UPDATED 10th December 2013
LGBT History Month 2014 was officially launched on Thursday at Bramall Hall in the university of Birmingham. We’ve put together The Day in Pictures to give you a flavour of what was a hugely successful and entertaining day!
Equal marriage bill overwhelmingly passes Stage 1 Debate in Scottish Parliament – The Scottish Parliament this evening (Novembber 20th) passed its equal marriage bill through the first stage of debate with a large majority.
Greater London Association of Trades Union Councils – some events are announced, for World AIDS Day, Queerzine Fest and LGBTQ People’s Assembly against Austerity
God’s Other Children – A London Memoir by Vernal Scott. A new non-fiction book which details the impact of HIV and AIDS from a black/gay perspective, and much much more besides. The forewords are written by Sir Nick Partridge, Peter Tatchell, and Lord Paul Boateng. It’s available from Foyles, Amazon and Gay’s The Word.
The Co-Operative Group Respect ‘Loved by You’ Awards 2013 – get voting. The awards are very much back to basics. They are an opportunity for people from all over the UK (anyone in the world can vote too) to vote for their favourites in 27 diverse categories.
Ray Gosling 1939-2013: Raised in Northampton, where he attended grammar school, Gosling was “a C-stream child”. His father was a mechanic. After dropping out of Leicester University to run a rock’n’roll band, he went to London to take up a factory job. Gosling was a teddy boy: “I felt in my heart it was more than a fashion, it was a belief: teds to change the world.”
NO 2 LGBT HATE CRIME: Reclaim Vauxhall – from David ‘dbh’ Braniff-Herbert on Facebook. After a homophobic attack, help me reclaim our LGBT-friendly space back in Vauxhall by walking with me, friends and family holding hands. Last Sunday, my partner and I had homophobic abuse and a threat of violence used against us whilst walking along the river Thames with an arm around each other in Vauxhall. We were then followed to a pub where two of the boys came in, one holding some sort of weapon.
UK Disability History Month: 22nd November – 22nd December 2013. UK Disability History Month was set up to celebrate our lives and to explore the history of negative attitudes and their consequences. Despite the Olympics creating positive shifts in the media and public attitudes to disabled people, levels of hate crime continue to increase and disabled people are bearing the brunt of Government austerity measures. The long history of civil and human rights’ struggles by the Disabled People’s Movement has led to the majority of disabled people living independently in the community. Over the last 70 years, all long stay hospital and institutions, where disabled people were inhumanely ‘warehoused’, have rightly been closed. This is now in danger of being reversed. The UK’s international human rights obligations are increasingly not being met.
The Winner of The Green Carnation Prize 2013 – Andrew Solomon is the latest author to win the Green Carnation Prize with ‘Far From The Tree’ a book about exceptional children which celebrates what it means to be human in all its diversity.
Gays The Word: NEWS and POETRY EVENT: Alex Dimitrov & Maureen Duffy 28/11/13. As staff at the shop begin to gear up for a busy Christmas period they’ve not only stocked-up on their wonderfully diverse range of books, film and cards but they’ve got something of a smile on their faces as Gay’s the Word will reach its milestone 35th anniversary in the early new year. So be sure to come along to Bloomsbury – perhaps to one of the fantastic events listed here.
