East Midlands Proud Newsletter no. 9

15 October 2003

It has been some weeks since I last wrote out to you all due to it having been the holiday season and taking time to chill out. So here we are now, complete with Prouds’ new corporate logo!

AGM

It was good to see some of you East Midlanders at the Annual General Meeting held at the PCS Victoria office on 5 September. Members from the North West had a tough time with their trains taking up to eight hours to get to London arriving just as the meeting was winding up. Our web man Davey Hodgetts was amongst them, and he looked like his spirit had been broken. I hope you have come through ok Davey! Despite the absence of the latecomers there was a good turn out to the meeting and our Chair, Wash, skilfully guided us through the proceedings.

Thanks to those who nominated me, I am here for another year as East Midlands representative and I hope to do justice to the position. I have also been elected as one of the PCS Proud delegates to the TUC LGBT Conference 2004. If you want to make suggestions to change anything or have some good ideas for the group locally, then my contact details are at the bottom of this page.

Alternatively, if you want to be more involved in raising the profile of the Proud group locally and helping to organise events, then you might like to put yourself forward as a member of the local organising committee. This idea has come about as a result of a motion being passed at the AGM for keen members to have more input. This will obviously have an impact if individuals are active in their own branches and can pass on information and raise issues there. It is also helpful if regional reps. are unable to attend a meeting or social but can count on someone to see that it goes ahead. The committee is to be kept to a maximum of 5 people, and unfortunately there will be no facility time available. If you’re interested, then let me, or Proud Group Secretary Brian Shaw, know!

There was some lively debate and interventions made around a couple of the motions put forward to the meeting, most notably that on Civil Partnerships which was only narrowly passed. The argument against was that some felt it would be better to restrict Civil Partnership to same sex couples because straight people have the option to marry if they want, and leaving it open may allow aunties and nephews or carers and those cared for to enter into a partnership, thus devaluing the nature of the relationship. The flip side to this is that it may have the effect of ghettoising same sex couples if it is restricted to them. After all, we want to achieve the same status as straight people in all spheres of life, and not belong to a second-class grouping. I am sure this debate will go on.

This was a well-attended and lively AGM, which ended up, as you might have guessed, with a (much needed in the case of the North West delegates) drink.

East Midlands Meeting

A few of us met up at the Rainbow and Dove in Leicester on Friday 22 August and had some beers. We then moved on to ‘Quebec’, another Leicester gay bar, and had some more! A new member managed to catch up with us there, which was gratifying because we thought he might not come, and the fact he managed to find us shows that he is keen! Dave and Dean the ‘hard boys of Notts.’ went on to ‘Streetlife’ to make shapes, as I understand young people say these days. Quite a nice image really.

Next meeting… Saturday 25 October… lunchtime 1.00pm… at a café bar called ‘Mine’, on Braunstone Gate, Leicester. This is a cool place, run by an attractive young lesbian called Ruth, great food, mellow music, chic. I know it’s a way from the station (about 15 - 20 minutes if you walk – see attached map), but we need to branch out a little, and maybe, just maybe, this venue will interest some of you gay women? It’s also in the hippest part of Leicester… What more can I say?

Womens’ Seminar

I attended the PCS Womens’ Seminar held in York between September 26 – 28, as a delegate from PROUD. Other delegates in attendance were some of the most senior Women Officers in the Union including members of the NEC and some full time union officers. Many had brought their children with them. This was the first time that there had been such a gathering of so many experienced fighting women in the union. It is a fact that 60% of PCS Union members are now women, and yet this figure is not being reflected amongst union activists. One of the primary issues for the weekend was looking at how we could encourage women to become involved in the work of the union. I think we in Proud should be looking at how we can get more lesbians actively involved. Hopefully, some of the social pressures and hostile environments putting people off will be relieved with the Sexual Orientation Regulations offering some protection. If members want to contact me with regard to practical or psychological obstacles (such as coming out or internalised homophobia) as to why they or others are put off union work, then give me a ring or drop me a line, and I will feed the information back to the PCS Equality department to see if we can’t make some changes.

Regional Representatives meeting

Following on from the AGM, the regional representatives met at PCS HQ on 1 October. The main purpose of the meeting was to brief the new reps. (and there are several of those) to their roles. Jay Lee, who is an East Midlands Proud member, has been co-opted on to the committee as our link with the PCS Black Members forum, so we can perhaps begin to address some of the issues facing Black and Asian lesbian, gay and bisexual members. We also looked to the year ahead and at what we are going to be doing to mark the introduction of the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations on Monday 1 December. It looks like there will be some kind of event involving the release of balloons in front of the media at the PCS Regional Offices, so watch this space for more information, as I think a cast of thousands might be useful.

Mind Report - “Mental health and social wellbeing of gay men, lesbians and bisexuals in England and Wales”

Those of you with email will have received a copy of the summary findings of this report from me already. If you have an email address but you haven’t given it to me yet, then please do so in order that I can send useful and interesting items to you.

The mental health charity, ‘Mind’, has just published the findings of three years of research by the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Royal Free College and University College Medical School. This is the most in-depth study of its kind ever carried out in this country, which set out to compare the psychological status, social adjustment, quality of life and use of mental health services of lesbians, gay men and bisexual men and women with heterosexual men and women. It also looked at the experiences that some LGB people had had with the mental health services. The report recognises that LGB people are more vulnerable to emotional distress and substance abuse, and suffer higher rates of anxiety and depression largely due to social stigma and discrimination, and concludes with a list of recommendations for health professionals and others, and the government.

A copy of the summary of findings of this report can be downloaded free of charge from the Mind web site at www.mind.org.uk. If you would like a copy of the full report which costs £5.00 + 50p post and package you should write to the publications department at:

Mind
15-19 Broadway
London E15 4BQ
Or telephone: 020 8221 9671

PROUD Annual Seminar - York

There’s still time to sign up if you haven’t already – closing date 31 October. Please try and come along, partners are welcome too! And as it’s in York, it may be the last chance to visit the lesbian bookshop, ‘Libertas!’ as the shop is closing at the end of the year.

This is going to be a great opportunity to get to grips with the new legislation, as well as celebrate Brians’ (cough) ‘30th’ birthday. What to wear?

See you soon!

Jude Jackson
PCS Proud East Midlands Regional Representative