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In memorium…

Today is World AIDS Remembrance Day. With ‘How To Survive A Plague’ being released, this year is perhaps even more a fitting time to remember and reflect on the origins of the modern AIDS movement and remind ourselves that the success of the treatment cause was also the root of the modern LGBT civil rights movement. Today is also the public honorartion of the heroes and heroines of a time without which, today would be impossible. A kiss and a salute in equal measure. And still, silence equals death. We Remember.

UK Disability History Month: 22nd November – 22nd December 2013

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.

Scotland prepares for historic parliamentary vote on equal marriage

Scotland prepares for historic parliamentary vote on equal marriage – The Scottish Parliament will hold a crucial debate and vote on Scotland’s equal marriage legislation today. The Stage One vote on the country’s same-sex marriage bill is in many respects the most important vote because it will reveal for the first time whether a majority of MSPs supporting introducing equal marriage, or whether they will reject the bill.

History Resource: The Radical Activist who Took on AIDS

History Resource: The Radical Activist who Took on AIDS (BBC World Service) Peter Staley was one of the ACT UP activists whose campaigns helped to turn AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable condition. Their story is told in the Oscar-nominated documentary How To Survive A Plague.

Peter Tatchell Foundation:Urge LGBTI equality in Commonwealth

Peter Tatchell Foundation:Urge LGBTI equality in Commonwealth – 12 noon to 2pm, Wednesday 13 November Commonwealth HQ, Marlborough House. Corner of Pall Mall and St James’s Street, London SW1Y 5HX. Wednesday’s protest is timed to take place just two days before the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) opens in Sri Lanka. It is jointly sponsored by the Kaleidoscope Trust, the Peter Tatchell Foundation and the African LGBTI Out & Proud Diamond Group.

RMT PROTEST ACTION: Lithuanian Embassy London

RMT PROTEST ACTION: Lithuanian Embassy London – Five anti-LGBT bills are to be considered in the Lithuania parliament in the December 2013 session. In solidarity with Lithuanian LGBT people and the Lithuanian Gay League, RMT Union will stage a protest demonstration outside of the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in London.

Why I won't attend Gergiev's concerts – David Nice

“Why I won’t attend Gergiev’s concerts” – David Nice. When a conductor unequivocally endorses a murderous state policy, it’s time to draw the line. Last Thursday I was giving a talk before a concert in Birmingham, decently but not inspiringly conducted by the much-liked Vasily Sinaisky. Had I been in London I could have taken my pick between two greater interpreters, Valery Gergiev launching his Berlioz series with the London Symphony Orchestra and veteran Yury Temirkanov returning to one of his standard programmes with the Philharmonia. Both appeared on the list of 549 “trustees” supporting Vladimir Putin’s 2012 re-election campaign.