AS THIS IS Anti-Bullying Week, here is a photo of me wearing my ‘I Stand Up Against Bullying’ t-shirt. Actually, it’s not me, it’s former England rugby union international player and anti-bullying campaigner Ben Cohen. I did wear this t-shirt today as I was running a youth group on the theme of bullying, but he looks better in it than me! Ben Cohen… Read more »
I AM very fortunate to be a youth worker, which means often when I’m working, I also get to play! Working with young people aged 13-25 helps keep me young. This is the rainbow umbrella I use to lead my LGBT youth group in the Liverpool Pride march each year. It is a highlight of the year – although a… Read more »
As I returned to Liverpool on the train this afternoon after delivering anti-bullying workshops on behalf of the Michael Causer Foundation in the area where Michael was from, I looked through the rain-speckled window to see what must have been the widest rainbow I have ever seen. Sadly, as I had been out since early morning, my mobile phone battery… Read more »
ON THE THIRD Sunday of each month in Liverpool, a church service for LGBT Christians takes place. This month it looks forward to Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) , which takes place on Tuesday. TDOR is commemorated on November 20th each year to remember and bear witness to the lives lost due to transphobia in the past year. This year 265 names… Read more »
AS IT IS Transgender Awareness Week, it seems appropriate to explore ‘man made’ labels about gender and identity. Meet the Genderbread Person – not an original image of mine but one I find helpful in my work with the UK’s longest running LGBT youth group. I have used this resource with the youth group this week to help them understand how… Read more »
TONIGHT I HAD the privilege of attending a ‘Celebration of Freedom’ for a young man I have supported who has won the right to remain in the UK following a successful appeal against a decision to deny him asylum and return him to a country where being gay can mean imprisonment and even death. His courage has been amazing and… Read more »
THIS IS an unusual sight for me at 5pm on a weekday – our front door! As co-ordinator of the UK’s longest running LGBT youth group, I work late at least two evenings a week. This week we are increasing to opening three times a week, for the first time in its 36 year history. In the last three years,… Read more »
FOR BREAKFAST this morning we had boiled egg and soldiers with a pot of Earl Grey tea. Each egg was delivered in style on the back of a Mini. These very British egg cups were a gift to us from one of our best friends for our civil partnership, to remind us of the fun we had trying to… Read more »
NATIONAL COMING OUT DAY (NCOD) has been celebrated on 11th October in the US and increasingly around the world, since 1988. NCOD celebrates individuals who publicly identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender (LGBT) and coming out about sexual orientation and/or gender identity as a cultural rite of passage for LGBT people. It marks the anniversary of the 1987 National March… Read more »
ON OCTOBER 12th SEEN, the LGBT community magazine for Merseyside, will host the second annual SEEN Awards. This year there are several new awards, including ‘Inspirational Person of the Year’. When the shortlist was announced at the end of August I was pleasantly surprised to find I am on it. Am I inspirational? Clearly someone thought so, otherwise I wouldn’t… Read more »
