It's LGBT History Month in February, launched by queer dignitaries at Southwark Council, Atrium on Wednesday February 1. It starts with London’s LGBT community choir and then a Queer Question Time with Bob Ballard, Claire Harvey, Dave Merchant, Peter Tatchell and Kelly Simmons on the panel. Click the headline for details. Program starts 7pm with Queer Question Time at 7.30pm ends 9.30pm and it's free - even some refreshments. Queer questions to askqqt@gmail.com. Booking is advisable!
Launch of LGBT HISTORY MONTH 2012
QUEER QUESTION TIME
WEDNESDAY 1st FEBRUARY 2012
@ Southwark Council, Atrium
160 Tooley Street, London, SE1 2TZ
SURAN DICKSON, CEO of Diversity Role Models, helps to launch LGBT History Month 2011 in Southwark with Queer Question Time at Southwark Council's Tooley Street headquarters on Wednesday 1 February 2011.
SUE SANDERS (Co-Chair of LGBT History Month UK and Schools Out) and Councillor ABDUL MOHAMED (Cabinet Member for Equalities and Community Engagement) will be opening the evening at 7pm followed by a performance from the PINK SINGERS, London’s LGBT community choir.
This will be followed by Queer Question Time at 7.30pm. Suran will chair an hour long public debate that promises to be 'convivial but edgy', with a formidable panel of 5 local, national, and international LGBT icons and commentators, including BOB BALLARD (Radio and TV sports broadcaster), CLAIRE HARVEY (GB Sitting Volleyball Women’s Team & Head of Corporate Responsibility, FSA), DAVE MERCHANT (founder of Marlin Swimming Group), PETER TATCHELL (human rights campaigner) and Kelly Simmons (Head of National Game, The FA).
Doors open at 6pm and refreshments will be served. Admission is FREE but advance booking is strongly advised as places are limited. To book your place contact Helen Laker on 020 7525 0848 or Helen.Laker@southwark.gov.uk
This is the eighth year that LGBT History Month has been marked across the UK. It is an annual celebration of the lives and achievements of the LGBT community, with a special theme this year of "tackling homophobia and transphobia in the world of sport". Queer Question Time will cover this topic as well as the Olympics and the Cultural Olympiad and the broader issues facing the LGBT community.
Doors 6 - 9.30pm, Music from the Pink Singers 7pm, Debate 7.30pm
Entrance FREE. Advance booking advised. Contact Helen Laker at Southwark Council on 0207 525 0848 or Helen.Laker@southwark.gov.uk
FREE REFRESHMENTS
PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS TO askqqt@gmail.com
FACEBOOK EVENT: http://tinyurl.com/qqt2012
Get involved on facebook and join the group QQT
Facebook Group: http://tinyurl.com/fbg-qqt
LGBT History Month Calendar : http://tinyurl.com/7wy3skp
FURTHER DETAILS ABOUT THE PANEL:
SURAN DICKSON (CEO of Diversity Role Models)
Suran Dickson is the Founder and Chief Executive of Diversity Role Models, a charity which tackles homophobic bullying in schools by doing workshops with positive role models. Prior to initiating this organisation, she was a Physical Education teacher in both New Zealand and the UK for twelve years. Many of these years were spent working in the Special Educational Needs sector, teaching students with moderate to severe learning difficulties, alongside those with emotional and behavioural needs.
Suran’s other area of specialism is physical education and health, and it is specifically an interest in sexuality and associated bullying which led her to become a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) consultant. She has delivered workshops on LGBT issues in education to universities, the Home Office and the Prison Service, amongst others. Suran is also the co-chair of London 2018, the bidding committee to bring the Gay Games to London in 2018.
CLAIRE HARVEY (GB Sitting Volleyball Women’s Team & Head of Corporate Responsibility, Financial Services Authority)
Claire suffered a spinal chord injury in 2008, leaving her partially paralysed. Previously a keen sports woman it was natural for claire to look to partake in disability sport after her accident.
In July 2009 she took part in a paralympic ‘talent identification day’ and after that, started playing sitting volleyball. “. I wanted a fast, physical team sport which wasn’t using a wheelchair; I wanted sport to be the place I could forget about my injury”. In November 2009 she joined the GB women’s training squad and has since competed in every internation event including the World Championships. She is waiting to hear whether the team has been given a slot in the Paralympics and if so, whether she is selected for the team.
Claire has always been openly gay a strong advocate of LGBT rights. She is a patron for 'diversity role models' and the government anti-homophobia charter and an ambassador for Pride House.
She is civil partnered and has children .She is Head of Corporate Responsibility for the Financial Services Authority. Prior to the FSA, Claire worked as a Prison Governor.
BOB BALLARD (Radio and TV Sports Broadcaster)
Bob Ballard has worked on the staff of the BBC for 19 years, covering 3 Olympics, 3 Winter Olympics and 4 Commonwealth Games as commentator on swimming, diving, tennis, ice hockey, basketball and football. He is a member of the Gay Football Supporters' Network since 1994 and am the Honorary President of the world's first gay cricket club - Grace's CC.
Bob has co-hosted the last two LGBT History Month launch evenings at Twickenham and the Oval. Other interests include music, sport and amateur photography.
DAVE MERCHANT (founder of Marlin Swimming Group)
Dave has been involved in organising LGBT community groups since the early 90s, when he was one of the founders of his university LGBT Society. More recently, he was involved in setting up TREC (the Trans Resource and Empowerment Centre), and he has been on the committee of MORF, Manchester's support group for trans men for the last 6 years or so. Around four years ago, Dave was instrumental in starting Marlin Swimming Group, a mixed trans only monthly event which is now the longest running group of its kind.
Dave has also led workshops on trans participation in sport, and has run self-confidence and group building weekend events. He was also one of the founders of Lights, Camera, (Trans) Action, an annual film night which has been part of the Manchester Pride Fringe since 2009.
In his spare time, Dave enjoys going to the gym, eating out (hence the need to go to the gym!), watching football and going to gigs.
PETER TATCHELL (Human rights campaigner)
Peter Tatchell has campaigned for gay and other human rights since 1967. He was a member of the London Gay Liberation Front in the early 1970s. His political inspirations are Mahatma Gandhi, Sylvia Pankurst, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
He was the defeated Labour candidate in the 1983 Bermondsey by-election – the dirtiest and most violent election in Britain for over 100 years.
In 1989, he helped found the AIDS activist group ACT UP London, and in 1990 he was a founding member of the gay human rights organisation OutRage!
He was voted the sixth greatest "Hero of our Time" by readers of the New Statesman and The Independent listed him as one of top 50 "Good" people in Britain in 2006. In 2009 he won Campaigner of the Year at the Observer Ethical Awards.
He is human rights spokesperson for the Green Party, and a coordinator of the LGBT human rights group OutRage!
KELLY SIMMONS (Head of National Game, The FA)
Kelly Simmons is The FA’s Head of National Game. She is currently leading the implementation of the FA National Game Strategy which will invest £200 million into grassroots football over the next 4 year period. She was previously Head of Football Development, establishing the FA Football Development Department and delivering the FA Football Development Strategy 2001-2006. Prior to that she was responsible for Women’s Football. Kelly is a member of the UEFA Grassroots Panel and FIFA Women’s Committee.
THE PINK SINGERS
A love of singing and performing attracts people to join the Pink Singers but it’s the friendship and sense of belonging that keeps them coming back season after season to Europe’s longest-running LGBT choir.
Gay life now is very different from when the Pink Singers started life specifically to sing at Pride in 1983. LGBT people have a level of legal recognition and protection against discrimination undreamt of then, with greater visibility and wider social acceptance.
Yet people are drawn to sing in an LGBT choir. It offers a sanctuary from what can still be a hostile world. Members can be themselves without explaining or hiding anything. In addition, there is a vibrant social side.
Now 80-plus strong, there is a balance of men and women drawn from all age groups (20s to 60s) and different social, economic and ethnic backgrounds. Members come from all over the world.
The choir puts on two London concerts a year and sings as guest of other LGBT choirs throughout the UK and Europe at least twice a year. In the last two years we have been to Manchester, Edinburgh, The Hague, Malta and Paris. In 2009 we were joint hosts of Various Voices, a four-day international choral festival on The South Bank attended by around 60 LGBT choirs.
As important is singing at community events such as the Vigil Against Hate Crime, LGBT History Month, the London Lesbian, Gay Film Festival and every Pride since 1983.
Our newest recruit is Musical Director Murray Hipkin who works for English National Opera (ENO). He has just conducted ‘A Burst of Song’, our New Year concert on 8 January 2011 at Cadogan Hall near Sloane Square. We sold over 620 tickets, more than for any other London concert in our history. The new spring/summer season starting on 13 February 2011 will be his first full season and one in which he will have taken an active part in choosing the repertoire. He has quickly developed a close rapport with our artistic team (all unpaid volunteers) including some fabulous choreographers.
Murray is committed to the Pink Singers’ aims: singing a mix from classical to pop to the highest standard, grounding the choir firmly in the LGBT community and promoting a positive image of LGBT people.
The choir offers reduced-rate subs and subsidises trips outside London for those on low incomes. Rehearsals take place on Sunday afternoons near Kings Cross.
Find out more at www.pinksingers.co.uk. Follow us on twitter.com/pinksingers and facebook.coom/pinksingers.
