start to consider the rights of local residents.”
“It is also ridiculous that the Council and Police are now conducting a Community Impact Assessment and welfare checks on the same group that were assessed when they first arrived at Preston Park several weeks ago, assessed again when they went to Wild Park and now for the third time as they return to Preston Park. What do the officers think will have changed?”
Cllr Geoffrey Theobald, leader of Conservative group, Brighton & Hove City Council
Conservative Group Leader, Cllr. Geoffrey Theobald, added:“There is a very simple solution for areas such as Preston Park and that is to designate them as Sensitive Sites. By doing so the Police can evict immediately, nobody will suffer the disruption and money will not be wasted.”
“Unfortunately the simple solution is not possible because the Green and Labour Parties have not supported the motion we put before the Council twice in the last year or so asking for sensitive sites to be designated. It would seem that they are not as concerned as the residents that our parks, playing fields and other green spaces are subject to huge unauthorised encampments.”
Cllr Warren Morgan
Warren Morgan, leader of the Labour and Co-operative group on Brighton & Hove Council, said:“The council does have a sensitive site protocol drawn up in conjunction with the police that we support. However, it remains the decision of the police as to whether they use their powers of immediate eviction. The council does not have these powers and the Tory-led Government has done nothing to change that.”
New photograph to go on display in April Ashley exhibition in Liverpool.
April Ashley
A new photograph showing April Ashley meeting Sir Winston Churchill has gone on display at the Museum of Liverpool.
This rare press image has been included in the universally praised April Ashley: Portrait of a lady exhibition, which has recently been extended to run until, December 7 2014.
The photograph, showing April and Winston meeting for the first time in April 1964, has been re-discovered in time to mark 50 years since the event took place.
Both April and Sir Winston were attending the last matinee performance of Fata Morgana at the Ashcroft Theatre in Croydon, which starred Churchill’s daughter Sarah in the role of Mathilde. The photograph was taken just months before Churchill’s last illness before he passed away in January 1965.
In the photo Sarah Churchill can be seen on Sir Winston’s left, along with actor David Hemmings behind Churchill and Ellen Pollock who directed the show is in the centre.
April wrote in her biography, about the meeting: “I was so glad – even if only for a moment – I’d met someone who’d been such an important part of history. As children, we had been brought up with two gods: God and Winston Churchill”.
Tony Singleton, who also worked on Fata Morgana at the Ashcroft, recently unearthed the photograph in one of his treasured memory boxes.
April Ashley: Portrait of a lady opened at the Museum of Liverpool in September 2013, to tell the story of April Ashley – one of the first people in the world to undergo gender reassignment surgery – and the history of transgender people in Britain over the past 70 years.
Curated by Homotopia in partnership with National Museums Liverpool, the exhibition draws on April Ashley’s previously unseen photographic archive and personal documents to investigate the wider impact of changing social and legal conditions for all transgender, lesbian, gay and bisexual people from 1935 to today.
The photograph of April and Sir Winston went on display in time for the Un-straight Museum conference at the Museum of Liverpool from 13 – 14 June. This international conference, organised by Homotopia and National Museums Liverpool, explored the role of cultural institutions, curators and archivists in representing marginalised communities and promoting diversity.
The conference addressed the under representation of LGBT heritage in mainstream public spaces and showcased examples of ground-breaking work where hidden histories are being uncovered and presented.
Green councillors on Brighton & Hove City Council are calling for an end to the bar against gay and bisexual men donating blood within 12 months of sexual activity.
Cllr Alex Phillips
In 2011 a lifetime ban on donating blood by gay and bisexual men was lifted in most of the UK (except Northern Ireland); however any man who has had sex with another man within the last year is not permitted to donate blood.
To coincide with World Blood Donor Day on June 14, Green councillors have announced they are tabling a motion at the next city council meeting on July 17 urging the Government to change the rules.
The time it takes for tests to show whether someone is infected with HIV and most other serious blood-borne infections is now three months and for Hepatitis C is six months so infection is detectable much earlier than 12 months.
Green Councillor Alexandra Phillips, proposer of the motion, said:“We welcome the 2011 change lifting the lifetime ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood but it doesn’t go far enough to end discrimination and help the supply of safe blood.
“The current rules are still discriminatory and are not backed by logical analysis of risk. Good science would support a six month window before donating blood after a possible risk, for all donors, on the basis that tests for HIV and Hepatitis C can detect infection within that time. The health service desperately needs safe blood donations, but this discrimination bars perfectly healthy men from helping to save lives.
“It is possible to have a safe donor system based on the prevention of harm yet which does not discriminate. Anyone wanting to donate blood should be asked the same basic questions irrespective of their sexual orientation. It is unethical to prevent a whole group of healthy people from donating blood when a blood donation might save a life.
“Now the council has responsibility for public health, we hope this motion will help reassure gay and bisexual men in our city that the council is set against such a discriminatory health policy and that the government should act.”
Cllr Mike Jones
Councillor Mike Jones, who is an NHS sexual health adviser and is seconding the motion, added:“It’s absolutely crucial that blood supplies are safe and there should be proper measures in place to deal with risky individuals – but these rules mean in practice the vast majority of healthy gay and bisexual men are prevented from donating blood.
“The result is we cut the supply of safe blood to the NHS while high-risk heterosexual donors remain free to donate. The blood of a healthy gay man who is in a monogamous relationship and who has only had oral sex will not be used whereas a heterosexual man who has had multiple opposite-sex partners and who refuses to take safe sex precautions will not usually be questioned about his behaviour or have his blood excluded.”
He added:“Given that only around 5% of healthy people actually donate blood, rather than discriminating against large sections of the population, it would be far better and fairer to treat donors on a case-by-case basis using precise questions so that those gay and bisexual men who are willing to give blood would answer questions that accurately identify their degree of risk, so we aren’t turning away people who could be saving lives.”
The Department of Health’s Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissue and Organs partly justifies the ban on the higher incidence of Hepatitis B in gay and bisexual men than the rest of the population since this infection could remain undetectable for several months under current testing. However advocates of a non-discriminatory approach say this could be addressed by a targeted Hepatitis B vaccination programme among gay and bisexual men.
Green councillors say health authorities should implement a ‘Safe Blood’ education campaign targeted at the men who have sex with men to ensure that no one donates blood if they are at risk of HIV and other blood-borne infections arising from unsafe sexual activity. This should be backed by a health promotion campaign for Hepatitis B vaccination within the gay and bisexual community.
One of the UK’s leading LGBT festivals is proving there’s no place like home, thanks to support from three of the North East’s top housing organisations.
Pam Walton from the Gentoo Group, with Mark Nichols, Chair of Northern Pride, Mark Johns of South Tyneside Homes, Louise Taylor from the Gateshead Housing Company and one of the stilt walkers from the Newcastle Pride parade.
Gentoo Group, South Tyneside Homes and The Gateshead Housing Company have joined forces to support Newcastle Pride, which returns to the region on the weekend starting Friday, July 18.
The trio, which collectively manages tens of thousands of properties across the North East, will be sponsoring the festival’s carnival-style parade, which will weave its way through the city on Saturday July 19.
This year’s parade, which has a Pride Through the Decades theme, will feature hundreds of performers and supporters, all dressed in colourful costumes inspired by LGBT icons from the past and present.
Spectators are invited to line the route from the Civic Centre, along Northumberland Street and Percy Street to the Town Moor, where there will be live music and entertainment throughout the afternoon.
Mark Nichols, Chair of Northern Pride, which organises the event, said:“The Pride parade is one of the most popular aspects of the annual festival and we’re hoping that with support from Gentoo, South Tyneside Homes and Gateshead Housing, this year’s will be bigger, brighter and better than ever.”
The Parade, which starts at midday on Saturday, July 19, forms part of a three-day programme of events taking place starting on Friday, July 18 as part of Newcastle Pride.
Other highlights for 2014 include live performances by big name acts including Sinitta, Shayne Ward and the Vengaboys at Newcastle’s Town Moor, where there will also be a fun fair, themed entertainment zones and various stalls open throughout the weekend.
For the first time in Newcastle Pride’s seven year history, this year’s event will also include a second stage outside the Centre for Life, where there will be live music from stars such as Steps singer Faye Tozer on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings.
The majority of the event is free, however a number of Gold, VIP and Platinum packages are also available incorporating hospitality and a reserved viewing area for the Town Moor performances.
Brighton Pride is our Pride, a Pride with purpose, an event run first and foremost for the benefit of the city’s diverse LGBT communies.
Pride is more than a celebration, more than a day out, more than a party!
Pride is a unique opportunity to raise much needed funds for LGBT/HIV organisations across Brighton and Hove which enables them, through the Rainbow Fund Grants Programme, to support the LGBT/HIV community in Brighton & Hove.
Paul Elgood
Paul Elgood Chairman of the Rainbow Fund said of Pride’s fundraising role:“Pride has made a significant contribution to the local LGBT community sector, and have created a sustainable and secure source of funding for the smaller volunteer-led community groups who can rely on this funding to operate. Pride asked the Rainbow Fund to provide a fair and needs-led basis for distributing the funding to those local groups who need it most”.
“After donating the money, they stepped back and allowed our independent grants panel, who have expertise across the LGBT sector, to assess the grants in a fair and open way. This approach shows how far Pride has the interests of the LGBT voluntary sector at the heart of their activities. The event is now the number one opportunity for our community to generate funding for the LGBT voluntary sector locally and to send a clear and united message for equality internationally”.
Every ticket purchased, be it for Preston Park, every fundraising event attended or each donation made enables Pride to support our community.
At a time when voluntary and charitable organisations are fighting for funding and when many of the local services we so often take for granted are being cut, it is more important than ever to stand with Pride and support those who support us.
If you wished to volunteer to help your community (and get a free ticket to the Pride festival) CLICK HERE:
“After twenty years I still have to be careful who I tell or what I say”
Nurses are calling for more support and help for a new generation of people living into older age with HIV and facing stigma, anxiety and lack of awareness from the public and health care staff.
Nursing staff will be debating the issue of HIV awareness on the first day of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) annual Congress in Liverpool tomorrow. The debate will highlight the increasing number of people who are growing older with HIV, and the challenges that poses for the nurse practitioners working with them.
It is estimated that around a fifth of all people in the UK with HIV are now aged 50 and over, as treatments improve and life expectancy for the condition approaches the national average. However, awareness of the condition has declined, with a lack of training for health care workers and a lack of knowledge among the public. On top of this, many older people with HIV have severe financial problems and cannot get the support they need to survive.
Memory Sachikonye, 48, was diagnosed in 2002.
She said:“Older people with HIV will have more than one illness and when you are seeing five different consultants it can be difficult keeping track of medications, appointments and tests, especially if you are ill.
“If there is one thing that would really help older people with HIV it is having someone who can coordinate care between different parts of the health service to make sure there are no mistakes and to reduce the stress for patients.”
Ian Lamb, 61, lives in Blackpool with his partner. He was diagnosed with HIV in 1996, at the age of 42.
Ian said:“When I was diagnosed having HIV meant you were going to die, and that is how I lived my life, racking up enormous debts which I am still paying off.
“The attitudes towards HIV haven’t really changed in some parts of the country from when I was first diagnosed twenty years ago – it is just more subtle and less noticeable now. After twenty years I still have to be careful who I tell or what I say.”
Jason Warriner,
Jason Warriner, Chair of the RCN Public Health Forum, added: “There is a silent generation of people living with HIV who don’t feel comfortable attending support groups or talking about their diagnosis. It is every health care worker’s responsibility to reach out to these people.
“There must be greater training and support for staff to ensure that people living with HIV do not face stigma or misinformation when they are using the health service.”
Peter Carter
Dr Peter Carter, Chief Executive & General Secretary of the RCN concluded saying:“Nursing staff are seeing an increasing number of older people with HIV and too often they can see that the system is failing them. Many nurses also feel that they could be better used to help older people with HIV as they are perfectly placed to coordinate care and reduce the stress of dealing with several conditions.
“The attention and focus may have moved on from HIV since the late 80s but the condition is still very real for those who have been diagnosed and we owe it to them as a society to provide the support, medically, emotionally and financially, that they need.”
Are you the brainiest bear in Town? Would you like the chance to win £300 cash?
Bear Weekender Quiz in March at the Camelford
It is very simple. Put a team together and trot down to the Camelford Arms on Thursday June 19. Grab a table, answer the most questions right and the prize money is there for the taking.
The quiz starts at 9.00pm but get there at least before 8.00pm to grab a table. Better still have dinner at the Camelford at 7pm which will guarantee you a table.
Businesses, community organisations and social network groups are invited to enter teams. Mark Flood will be asking the questions set by Brighton Bear Weekender’s own Graham Munday. Blame him not Mark for the questions and expect maybe one or two ursine themed ones thrown in.
Easier than the Golden Handbags quiz, and costing just £2.00 a head, all the money raised goes to the Rainbow Fund who make grants to LGBT/HIV organisations who provide effective front line services to LGBT people in Brighton & Hove.
The Brighton Bears Weekender event proper kicks off at the Royal Oak on Friday, June 20 from 8-11pm with cabaret from Mysterry.
The Brighton Trans*formed Exhibition trail tells the stories of 23 Brightonian trans, gender queer and intersex people through photography, audio and object installations.
Alice Denny: photo by Sharon Kilgannon: alonglines.com
The multi-media, multi-venue trail, runs in the city from July 24 – August 4 and reflects the diversity of lives in our diverse seaside city and is designed to be high impact and highly visible.
The streets of Brighton will be lined with faces of participants from the project in the largest, real-life, trans documentation project to be seen in the UK.
Jubilee Library, July 24 – Aug 4 – Take a seat on Brighton beach deckchairs and immerse yourself in Trans* formed’s recorded stories whilst looking at a large scale photographic display of the participants at their favourite locations around Brighton – all framed in rescued wood from the West pier.
Unitarian Church, Saturday Evening, July 26 – The Unitarian Church in the centre of Brighton will be lit up as the supersized images of trans people are projected onto the the neo-classical building with quotes about the experiences of being trans in Brighton. A massively-scaled display of Trans people’s pride that will physically light up your faces and make our communities visible to the whole town.
St James St Trans Pride Parade, July 25 – July 27 – March up St James Street to Trans Pride in New Steine Gardens, past dozens of shop windows displaying life sized portraits from the project. Reclaiming St James Street as a queer space, this street-lined story is symbolic of us being out and proud ambassadors for our communities, determined to fight transphobia and media misrepresentation through visibility.
Poke Your Face Through the Pier Holes, July 25 – July 27 – Will you poke your face through the body of the muscle man or the lady in her polka dot swimsuit? Or will you be half muscly, half polka-dotted, mix gendered? Mix and match outfits and body parts in a trans take on an old seaside favourite, and have your photo taken to remember how we can actively Trans*form Brighton into a friendly city that is supportive and inclusive of its trans communities!
Gilded Cage Tattoo Studio, St James’ Street, July 25 – July 27 – Enter this avant-garde, LGBTQI tattoo studio to be immersed not only in the store’s taxidermy- but your own! An adult-only, graphic display of actual body parts in formaldehyde, kept after gender reassignment surgery. Displayed alongside photographs and genuine surgical artefacts in a hospital scene recreation emphasising the graphic realities of physical change and the need for ongoing access to treatment on the NHS.
The Marlborough Pub, July 25 – Aug 4– See photographs of everyone taking part in Brighton Trans*formed in this trans-supportive pub, alongside a collection of participant’s favourite things that reflects their trans journeys through their attachments to material things. From boobs and binders to baseball caps and teddy bears, this touching display is a gentle reminder of just how ordinary we can all be.
E-J Scott, the Curator, of Brighton Trans*formed, said: “It is time for our communities to stand up proud and be counted, so that we can deconstruct the media’s spectacularization of our lives and our bodies that reinforces old-fashioned, out of date myths and malarkey about who trans people really are. This exhibition showcases the bravery of individuals who want to live in a Brighton free of transphobia and violence. By seeing our faces and hearing our stories we share the reality of our world- we are simply people who love, cry and live our lives like everybody else- and want to be respected for it.”
The Brighton Trans*formed project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and run by QueenSpark Books, the country’s oldest community publisher.
The Brighton Trans*formed book will be published in September 2014.
For more information about the Trans*formed project, CLICK HERE:
Cllr. Geoffrey Theobald, Conservative group leader on Brighton & Hove City Council, is disappointed at the continued lack of progress over the development of a new leisure centre at the King Alfred site in Hove.
Cllr Geoffrey Theobald, conservative group leader, Brighton & Hove City Council
At Thursday’s (June 12) Policy & Resources Committee meeting, Cllr. Theobald asked the Leader of the Council, Cllr Jason Kitcat, why, almost a year since the decision to go ahead with a redevelopment of the site was made, no progress has been made in choosing a developer.
Cllr. Kitcat was only able to give a vague commitment about hoping to start the tendering process to choose a developer “later in the Summer”.
Cllr. Theobald said:“I pressed Cllr. Kitcat to give a precise timescale for when a developer is to be appointed but he just fudged it. I simply cannot understand what the hold up is as we have numerous potential developers, with well worked up plans, keen to get cracking. I’m afraid that this just adds to the unfortunate reputation that the city already has of not being business-friendly.”
Central Hove ward councillor, Andrew Wealls, sits on the Council’s King Alfred Project Board.
He added:“This is incredibly frustrating for the residents in my ward, and across the city, who so desperately want a decent new leisure centre to go to. The Project Board has not met for months now and my efforts to get updates and to push things along are just ignored. This is also a prime brownfield site that could deliver some desperately needed new homes for local people, in addition to the leisure centre. There really is no excuse for further delay.”
Development of the King Alfred site has been dogged by controvesy since a decision was made to re-develope the site by the former Labour administration that lost power in 2007. Proposals for a controversial landmark building by the internationally renowned architecht Frank Gehry which included a sports centre and swimming pool received planning permission in late 2006 but was derailed during the Conservative administration elected in 2007.
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