East Midlands
Newsletter 4
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East Midlands Newsletter 4 |
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What do you know, it's February already
and Spring is making it's advances, with snowdrops and crocus poking their
heads out of the cold wintry ground. And this is going to be a very important
and busy year for the LGBT community!
Midlands TUC LGB&T Network I
attended the Midlands TUC LGBT Network meeting in Derby at the beginning
of the month, where the details for a new leaflet supporting lesbians
and gays within the Trade Union movement were finalised, and the leaflet
is due for launch at the Midlands TUC AGM on 22 February. We now need
to build up a database of LGBT Groups in the region to advertise the Network,
so if any of you have details of Gay Switchboards or other support groups,
then please let me know so that I can contact them. This is an important
step in promoting trade unionism in the LGB&T communities, and mainstreaming
LGB&T issues in the Unions. Proud Steering Committee We also had the first Steering Committee meeting of the year at PCS HQ. We are looking at ways of getting more involved with the Black Members Forum and the Disability Forum within PCS by hopefully getting Proud members on to those committees. It was proposed and agreed to begin an International Campaign to support LGBT people in Zimbabwe. This will be another way of linking with the Black Members Forum. The Committee all agree that we should find a way of marking 1 December 2003 - the day when the Employment Regulations come in to force. It is also International Aids Day, so there is scope to get LGBT issues very much in the public eye. One suggestion was to hold a conference, possibly in Manchester. If you have any other ideas on how we could mark the day, then let the Steering Committee know. Proud Magazine Editor, Andy Stuart, is looking for people who can help run the Magazine. If you have some useful skills, maybe in design or computer graphics for example, and would like to be involved, then get in touch! Local Work I have written out to many PCS Branches in the region advertising Proud and our work, and I've already had some responses, including an invitation to speak at the Nottingham Land Registry AGM later this month. Clearly, some people out there are listening. However, not all. Another response I got, was from a Branch Secretary who said that they didn't have room on their Union Notice Board for "That sort of thing", and "In any case, I don't know of any gays that work here - this is an Army camp you know!" Really? I shall be writing to them again. If you haven't got a Proud poster up on your Union Notice Board, it's either because I haven't got your Branch's address, in which case let me know what it is and I will write to them, or it's because you work in a place where your Branch Committee is still living in the dark ages, possibly an Army camp! In which case, still let me know and I will write to them - twice! I
would appeal to those of you with email facilities once again, to let
me have your email addresses so that I can send you the East Midlands
Newsletter in electronic form. This will help the group save some money
- and you would get the information much more quickly!! And I would like
to get a bit more feedback than I've had so far. What's going on in your
Branch?? East Midlands Members Meeting It's
a long time since Christmas, and I know that some of you are missing seeing
each other, so I thought this time we could meet at the Rainbow and Dove,
Northampton Square, Leicester, on Saturday 22 February at 1.00pm, lunchtime.
This venue is very close to the railway station, and opposite the Charles
Street Police Station if you want to make trouble. Please try and come
along, we've had some very successful meetings in Nottingham, and I'd
like to see the same in Leicester. Finally When I became a rep. for Proud, I had no experience of the Gay Scene, not being a clubby sort of person. So I was, frankly, stumped when it came to having any idea about where to hold meetings in a gay friendly environment. But then I met Dave Shaw at the Crouch End Training Event, and my life was changed! Dave seemed to know all of the places in the region, and I have also come to trust his taste and judgement on this matter. So I made a suggestion that it would be helpful to people like me to have some sort of 'Rough Guide' to Gay bars and pubs in the region, how about it, Dave? And his response can be found here... |