This month’s issue has a follow up article about the Alan Turing petition submitted to Downing Street and the positive response that it has received. Although as rightly mentioned by others, what about an apology for all men who were convicted under homophobic laws, a very good argument and one worthy of further exploration. But no matter what your thoughts are on this, one thing that is positive is that finally a gay man is being portrayed in a good light for the work he did for his country, going some way towards dispelling the view that all gay people are useless and second class citizens.
There are several events listed in this issue, unfortunately things can change so please take the time to look at www.gaysurrey.org.uk for the latest up to date information. Any of you who use or know somebody who uses the public sex environments please be aware of how your behaviour can impact on others, there have been a number of complaints from the various sites by members of the public who do not like what they are seeing, mainly this is to do with the amount of litter that is left behind and the effects this has on the area. So I would urge you all to use your discretion at all times and to dispose of your litter appropriately.
Outline Surrey: Volunteers needed.Outline are actively looking for more volunteers at the moment. Don't worry if you missed this year’s infomation evening we still accept applications all year round. We are also very keen to try to re-engage with former volunteers who left ages ago because they were not able to give the necessary time to the organisation before. Their circumstances may have changed now.
Volunteers want to make a difference to the community, especially to the gay community. Most of us have been there and know something of the issues involved in coming out, unravelling our feelings about our sexuality, relationship problems, sexual health and all the other things we have to deal with. Sometimes, it isn’t easy. Sometimes it’s down right difficult and it has the potential to impact negatively. No-one can sort out our problems for us but the Outline volunteers are trained to create the right sort of atmosphere and with time and empathy are prepared to talk anything through with callers. Emotionally it can be very draining for a volunteer but that is the commitment they give to the organisation. Join the team and you’ll never regret it.
All people who are interested in working on the helpline will be interviewed and then take part in a full training programme. We accept applications to become a volunteer all year round and training takes place twice yearly. The training group meets on a weekly basis and covers topics including listening and basic counselling skills, sexuality and coming out.
Calls to the line range from people needing directions to the nearest gay pub, to those who need support in telling their friends and family that they are gay.
See the ad below for the contact details, if you think you have the time then why not get in touch and who knows the experiences that you have had may help somebody else!
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Lesbians need to find their inner selvesA new poster campaign from gay rights charity Stonewall is urging lesbians and bisexual women to take better care of their health and 'love their inner lesbian'.
According to research undertaken by the organisation last year, "deeply disturbing" levels of self-harm, drinking and drug abuse were found. It was also found that lesbians and bisexual women are excluded from routine testing for cervical cancer.
It also revealed that half of those who responded said they had recently had a negative experience while visiting their GP and many felt unable to discuss their sexual orientation or health needs.
As a result of the research, the charity says it is trying to make lesbian health a more visible issue and the posters will be available for healthcare centres to display. They include the slogan 'Love your inner lesbian' and list some of the key statistics of the report, such as those on smear tests, parenting, mental health and substance abuse.
Ruth Hunt, Stonewall’s head of policy and research, said: "At Stonewall we recognise that, even though our extensive programme of work benefits women as well as men, lesbians face unique challenges and encounter issues that men don’t – especially in terms of healthcare. This poster campaign continues Stonewall’s commitment to act upon our research to improve the lives of lesbian, gay and bisexual people – at home, at school and at work."
www.stonewall.org.uk Take a look at the website for a copy of the full report, this was the largest lesbian survey carried out in the UK.
A Day In Hand
A Day in Hand, the campaign to encourage LGBT people to hold hands in public, is asking them to show their affection publicly on the last Saturday of each month.
The first Sshh! (same-sex hand-holding) Saturday will be on September 26th, to remember July's shooting at a gay bar in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The campaign has received the backing of a number of celebrities such as mayor of London Boris Johnson, Peter Tatchell and Boy George and is an attempt to allow gay, bisexual and trans people to feel more comfortable in public.
A Day In Hand founder David Watkins is trying to make Sshh! Saturdays a worldwide event and is asking people to uphold photos of themselves holding hands to yourstories@adayinhand.com.
He said: “Sshh! Saturdays aims to ultimately create safer spaces for LGBT people. As the idea of Sshh! Saturdays grow in popularity and spread across the world, the last Saturday of every month will become a day of support for LGBT people who want to show their commitment in public. Many years ago in the UK, LGBT people knew that the last carriage of every train would be populated by members of the queer community. Today, A Day In Hand wants people to feel the same sense of support in public spaces on the last Saturday of every month.”
He continued: “Same-sex hand-holding (Sshh!) is a silent revolution for LGBT people, because nothing needs to be said: no bold speeches, no reactive arguments, no war of words. Each LGBT person has the power to change the hearts and minds of people in their local community quietly, subtly, by simply holding hands publicly and owning their space. However, hand-holding is a simple powerful gesture that can happen anywhere, at any time.”
For those who live in areas where same-sex affection is public is not safe, Watkins stressed that the campaign was not asking people to ignore their "survival instincts".
Instead, he said: "We are asking people to think about public displays of affection in more creative, less obtrusive ways. If you can’t hold hands in your immediate area, how about resting your head on your partner’s shoulder at the cinema, or kissing them good-bye in the car? We have to start expressing our love in the mainstream."For more information on this silent revolution the please visit David Watkins own website and see all of the pictures uploaded already.
Same-sex hand holding (Sshh): Our silent revolution http://www.adayinhand.com/
Alan Turing part 2Following a petition signed by 30,805 people, the Prime Minister Gordon Brown has apologised on behalf of the British Government for the treatment of gay World War Two hero Alan Turing, who was forced by the courts to undergo castration to rid him of his homosexuality.
Turing famously invented the Turing machine and helped crack the German Enigma code during World War Two, ultimately helping the Allies to win the war. But he killed himself in 1954 aged 41 after being convicted of having a sexual relationship with another man. A British court gave him the choice of going either to prison or undergoing chemical castration. He opted for the latter.A campaign supported by major public figures including Professor Richard Dawkins, writer Ian McEwan, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell and celebrity Twitterer Stephen Fry is the fourth most signed petition on the Downing Street website. In a moving and emotional response, Mr Brown reflects on the 70th anniversary of the start of World War Two and says that Turing's treatment was "utterly unfair" that he was convicted under "homophobic laws" and "deserved so much better. Peter Tatchell called the apology "welcome and commendable" but said an apology was also due to the estimated 100,000 British men convicted of similar offences. He said: “Singling out Turing just because he is famous is wrong. Unlike Turing, many thousands of ordinary gay and bisexual men were never given the option of hormone treatment. They were sent to prison.
“All these men were criminalised for behaviour that was not a crime between heterosexual men and women."
Mr Brown's response is below:
"2009 has been a year of deep reflection – a chance for Britain, as a nation, to commemorate the profound debts we owe to those who came before. A unique combination of anniversaries and events have stirred in us that sense of pride and gratitude which characterise the British experience. Earlier this year I stood with Presidents Sarkozy and Obama to honour the service and the sacrifice of the heroes who stormed the beaches of Normandy 65 years ago. And just last week, we marked the 70 years which have passed since the British government declared its willingness to take up arms against Fascism and declared the outbreak of World War Two. So I am both pleased and proud that, thanks to a coalition ofcomputer scientists, historians and LGBT activists, we have this year a chance to mark and celebrate another contribution to Britain’s fight against the darkness of dictatorship; that of code-breaker Alan Turing.
Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of World War Two could well have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely. In 1952, he was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ – in effect, tried for being gay. His sentence – and he was faced with the miserable choice of this or prison – was chemical castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He took his own life just two years later. Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time and we can’t put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him. Alan and the many thousands of other gay men who were convicted as he was convicted under homophobic laws were treated terribly.
Over the years millions more lived in fear of conviction. I am proud that those days are gone and that in the last 12 years this government has done so much to make life fairer and more equal for our LGBT community. This recognition of Alan’s status as one of Britain’s most famous victims of homophobia is another step towards equality and long overdue. But even more than that, Alan deserves recognition for his contribution to humankind. For those of us born after 1945, into a Europe which is united, democratic and at peace, it is hard to imagine that our continent was once the theatre of mankind’s darkest hour. It is difficult to believe that in living memory, people could become so consumed by hate – by anti-Semitism, by homophobia, by xenophobia and other murderous prejudices – that the gas chambers and crematoria became a piece of the European landscape as surely as the galleries and universities and concert halls which had marked out the European civilisation for hundreds of years. It is thanks to men and women who were totally committed to fighting fascism, people like Alan Turing, that the horrors of the Holocaust and of total war are part of Europe’s history and not Europe’s present. So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan’s work I am very proud to say: we’re sorry, you deserved so much better."
Gordon Brown
www.pinknews.co.uk
Club4good in conjunction with Gay SurreyWhat is happening with the local scene and the Club4good and gay surrey?
Up and coming events:
www.gaysurrey.org/club4good
Thursday 1st October – Noir Bar – Weybridge re-launch nite
Saturday 31st October – Quake – Woking – Halloween partyAnd the GS lounge is re-launched and the new venue and dates are as follows:
We are really excited to have joined up with Charles at the Bed
Venue : The Bed Bar Location : Woking Time : 8pm onwardsWeb Link : www.gaysurrey.org/gslounge
Dates
14th October
18th November
16th December
Once in the Bed Bar, the GS lounge is held exclusively in the VIP area,
donations welcome towards our club4good campaign.As always Gay Surrey has all the latest updates on their website, so why not take a visit www.gaysurrey.org
IDAHO 2010 just a heads up for next years day:
17th May 2010
6.30pm onwards
Event held at the Talbot Inn Ripley
ListingsSurrey Domestic Abuse Helpline
Are you being frightened, hurt or
abused by a partner or family member
24 hour confidential service
01483 776822East Surrey Domestic Abuse Outreach Service
01737 771350
(Serving Reigate and Banstead, Mole Valley and Tandridge)North West Surrey Domestic
Abuse Outreach Service
01483 776822
(serving Woking, Runnymede and Surrey Heath)North Surrey Domestic
Abuse Outreach Service
01932 260690
(serving Epsom, Ewell, Elmbridge and Spelthorne)South West Surrey Domestic
Abuse Outreach Service
01483 577392 or 01932 260690
(Serving the Waverley area)Relate, West Surrey
Provincial House
26 Commercial Way
Woking, Surrey GU21 6EN
01483 715285 www.relatewestsurrey.org.ukNaz Project
HIV and sexual health support service for
South Asian, Middle Eastern, North African, Latin American and other excluded communities
e-mail naz@naz.org.uk
Website: naz.org.uk
0208 7411879 9.30-5.30 Mon-Fri.Guildford Area Gay Society (GAGS)
Meets every Wednesday and some weekends, phone Simon on 01252 370809
www.gags.org.ukThe Cellar
Disco runs last Saturday of
each month 9.00 pm - 2.00 am and social meeting Friday evenings 8.30 pm midnight
Farnham, Surrey (phone for details)
01252 715844
Scrumptious Bar
16 Park Street, Guildford
Tel: 01483 306661
Web: www.scrumptious.t83.net
Homophobic Incidents
Call Surrey Police on:0845 1252222 or www.stophatecrime.co.uk or WSLAGLO@surrey.pnn.police.uk or 01483 630474GUM Clinics
Genito-Urinary MedicineFarnham Road Hospital, Guildford
01483 537007Blanche Heriot Unit, St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey
01932 722669Frimley Park Hospital, Frimley
01276 604105K2 Clinic, Wolverton Centre, Kingston Hospital
For Gay and Bisexual Men
Wednesday 6.00 - 8.00 pm - walk in only
0208 934 2843TWISTER Youth Club!
LGBTQ Young People, Surrey Ages 13-19
Various Nights 7.30pm - 9.30pm
www.surreycc.gov.uk/twisterLocal Voluntary Organisations
Outline
Lesbian and Gay Helpline
open Sunday and Tuesday between 7.30 and 10.00 pm
01483 727667www.gaysurrey.org
Offering help, support and advice locally
to those who need it
Tel: 0700 5982 429 anytime
Young Gay Surrey
Website dedicated to 13 to 19 year olds for help and support www.ygsspeakout.orgThe following Charities offer advice, support and
information to people infected and affected by
HIV/AIDSPositive Action
0800 9801990 (freephone)
01252 345019
THT Surrey Region
01483 263160
St Peters House Project
01737 763000Married Men’s Group
A group for men who are married or in
relationships with women and are attracted to
or having sex with other men.
07801 629972RASASC
Rape and sexual abuse support centre
01483 546400 female staffed (7.30-9.30) closed Saturdays and Bank Holidays
Contact Ian Cole
on Mobile - 07801 629972
e-mail ian.cole@surreypct.nhs.uk
This newsletter is produced by the Harm Reduction Outreach Team part of Surrey PCT
