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• To support black and Asian LBGT members.
• Raise awareness.
• Educate and inform.
• To provide information and legal advice.
• Consult and gather feedback.
• To make links with other LGBT Black Asian and ethnic groups inside and outside the union.

Key areas we need to look at:

Raise awareness
Diversity issues in the PCS magazine – this a way to educate people and if people complain they should be reminded the union represents all it’s members and people from minority groups also their union subscriptions and therefore should have services that meet their needs as well as everyone else.
PCS Proud magazine can help to educate by featuring articles on black Gay Asian and ethnic members.

To support black and Asian members LBGT members
Support at branch and Regional level – a lot of the time we have equality officers who do not understand the issues that black and Asian people come across or how to deal with them. The service and back up given can be inadequate and unhelpful and this can lead to more stress for the person concerned, thinking the union could have helped them. This could also make people want to leave the union to and those bad experiences can be passed on within the community, giving the union a bad reputation. This was addressed by the Blacks members’ forum that put forward a motion to have a black rep in each branch area. I feel that each area should have an equal opportunities rep that includes support for all minority groups and that this person must have proper training in this area.
There needs to be meeting around once or twice a year that would funded partly from the Equality team, the black members group, PCS Proud, National Executive Committee and other groups that are involved.
A black members web page with a virtual chat room. To provide confidentiality and privacy black and Asian embers would have to sign up with a screen name and a password. This could be a place where black and Asian people could talk about their experiences. It is clear from meetings and from the conference that black Asian and ethnic people do need a place to come together to talk about their experiences.
This virtual chat room has drawbacks as lack of privacy and home and access to the Internet may mean black members are not able to contact each other.
Their needs to be a link on the page to links where black and Asian LGBT people can get advice and support.

To make links with other LGBT Black Asian and ethnic groups inside and outside the union
It is important that I go to the LGBT TUC conference in July 2005 to make links with other black people from other unions.

Educate and inform
National Training part of National rep’s job is to represent their members and that includes all members and that they are technically being paid to do union work – as the union pays for the time they are not in work
These members include gay, lesbian, bi sexual, Asian, Black, disabled or female. The Reps should have places where they can go to for advice in these areas. The PCS union has a duty under law under the Sexual Orientation Act, the Race Relations Amendment Act and the DDA members to that act. The Union should be proud to show the way and be a leader in this area. I feel this is an area from needed to be tackled along with all the other minority groups including women’s, black, disability etc and the headquarters equality office.
In areas where they have a high number of union members who are Black, Asian or from an ethnic background there needs to be Mandatory training as at the moment it is not.

PCS Proud can be deal with this issue by making sure that the training PCS Proud provides includes awareness around the issues for black and Asian gay people.

To provide information and legal advice
Legal Advice – this is an area where we need to be sensitive as gay men and women would prefer to work with solicitors that were gay friendly or have a gay solicitor – in the same way that black and Asian issues need to be dealt with by people who understand their culture and aware of the problems that they face. In dealing with personal and difficult cases having a good solicitor who understands your needs and can meet them is important. The national equality group could look into this and the solicitors that the union uses.

Consult and gather feedback.
To consult and gather feedback from the Black members forum and PCS Proud committee and also other LGBT black and Asian groups or union committees.

Other areas the black members rep could look at:
I also feel there needs to be a campaign on the internet with working with other unions and other Asian, black and ethnic support groups of positive gay posters, cards etc.
Stonewall need to work more closely with us and other support groups to make sure this part of the gay community is not forgotten and that their needs are adhered to and well as the main community.
It is clear that Black and Asian and ethnic people do have different needs to the main gay community.

Asian and Ethnic LGBT people.
There needs to be 3 pages on There needs to be campaign of Fairness, Equality and Diversity celebrating culture, people and acceptance. This can be done though posters and articles in PCS magazine and other publications but also these posters on a big size could also at conferences and other meetings that the union hold and also in PCS offices across the country
This will show people that the Union are serious in their commitment to Diversity and their zero tolerance to prejudice against gay men and women, black and Asian people, disabled people and that homophobia, racism, sexism will not be accepted and that there will swift consequences to people who behave this way.

Created and compiled by Jay 2005