Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender centre is relaunched

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender centre is relaunched

A meeting place for Leicester's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is being relaunched to raise awareness of its services.

The LGBT centre, in Wellington Street, in the city centre, is hosting an event today from 1pm to help raise its profile.

Stilt-walkers and drag queens will be on hand to meet and greet visitors at the newly-refurbished bar and function room at the centre.

Food and drink have been supplied by the Rainbow and Dove pub, in Charles Street.

Martyn Parker, trustee at the centre and chairman of the Leicester Pride festival, said: "Pride has always been well supported, but the centre itself has remained more in the background.

"We're hoping to change that, though, and the event is all about raising the profile.

"We've invited lots of people, including city councillors and city mayor Peter Soulsby, we're expecting a good turnout."

The event runs from 1pm until 6pm.

For more information, visit: www.leicesterlgbtcentre.org

Pounding the pavement for Choice Unlimited

Out in the West End of Leicester today, distributing fliers and posters for REDP's forthcoming Choice Unlimited event. I lived in this part of town for four years (2006-10) and it strikes me as probably being the best area of the city for getting our colourful publicity material in front of people. I'm glad to say that most of those who accept a poster for their shop window actually put it up. The chap in Tin Drum Books (photo above) asks for additional copies, as he's the curator of the Bede Park community noticeboard. The owner of the shop below handed me a roll of sellotape and asked me to stick up the poster where I thought it would look best. I like those kinds of responses!

Batwoman wins GLAAD award for outstanding comic book

Celebrating representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community in the media, the 23^rd annual GLAAD Media Awards recognized Batwoman as the year’s Outstanding Comic Book. The award was announced Saturday 24 March at a gala event in New York City.

GLAAD stands for Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

Illustrated by J.H. Williams III and co-written by Williams and W. Haden Blackman, Batwoman is the first mainstream ongoing series to feature a lesbian protagonist.

 

Congratulations to Williams and Blackman for helping to build a more diverse DC universe.

Hitting the bricks for Choice Unlimited

This morning I'm scheduled for a diabetic retinopathy eye screening at St Peter's Health Centre, Sparkenhoe Street. That's at the edge of Highfields so I take with me a bag of fliers and posters for REDP's forthcoming Choice Unlimited event so I can distribute them round the area.

What has slipped my mind is the fact that for a while after the screening, it's quite hard to see. The nurse puts drops in your eyes that dilate the pupils, making everything bright, glary and indistinct. That wasn't so noticeable inside the health centre, but outside it's a sunny day. I don't know why I didn't think this would impact on my ability to do this task. I mean, it's not as if it's the first time I've had this test done - I've only had diabetes for, like, 16 years.

Still, I can tell well enough, at a distance, the right places to ask if they'll put up a poster and/or take some fliers, such as the Ark World Arts Centre, incorporating Sparkenhoe Theatre (photo above). I spend a few minutes talking with a nice, receptive lady in there called Mel, who's keen to promote Choice Unlimited to their Saturday morning theatre group for young people with learning disabilities and their families. They should be exhibiting at the event, I tell her.

Towards the end of my walk through Highfields (and the end of the contents of my bag), I get as far as Wesley Hall Community Project, at the top of Hartington Road. I used to teach basic literacy here to two groups (one of staff members, the other of service users at their day centre) when I was an Adult Ed tutor years ago. By this point, you're leaving Highfields and heading into Spinney Hills. My legs are sore now - and so are my eyes - so I head back down the hill and who do I see but my friend and colleague Suleman Nagdi walking up it in my direction. Despite my fuzzy vision, Suleman's perfectly recognisable from a distance. When I tell him what I've been doing and show him what's left in my bag, he takes me back round the corner into Melbourne Road and opens up the office of the Federation of Muslim Organisations so I can leave a bunch of fliers there and put up a poster in the window (photo below). This was one of my goals for today - since I believe it lends credibility to the event for local residents to see the poster here. A bit of luck, bumping into Suleman like that!

Only "minority" support for same-sex marriage

This letter appears in today's Derby Telegraph:

Only "minority" support for same-sex marriage

THE law and most people accept that should a same-sex couple wish to live together then they should and indeed are able to do so ("We are winning the fight against anti-gay army", Narvel Annable, Opinions, March 13).

The question that raises so many objections is the term "marriage".

This country is (still) predominantly Christian and the definition of marriage within the Christian church is one that may only be undertaken between a man and a woman. Rightly so, as procreation is a significant part of marriage.

Mr Annable then states that as the three main party leaders support same-sex marriage this represents two-thirds of the population! They may represent two-thirds of voters but these are a minority of the population due to the majority having no trust in politicians.

These are the same politicians who deny the people of this nation a referendum on such issues as EU membership, human rights, immigration, the NHS, law and order and illegal wars.

Rod Clulow

Blagreaves Lane

Littleover

Disabled missed out

This letter appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Disabled missed out

Now that all the excitement of the royal visit is but a happy memory to many, I would like to say I experienced my own disappointment about the lack of access to the cathedral.

Though I was invited by the Bishop and the Dean of Leicester to represent my congregation at the multi-faith service and celebration of the Diamond Jubilee, I was unable to attend, due to my having walking disabilities, and access to get to the venue, without immense difficulty, was not available.

Car parking near enough was not allowed and dropping off was also forbidden in "the immediate environs of the cathedral".

Nor could I take a carer in with me to push me in my wheelchair if I parked further away at the multi-storey car park.

Even the arrangements for refreshments afterwards were held at an upstairs venue.

Due notice of this was given in a letter to me.

There may no doubt have been very valid reasons, but it does not reflect well on our city when equality of opportunity for all was not properly considered and planned for.

The same applies to the many city streets which are now totally pedestrianised and more are planned in the future.

At one time, disabled drivers could drive and park in Market Street at restricted times and this facility was highly appreciated. Can we have this back, please, or do we have to go out of town for our shopping?

Name and address supplied

Despair at Government's breaking of pledges

This letter appears in today's Derby Telegraph:

Despair at Government's breaking of pledges

I despair for our country. This wretched and unelected Coalition Government has broken almost every election manifesto pledge, from the referendum on Europe, crime, tuition fees, immigration and on and on.

And yet it doggedly pursues policies it knows the majority of citizens do not want and did not vote for: marriages in church for gays, ludicrous wind turbines and its pernicious undermining of the Christian faith.

The latest example of this is that some junior Lib-Dem minister has ordered lawyers to oppose the rights of Christian workers to wear the cross at work.

While Christians are banned from displaying the symbol of their faith, this coalition, spurred on doubt Nick Clegg and his bunch of interfering amateurs, grovels to appease minority faiths.

They have criticised various regimes worldwide for not allowing their citizens free speech, yet, with breathtaking hypocrisy, they undermine freedom of speech in this country and brand those who speak out as bigots and racists.

Clegg and Co have far too much influence for their meagre numbers and slippery Cameron goes along with their perverse agenda.

His so-called commitment to equality does not, it seems, extend to Christians. It is grotesque.

John Orgill

Littleover

Police equality poll seeking responses

This article appears in today's Derby Telegraph:

Police equality poll seeking responses

Residents in Derbyshire have until the end of tomorrow to complete the police's equality survey.

Posted on the force's website, its aim is to gather information to better understand the needs of different age groups, genders, race, religions and people with different sexual orientations living in the county.

A spokesman said: "We aim to treat everyone according to their needs and do everything possible to protect the most vulnerable."In order to achieve equality, we must recognise the differences in people and acknowledge their different needs."

To complete Derbyshire police's equality survey, visit www.derbyshire.police.uk.

Take online survey to help set equality policies for council

This article appears in today's Derby Telegraph:

Take online survey to help set equality policies for council

Residents of South Derbyshire are being asked for their views on equality policies in the area.

The district council has put a survey on its website.

It asks people if they agree that the authority is providing services accessible to all, if it should concentrate on helping unemployed younger people and if it should work to help vulnerable people to live independently at home for longer.

Councillor Julie Patten said the idea behind the survey was to ensure the authority's policies and services are appropriate to meet different people's needs.

She said: "The focus is on transparency, so we are asking people and organisation representatives to take part in the survey so we can decide the areas we should concentrate on in setting our equality objectives."

The survey is available by clicking on Council and Democracy then the Equality and Diversity links at www.south-derbys.gov.uk.

Unkindest cuts of all for the Big Society

Jeremy Prescott's First Person column appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Unkindest cuts of all for the Big Society

Jeremy Prescott thinks councils cutting funding for charities is self-defeating

A year ago I wrote in this column that Big Society was in danger of failing through the funding cuts that the voluntary sector were facing. 

A recently leaked national report conducted by the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (Acevo) validates my fears. It states that the charitable sector is facing local authority and national government funding cuts of between £1 billion and £5.5 billion in this current financial year.

At a local level we have recently had news of Voluntary Action Melton facing closure at the end of March with many other charities such as Cruse Bereavement Service also on a survival knife edge.

Even closer to home the Rural Community Council (RCC), the charity which I lead, is facing funding cuts of 34 per cent from Leicestershire County Council, 62 per cent from Rutland County Council and 100 per cent cuts from Harborough and Melton District Councils. We are only managing to maintain our services by delving into our reserves which can only be sustained for a short time.

A recent questionnaire on the Big Society conducted by the RCC showed an alarmingly degree of negativity towards this government initiative. Many felt that it was a ploy of seeking volunteers to provide services, normally paid for by council taxes, on the cheap.

To give credit to Leicestershire County Council, they have allocated over £340,000 into a Big Society Grant Scheme to help small community groups turns their ideas into reality. I have always advocated that such funding is just part of an important jigsaw but what is equally important is that charities who provide the essential support to those small groups are funded to do just that.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a meal; teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" (Chinese Proverb).

For this reason I believe the balance of funding being provided to this grant scheme is wrong and this view is supported by 75 per cent of those surveyed in the Big Society questionnaire, advocating that charities should receive more funding from this Big Society pot.

These funding cuts are making it extremely difficult for us to provide support to those who need it.

It is accepted that local authorities are having to making huge savings themselves but I strongly feel that a way of helping them make such savings is actually to increase the amount of funding they provide to charities.

With the low running costs of charities (salaries and pensions) compared with the public sector, and the fact that we rely on the enormous goodwill of an army of volunteers who selflessly give up their time, this is certainly not the time to be cutting the voluntary sector.

Jeremy Prescott is Chief Executive of the RCC, a local charity supporting rural communities.

Preparations proceed apace!

Preparations proceed apace for our two upcoming events: the regional Human Rights and Equality event in Derby a week today and Choice Unlimited at Leicester Tigers two weeks later.

First task this morning, writing a press release for the Derby date. This is for print media in Derby and Derbyshire as well as BBC Radio Derby. From the insider's point of view, the big draw in Derby is our securing Shami Chakrarbarti as keynote speaker. We need to be able to highlight that, while acknowledging that she's not so well know to the general reader. As a compromise, we're putting at the foot of the press release that this is a bit of a coup for us, that it's a bit of a coup for Derby and that media outlets would do well to turn up and cover the event and try to get an interview with her.

Kelly and I spend an hour or so working on the seminar that we'll be presenting at Derby next week, looking at the current debate initiated by the Coalition government about withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rgihts and the creation of a UK Bill of Rights.

I've a meeting with Jo Tallack, General manager at Highcross Leicester this lunchtime, to discuss how their Multi-Faith Prayer Room has fared since it was opened for public use at the end of November last year. While there, I show her the posters and fliers for Choice Unlimited. WE also review the exhibition in Highcross during Inter Faith Week 2011 and discuss the possibility of introducing some new elements for the same event later this year. Jo takes a poster for the community and charities notice board and a clutch of fliers to put on the information desk. Canon Barry Naylor and Julie-Ann Heath are in that meeting and I tell them that I'll be bringing down posters and fliers to St martin's House in the next couple of days. Just before that meeting,we bump into Sarah Harrison, Director of the LE1 city centre team, give her a flier and say I'll email her an electronic version of the flier ASAP.

I've given Jo the fliers that I was intending to take to the SACRE meeting at Soar Valley Community College later this afternoon so I make my way back to LCIL for more. while I'm there, we get a call from Harish Mandalia at Leicester City Council's Social Inclusion Team, which leads to me visiting their base at the Mett Centre at Lee Circle half an hour later with fliers and posters for Choice Unlimited. I've met Harish at a  number of events over the years, but haven;t put the name with the face. Similarly, I've often heard of the Mett Centre but didn't know where it is until today.

After this, I'm off to SACRE, where I'm given a few minutes at the end of the meeting to speak about choice Unlimited and distribute fliers to attendees.

We are winning the fight against anti-gay army

This article appears in today's Derby Telegraph:

We are winning the fight against anti-gay army

I've received a number of communications from readers of the Derby Telegraph expressing concern over three critical responses to my letter "Archbishop of York out of touch with modern thinking" (February 8) "Hit back!" they urge, "don't let them get away with it".

I say to your readers, take heart.

Regarding same-sex marriage, we are winning the battle.

Leaders of the three main political parties are on our side. A majority of MPs, reflecting two thirds of the population, wish to see civil gay marriage enshrined in law. It will happen.

It was expected that correspondents like Nigel Tilly ("Try to judge a man by his views and not his origins", February 14) twist my comparison with 1960s racism and 21st century homophobia. On the other hand, I was surprised Colin Clark ("Archbishop of York is best person for job", February 14) descended to making two inappropriate references about my mother.

In similar low taste, Ray Jordan ("What goes on in your home should stay there", March 5) is "sick and tired of reading about you and your lifestyle". Mr Jordan reminds me of Rod Clulow's letter of last year under the heading – "Frequent letters will not affect views of the majority".

Wrong! Thanks to sustained campaigning from LGBT people, Mr Clulow's majority is now the minority. Debate is necessary and desirable for educating the ignorant and is important in keeping gay issues in the public arena.

To all people disposed to join the chorus against my efforts, I'd make two points: you belong to an ever diminishing army in retreat and your immoderate letters say more about you than they do about me.

Narvel Annable

Dovedale Crescent

Belper

Gay couples should have right to marry

This Op-Ed piece appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Gay couples should have right to marry

David Cameron's proposal to legalise same-sex marriage has been criticised by Britain's most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, and now also by controversial East Midlands MEP Roger Helmer.

Cardinal O'Brien makes a number of arguments to support his view on the grounds of religion and tradition. And he argues that the logical extension of accepting same-sex marriage is polygamous marriage between varying numbers of men and women.

Picking up on this observation, Mr Helmer asks: "If two men have a right to marry, how can we deny the same right to two siblings? Are we to authorise incest?"

The answer to this ridiculous remark is that it is up to society to define the limits of the law on marriage and one would imagine that it is unlikely to sanction incest.

Just because the concept of marriage may be extended to same-sex unions does not mean that chaos reigns and anything goes.

What is being proposed is not to tear up the institution of marriage but to extend its definition in order to better reflect the more tolerant age in which we now live.

The idea that marriage can only ever be the union of a man and a woman is not a fixed concept which is part of some sort of mystical natural law.

While we understand that it is an article of religious faith for some people, that is not the case for many others who will feel that society should be able to change its definition just like any other institution or law.

Indeed, it is a tribute to the concept of marriage that many same-sex couples wish to be able to make this commitment to one another.

If they were only worried about having a legally recognised relationship then the existing civil partnership law would be sufficient.

However, they clearly value marriage as something more than that and the fact that they want to make this commitment surely strengthens the institution.

We fully support David Cameron's proposals on this subject. Allowing same-sex couples to marry would do no harm to anybody and would remove a manifest inequality.

"If we allow gay men to marry, why not siblings?"

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

"If we allow gay men to marry, why not siblings?"

Controversial Euro MP Roger Helmer has criticised moves to legalise gay marriage, saying: "If two men have a right to marry, how can we deny the same right to two siblings?"

Civil partnerships have been available under UK law since 2004 and give two people the same rights as marriage. However, the two processes are technically different.

Prime Minister David Cameron has said that he wants to legalise gay marriage in the UK, but Britain's most senior Catholic, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, said the move would go against "natural law".

On his blog yesterday, Mr Helmer, who lives in Ashby Magna and represents the East Midlands, wrote: "Cardinal O'Brien makes the point, quite reasonably, that once you start to tamper with the institution of marriage, you get into some very murky water indeed.

"If two men can be married, why not three men? Or a two men and a woman? He could have gone further. Why not a commune? If two men have a right to marry, how can we deny the same right to two siblings? Are we to authorise incest?"

Responding to Cardinal O'Brien's claim that plans to legalise gay marriage were "a grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right", Mr Helmer wrote: "Brilliant. I wish I'd thought of the phrase. Perhaps he ought to be a politician."

It comes just a few days after Mr Helmer defected from the Conservatives to join the UK Independence Party, saying that David Cameron was "too left wing".

However, his comments on gay marriage immediately came in for criticism.

Canon Barry Naylor, urban canon at Leicester Cathedral, said: "Comments like that are clearly intended to be offensive.

"I rarely agree with what David Cameron has to say, but I believe his proposal to legalise same-sex marriage would actually strengthen the institution of marriage, rather than weaken it."

Peter Adams, 65, who lives in Leicester city centre, and works with gay and lesbian people in the area, said: "Mr Helmer's comments are ridiculous. It's such an unintelligent remark to make that you can't give it any credence. There's no logical step between same-sex marriage and incest."

When asked by the Mercury whether his comments were offensive, Mr Helmer said: "I don't think so. I've nothing against homosexuals, they can do what they like.

"But marriage has been recognised for thousands of years as a bond as being between a man and a woman. It's the best environment in which to raise children."

The Very Rev Vivienne Faull, Dean of Leicester, said: "Our position is quite clear; the Church recognises arrangements made by the state for two people of the same sex to be in a civil partnership.

"However, the Church itself only recognises marriage as between a man and woman exclusively.

"The only way to change this is through the General Synod of the Church of England.

"However, a debate on this issue has not been scheduled yet."

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? Marriages and civil partnerships

Legally, civil partners must be treated the same as married couples on a wide range of legal matters such as inheritance tax.

However a same-sex couple who have had a civil partnership cannot currently claim to be married.

Campaigners, such as Peter Tatchell, say that having a two-tier system for recognising the partnership between two people is a form of “apartheid”.

The Government could overhaul the law on marriage itself, allowing same-sex couples to have civil weddings and declare themselves “married”, rather than simply in a civil partnership.

Any proposal to introduce same-sex marriages would refer to civil marriages, in register offices and other licensed venues, rather than church weddings.

No church or religious group could be forced to host a civil partnership ceremony against their will under the Equality Act.

"What goes on in your home should stay there"

This letter appears in today's Derby Telegraph:

"What goes on in your home should stay there"

With regard to the letters from Nigel Tilly ("Try to judge a man by his views and not his origins") and Colin Clark ("Archbishop of York is best person for job") (Telegraph, February 14), I couldn't agree more with their opinions on Narvel Annable's remarks about Dr Sentamu's background and oblique reference to his colour.

Also, I couldn't care less about what you and your partner get up to in your own home but don't keep trying to justify it in the media.

I am sick and tired of reading about you and your lifestyle. Give it a rest, please.

Ray Jordan

Marlborough DriveBelper