26 July 2003

East Midlands Proud Newsletter no.8

Summer is disappearing far too quickly for my liking; world events appear to have affected the space - time continuum, so that it always feels like there are jobs to do! Well, here’s where we’re up to:

Leicester Pride

The annual Leicester Pride event took place on Saturday 21 June on Leicester’s Victoria Park, and PCS Proud set up stall in the Community Tent. The day was glorious sunshine, and the atmosphere that of a village fete. It was my first time, and I shall definitely be going again. My partner, Marian, was very gracious in assisting me with the stall, and we tried to make sure we got to see something of the festival during the day (it was also murderously hot inside the marquis), so I slipped out every so often and took photos. It was all very colourful, what with gay rainbow flags, gay rainbow kites and gay rainbow cats and bears on sale! We did get a visit to say ‘hello’ from a Proud member from the West Midlands, which was nice. Lot’s of things were picked up from the stall, most notably the PCS stress balls (sign of the times?) and Proud (gay rainbow) pens, but also a lot of Proud literature, such as back issues of the magazine were popular.

Branch Talk

I was invited up to Mansfield on 24 June to sit in on the DWP BEC meeting, and to say a bit about my role as Proud representative for the East Midlands. They were a good bunch of people who clearly wanted to show their support on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. We have a Proud member on that branch committee, Chris, who is doing a good job in publicising the work of Proud by putting up posters and raising issues in her Branch, and also in recruiting new members! This is important work to show LGBT members that we are here for them. It was also interesting for me as part of the Land Registry group to hear about the colossal problems in the DWP at the moment, so we were able to swap some notes.

Land Registry Group Equal Opportunities Advisory Committee

It’s a long name, so I’ll try not to use it too much! I went along to my first GEOAC meeting on 30 June and 1 July at PCS HQ in Clapham. We split up into groups to look at specific equality issues - mine of course was sexuality. With the new legislation coming in on 1 December, we want to make sure that training and supporting literature for Land Registry staff will be in place. It has fallen to me, since I suggested it, to collate information for a booklet on sexuality. I have started work on this, and it could be quite a large undertaking. Still, well worth the effort I think. Can I ask you all to find out what arrangements you have in your own departments with regard to staff training, (if you are ‘out’ and feel ok about asking), and if you have any suggestions as to what information you think would be useful in such a booklet, please let me know.

East Midlands Members Meeting

We met up at the Broadway Café in Nottingham on Saturday 12 July and had a very nice lunch (the food really is excellent). This is a good venue, which is gay friendly rather than ‘gay’, so we were able to sit and chat happily. I had my camera, and took some snaps. Those of you with Internet access, and who are curious, can now see what Dave Shaw looks like if you visit the ‘Bar Guide’ in the East Midlands pages of the PCS Proud web site.

These meetings are very informal get togethers, but if you want to come along to raise any union matters then please feel free to do that - we discuss all manner of things! If members would like to see more formal meetings organised, then let me know.

Next meeting – Friday 22 August 8.00pm at the ‘Rainbow & Dove’ Northampton Square Leicester.

Midlands TUC LGBT Network

The group met on 14 July at the Lesbian and Gay Centre, Wellington Street, Leicester. The main issue at the moment is preparing for the Employment (Sexual Orientation) Regulations coming into force on 1 December. The TUC nationally is preparing a poster with the main points of the legislation on it. The Midlands TUC LGBT group is organising a seminar on education and training on the legislation for a date in November. The target audience will be full time union officials and representatives.

It looks as though section 28 is as good as gone, but we now have to deal with Regulation 7 (3) of the new Regulations. This clause allows discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation if the employment ‘is for purposes of an organised religion’, or ‘to avoid conflicting with the strongly held religious convictions of a significant number of the religion’s followers’. The clause was included at the last minute after direct intervention by Tony Blair, without consultation with any of the interested parties. The Joint Select Committee on Statutory Instruments of the Lords and Commons has advised that the Regulations do not comply with the European Directive in relation to this clause. The TUC and unions including PCS, are set to challenge the Government through the Courts, to have this clause deleted.

Steering Committee Meeting

The Proud Steering Committee met on 17 July at PCS HQ in Clapham. Unfortunately, due to train delays, the Manchester contingent was a couple of hours late, and the North East reps didn’t make it at all. That said, the meeting was surprisingly well attended and positive in mood.

We agreed to write in response both as a group and as individuals to the recent ‘pro-section 28’ letter printed in PCS View. We were very disappointed that the letter had appeared in the magazine at all, so look out for the next issue!

We agreed to have some PCS Proud badges produced, and looked at some designs. The badges will have to be for sale, as the group does not have enough funds to give them away. We will hopefully have them in time for the seminar in November.

Nigel Vine, from the Learning, Recruitment and Organisation department came and gave a presentation on the plans for the future for organisation and support within the Union, and his talk was like a breath of fresh air. The departments’ aim is to look strategically to increase active involvement of full time officers and representatives in a supportive role at both group and branch level to make sure we see some of our ideas realised, and that the work is relevant to each department. The Union is looking to increase its profile in the workplace.

Lorna Campbell, who is the link between the Steering Committee and the Equality Department, is conducting a survey on sexuality using members in the Child Support Agency as well as members of Proud. The Steering Committee has said we will give Lorna any help she needs in this research. There was also a proposal to undertake a separate survey on behalf of Proud, which will deal with the incoming regulations and readiness for them in the workplace. A substantial draft was circulated for consideration.

The Steering Committee is to look at the Civil Partnership consultation document from the DTI, and give feedback. There was strong feeling that the scheme should stick to same sex partnerships, and not have those relationships undervalued by being put on a par with relationships with family or friends, or even trustees.

The Proud AGM is on 5 September at 2.00pm, and will be held at the PCS Regional Office for London and the South East, 231 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London. Hope to see some of you there!

That’s all for now!
Best regards

Jude