LGBT CONFERENCE NOTTINGHAM
LOOKING AT THE NEEDS OF BLACK AND ASIAN LGBT PEOPLE

Simon Hall – the first speaker

The first part of the talk centred on damage to black members through dancehall reggae singers and their anti-gay lyrics.

Outrage, the gay rights group, decided to take this issue forward and the black community got very angry and accused the group of racism against black culture. When has homophobia been part of black culture or when has prejudice been part of the black culture. BMAG took the issue forward when some of these reggae singers were nominated for different awards. They spoke to the Mobo officials. Mobo awards are about challenging the status quo and awarding prizes for discrimination. This won the argument and those artists were asked to make an apology about their anti-gay and hate lyrics and they refused. These artists were barred from the Awards and also their nominations were withdrawn. BMAG are now part of the board that look the awards and nominations of black artists.

There is little or no support for black and Asian gay people and the ones are available is mostly in London. There are over 80 HIV organisations and hardly any of them do work with black gay men. This backs up and supports the view that there is little or no support for black gay people. You do not have to be black to push forward the agenda for black or Asian people but you do need to work closely with the black or Asian communities or representatives to make sure you are getting across the correct message in the right way.

Remember that gay and black and Asian people do have different needs and also need difference services and help that are not accommodated by many gay organisations.

Parents with gay children

In working with these issues you need to look at reaching a wider audience and look at the whole issues and not just at being gay. One would look at discrimination and then include sexuality. You need to start a dialogue and get people talking. One way this can be done is by starting a campaign that will get people talking. You need to work with other gay organisations to get funding and support for your campaigns including sexual health issues, gay black men and women and Asian men and women. Sexual health should include funding for sexual health workers to reach out to all gay men including black, Asian men and women who have different needs and therefore need different services.

We need to challenge Religion Simon went on to say and we should include sex and sexuality in faith seminars and this would lead to issues on talking about issues about being gay. This way you are more likely to get in and also make an influence. We can influence and show preachers to start from not preaching hate from the pulpit.

There was a campaign called time to accept which was meant to challenge the gay community but also engage the Black community who like to think there are no gay black people and that being gay is a white man’s disease There is definitively discrimination against black and /Asian people on the scene. A lot of it is discrimination based upon ignorance and lack of knowledge and also myths that were started years ago. Some examples of this are: being refused entry into a club, approached for drugs, seeing black and Asian people as exotic and as sexual objects and not people.

Nottingham switchboard
7% are calls from black gay men and that makes up to 200 to 400 calls a year who call the switchboard and ask what services are out there for me. Well this is where the services provided by gay organisations for gay people do provide the right service for those communities, except in London and even that is small. Both communities have cultures and music that are not adhered to on the gay scene and a lot of the time both black and Asian and other ethnic gay people can feel isolated and alone. Religon and the communities they come from make them feel very trapped and some find a way to cope, other live a lie and others have to leave the community completely and start again.

An Asian man talks about his experiences

He talks about his childhood and the fact that he was an immigrant, a Pakistani, a homosexual and also HIV positive. He said that all these were labels and he did not recognise these titles. His father was away most of the time and his mother was over protective. He also has 4 sisters and was a Muslim. He said that he had a lot of freedom and he came out to his family when he was 17. It took 10 years for him to find out what it meant to be gay. He had a unique family who were happy for him as long he had a partner he was happy with. Due to his sexuality and the teachings he disowned his faith for a while but felt uncomfortable doing that as his faith gave him a spiritual strength. He moved away to find himself in Denmark as eh thought they were more liberal minded and due to the differences in the law back in the 80’s. He came back and also found people who were gay and Muslim who he met and a special group for Asian and Black gay people. He also found a way to keep his faith and come to terms with his sexuality.

The Nottingham Group

This group has a refugee forum and has been going for 18 months. They have experienced some gay Refugees with problems and found that with the amount it would be viable to set up a group geared to gay men. He sees and helps a small group of people. He talks about the amount of this group that do access the services to help them or get tested. The health worker found that a lot of the gay men and women has low self esteem, difficulty accepting themselves and needed a safe place to talk or explore their definitions and who they are. We get to hear of a client who lived in Afghanistan and was found out to be gay. He was paraded on a donkey around the village with a toilet seat around his neck and he was mocked and abused and treated worse than an animal. He was then charged and imprisoned and waiting the sentence of death by being buried alive and stoned. The family bribed the police to let me go and he fled to the UK. When he entered the country he was aware that the could claim asylum and it was not illegal to be gay in this country.