LGBT+ News Roundup 6!

You know what time it is, another Friday, another weekly LGBT+ News Roundup! This week’s headlines are:

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie! released on Amazon Prime

New species of fly named after Drag Race’s Ru Paul

Australian Music Awards remove gendered categories

Protests in Madrid over anti-LGBT+ hate crimes

Pop n Olly Book!

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie! released on Amazon Prime

The movie version of the West End musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is released on Amazon Prime today!

Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is a coming-of-age musical which was inspired by a real life teenager from Durham in Northern England called Jamie. The story follows 16 year old Jamie as we learn about his dreams of becoming a drag queen, watch him perform in his first drag show and cheer on his triumphant arrival at his prom in a gorgeous dress.

The movie premier for Everybody’s Talking About Jamie took place earlier this week as UK drag royalty, including Lawrence Chaney and Ellie Diamond from Drag Race UK, walked the pink carpet. Bimini Bom Boulash took over the Everybody’s Talking About Jamie instagram account along with Max Harwood, who plays the title character in the movie, and the real-life Jamie who inspired it all.

Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXhpTZeG4eg

New species of fly named after Drag Race’s Ru Paul

A new species of fly found in Australia has been named ‘Opaluma rupaul’ in honour of the Drag Race host.

The fly is as shimmering and colourful as the drag queen herself and Bryan Lessard, an entomologist (bug biologist!) for Australia’s Scientific Research Organisation, said naming the new fly was an “obvious decision”.

And this isn’t the first time that Bryan Lessard has named an insect after his diva icons. Almost 10 years ago, he named the Scaptia beyonceae fly after the queen of the Beyhive herself, Beyonce Knowles.

Bryan described the as having a “costume of shiny metallic rainbow colours” and “legs for days” and added that he hoped Ru would be flattered by the comparison.

Australian Music Awards remove gendered categories

Australian music awards the ARIAs has ditched gendered categories in order to be inclusive to non-binary performers.

The awards announced that, starting this year, they will be combining ‘Best Male Artist’ and ‘Best Female Artist’ into one award, simply called ‘Best Artist’. Instead of the 5 nominees which were chosen for each award in previous years, the Best Artist award will have 10 nominees.

This is a striking comparison to the BRIT awards, who planned to scrap gendered categories in 2019 but have yet to follow through on this and therefore excluded Sam Smith this year as they did not identify with the binary awards categories.

The ARIAs announced the change on Twitter and said that the change “reflects our commitment to embrace equality and the true diversity of the music industry in 2021” and their CEO Annabelle Herd said in an interview that “The time for separating artists based on gendered categories that exclude non-binary artists altogether has passed,”

Protests in Madrid over anti-LGBT+ hate crimes

Hundreds of people have once again gathered in Madrid to protest the rise in hate-crimes.

In a 2020 report by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 41% of LGBT+ Spanish citizens said they have experienced harassment in the last 12 months. Members of the Spanish LGBT+ community have also seen a staggering increase in anti-LGBT+ hate crimes in the past year including Samuel Luiz, a 24-year-old nursing assistant, who was beaten to death for being gay on July 3rd 2021, and whose death sparked a wave of protests across Spain.

The most recent protests in Madrid took place on September 11th in Puerta del Sol, Madrid’s most famous square. Protesters demanded basic protection for LGBT+ people as they wore pride flags and waved signs reading ‘Justicia!’ (Justice).

COGAM (el Colectivo LGBT+ de Madrid /LGBT+ Collective of Madrid) joined up with dozens of other LGBT+ and human rights organisations to organise the protest with a banner which read “Against aggression, live without fear,”

Pop n Olly Book!

Finally we’re finishing up with some positive news from very close to home!

Our very own Space Youth Project education volunteers, Mel Lane and James Canning, have been working with youtuber and children’s author, Olly Pike, to write a new book for kids, called What Does LGBT+ Mean? The book is aimed at children aged 8-11, but has also proved popular with adults wanting to understand more, and has already been called “revolutionary” by Pink News!

Packed full of information; questions and discussion ideas; and eye-catching, colourful pictures; the book has been very successfully trialled in schools. Although it is Olly, Mel and James’ names on the cover, hundreds of people were consulted, including one of our trustees!

“We wanted to make sure the book was factually correct and appealing to a younger audience, but also that people with lived experience felt the language and content represented them accurately”, said Mel. “We are very grateful for all the guidance, advice and suggestions we received, including from SYP Trustee, Eli Moore, who also features in the book.”

James said he wanted to write the book because he wished that he’d had it in school. “It would have made a real difference to how I felt about myself”, he commented.

After several years working with teachers and school students, we know that often teachers are keen to be supportive and inclusive to LGBT+ students but they lack the confidence and are concerned about things like using the wrong terminology. This book was written as a confidence- builder for teachers and other adults to start a conversation and provide a positive image of LGBT+ people to younger children.

The book launches at a popup shop on Oxford Street, London, on Saturday 25 Sept. Anyone is welcome to come along and join Mel, James and Olly between 1-6pm. A Dorset celebration is also planned for later this year so watch this space…!

LGBT News Roundup 5

A fairly short news roundup this week!

Church in Wales to bless same-sex unions Chinese copy of Snapchat bans LGBT+ keywords.

US students walkout after their teacher is reprimanded for coming out as bisexual Lil Nas X honoured for commitment to ending LGBT+ youth suicide

Church in Wales to bless same-sex unions Same-sex couples can now have their marriage blessed by the Church in Wales after a historic vote was held this weekend, however same-sex marriages will remain prohibited.

The change is important because a blessing, in religion, signifies God's approval. The bill to allow the blessings was put forward by the Church’s Bench of Bishops and then went to a vote by the rest of the Church’s governing body on Monday 6th September.

The bill will introduce blessings “experimentally” for five years, and individual members of the church are free to decide whether or not to take part in the blessings. The Church of England is yet to make any similar movements and has delayed their decision on same-sex marriage and LGBT+ rights until 2022.

Chinese copy of Snapchat bans LGBT+ keywords.

QQ, a massively popular messaging app in China, similar to our Snapchat, has banned the words “gay”, “lesbian” and “LGBTQ“ and claimed that they are harmful.

Although being gay is not illegal in China, the country does not recognise same-sex marriage and there are no legal protections in place that protect LGBT+ Chinese people the huge social stigma which they face.

QQ allows over half a billion users to connect with each other in group chats which they can find by searching for keywords. Earlier this month, if users tried to search for groups using the keywords “gay” “lesbian” or “LGBTQ”, they get a message which pops up reminding them to “Use the Internet in a civil manner. Say no to harmful information.” This message has now been removed and replaced with a simple “No results found” message.

Tencent, the company behind QQ, has not yet commented on the changes.

US students walkout after their teacher is reprimanded for coming out as bisexual

Over 100 students at a high-school in Iowa in the USA have walked out after their teacher was punished for telling his class that he was bisexual.

Their English teacher, Lucas Kaufmann, was put on temporary leave last week after he included an LGBT+ flag on a “Things that describe me” slide in his introduction presentation to his class. When the students asked him about it, he came out as bisexual.

The students argued that Mr Kaufmann just wanted LGBT+ students to know that they had an ally at the school and did not deserve his punishment. They created an online petition with over 2,000 signatures and on Tuesday 7th September they staged a walkout

The Winterset school district has yet to make a decision on the outcome of this situation.

Lil Nas X honoured for commitment to ending LGBT+ youth suicide

The Trevor Project have named Lil Nas X as their suicide prevention advocate of the year.

This is the first time the Trevor Project have given out this award and it coincides with Suicide Prevention Month in the USA.

It has also been awarded at the same time as Lil Nas X pulled off a huge publicity campaign with a fake pregnancy which turned out to be raising money and awareness for human rights campaigns including the Trans Inclusive Group, an African-American led organisation based in South Florida that provides safe spaces for trans and gender non-conforming people.

Many people have stepped forward on Twitter to thank Lil Nas X for his work towards supporting and uplifting the LGBT+ community.

LGBT+ News Roundup 4!

Israel ends ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men

Ofcom cut ties with Stonewall over ‘risk of perceived bias’

Scottish government releases new guidance on supporting trans pupils in schools.

Protests as Manchester Pride’s returns

Bourne Free Pride was a huge success!

Jodie's Climbing Snowdon!

Our friends at Weymouth Gay Group are in the news!

Israel ends ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men

On August 19th, Israel’s openly gay health minister Nitzan Horowitz announced via twitter that “Discrimination against gays in blood donation is over”.

As in many other countries, Israel’s current rules state that gay and bisexual men can only donate blood if they have not had sex with another man in over a year. This policy is due to be scrapped and will be replaced with a new rule asking instead anyone who has had “high-risk sexual relations” to wait three months before donating.

Bans on gay men donating blood first came into existence during the height of the AIDs crisis in 1980 when homophobic stigma around the virus was commonplace. When the rules were first introduced, any sex between two men resulted in a life-time ban from donating blood.

In recent years, countries have begun to roll back these restrictions. This includes the UK which changed the rules earlier this year from asking gay and bisexual men to abstain from sex for 3 months to allowing them to donate if…

• They have had the same sexual partner for the last 3 months

• If there is no known recent exposure to an STI

• If they are a recent user of PrEP or PEP

Horowitz called the changes in his country “another historic step for equality for LGBTQ+ people in Israel '' as they show a glimmer of hope for activists fighting to tackle the stigma surrounding HIV positivity and the LGBT+ community.

Ofcom cuts ties with Stonewall over ‘risk of perceived bias’

The Office of Communications, or ‘Ofcom’ for short, is a media ‘watchdog’ service in the UK. Basically, it protects the public from bad broadband providers, slow postal services, and makes sure we’re happy with what we see and hear on TV and the radio by investigating audience complaints. Until recently, they were one of hundreds of organisations involved with Stonewall’s ‘Diversity Champions’ campaign which gives members advice on workplace LGBT+ inclusivity.

Ofcom withdrew from the scheme due to concerns over “ remaining impartial and independent at all times” but said that their “commitment to supporting the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ+ people is as strong as ever” and that their work with Stonewall had “laid the foundations” to support LGBT+ employees and they were confident that they could continue to be inclusive without Stonewall’s support.

The withdrawal from the Diversity Champions scheme also comes after Ofcom’s chief executive suggested that the BBC should not speak to the LGB Alliance (a rival organisation to Stonewall which is in the midst of allegations of trans-exclusionary behaviour).

Ofcom’s decision to distance itself from Stonewall has been widely criticised as some feel that Ofcom is caving to transphobic pressure in the media. Stonewall stated that "It is sad that involvement in a programme that supports an inclusive workplace for LGBTQ+ employees should be in any way regarded as an un-impartial act” but that they are “very proud of the work done with Ofcom and wish them the best in their ongoing efforts to support all of their LGBT+ employees.”

Scottish government releases new guidance on supporting trans pupils in schools.

On August 12th, the Scottish government released new guidance for schools on how they can best support their trans student population. The guidance contains "real-life examples" and advice on a wide range of issues known to affect transgender pupils, including bullying, safety and privacy.

LGBT Youth Scotland’s chief executive said that “Teachers and school leadership often tell us that they lack the knowledge and confidence to effectively support trans young people. This resource will guide school staff on how best to do so, improving the lives of trans young people and enabling them to thrive."

Protests as Manchester Pride returns.

Last weekend, over 1,000 protesters marched to voice their concerns about Manchester Pride’s management.

Manchester Pride returned last weekend after a year away due to the pandemic. As mentioned in previous News Roundups, the return came with several changes, including scrapping the safer sex scheme which has provided free condoms and lube since the 90s. There was also an investigation into Manchester Pride’s finances.

Protesters said that they felt Manchester Pride was too commercial now and had lost touch with what it is supposed to represent, especially as the planned parade had been cancelled amidst covid concerns, while the music festival aspect of Manchester Pride continued.

Manchester Pride responded to the protests by saying they will conduct a review in autumn 2021 to investigate the complaints.

Bourne Free Pride was a huge success!

Although protests were held for Manchester Pride, Bournemouth came together to celebrate Bourne Free!

Bournemouth’s mayor joined NHS staff and key workers at the front of the parade as we headed through the town centre from Meyrick Park to the triangle. Space Youth Project was also out in full force as 40 of us joined the march with whistles, banners and music. We were led by the fantastic Charity and Beth on their microphones as they kept the energy high and got us all singing along to our favourite upbeat anthems.

Participants from Space said:

“It was super fun, I can’t wait to go again next year!”

“There were lots of young people with flags and dressed up which felt really positive. It was good to give out Space flyers and to know that people watching might be hearing about us for the first time.”

“the whole day was just fantastic our side of things. the space ceo had a chat with us before we started the parade and made us feel so safe. all of the communication before during and after was wonderful and I'm so excited for the next one. my younger sister also attended and it was her first pride and as a cishet person she wasn't sure how it would be but she had the time of her life and I think a lot of that is down to the space community!! thank you”

Jodie's Climbing Snowdon! One of our INCREDIBLE youth workers is climbing Snowdon this weekend to fundraise for us

here at Space Youth Project!!!

Jodie started her journey with Space Youth Project as a member, became a Supernova (our incredible peer mentors) and has now grown up to become a volunteer youth worker at our Poole group! She volunteers with us to gain a greater understanding of working and supporting young people around gender identity.

We know she's going to go on to do great things in life and we'll be behind her every step of the way!

To support Jodie click here!

Our friends at Weymouth Gay Group are in the news!

Finally we’re wrapping up our Roundup with a celebration of our friends at Weymouth Gay Group who were featured in the Dorset Echo last week!

The LGBT+ friendly meet-ups for over 18s are finally returning after the pandemic. The informal meetings are held on Thursdays from 8pm until 10pm at The Swan Wetherspoons pub on St Thomas Street and on Monday’s they try out different venues around Weymouth. Keep up the good work WGG Team!