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SoniaslutParticipant
AurorA
Queendomhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM8Wqfv5Jw8
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SoniaslutParticipantFirst Aid Kit
The Times They Are a-Changin' (Dylan cover)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irZO6Uq1png
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SoniaslutParticipantcontaining a taint
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SoniaslutParticipantPreviously posted Oct. 14 2020
SoniaslutParticipantSongleikr
Ulvetime
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SoniaslutParticipantThe Petersens & Ger O'Donnell
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SoniaslutParticipantFleet Foxes
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SoniaslutParticipantPale Waves
EASYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ehWXsLtPoY
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SoniaslutParticipantThis post has had to be split into 2 parts because of its length
Part Two
A little LGBTQ history – a few snippets
Arena Three: Britain’s first lesbian magazine
In 1958 the Homosexual Law Reform Society (HLRS) was founded in the wake of the Wolfenden Report, published on 4 September 1957. The society launched with a series of high profile advertisements in national newspapers and became a beacon for many socially isolated men and women, who were now able to make contact with each other and start to build communities.
In 1963 Antony Grey, the HLRS’ secretary from 1962 to 1970, was contacted by Esmé Langley, who sought advice about setting up a magazine for lesbians. Through the networks of HLRS, Langley made contact with future contributors Cynthia Reid, Julie Switsur and Patricia Dunckley. The Minorities Research Group (MRG) was formed later that year and its first task was to create the first periodical for lesbians published in Britain.In spring 1964 the first issue of Arena Three was published, achieving just this. In it, the agenda of the MRG was set out:
“To conduct and to collaborate in research into the homosexual condition, especially as it concerns women; and to disseminate information and items of interest to universities, institutions, social and education workers, writers, poets, editors, employers and, in short, all those genuinely in quest of enlightenment about what has been called 'the misty, unmapped world of feminine homosexuality.'
[img]https://i.imgur.com/RpCkUi7.jpg?1[/img]
The majority of subscribers were lesbians, although the periodical was also read by bisexuals, gay men and professionals with an interest in homosexuality. The readership was predominantly middle-class, due to it being advertised in periodicals like the New Statesman, and like many early periodicals for the LGBTQ community at the time, Arena Three was only available via mail order. In December 1964 however, News of the World published an article on Arena Three introducing it to a working-class readership.
Despite this, access to Arena Three was far from easy for many women. Prompted by warnings from the HLRS about the potential legal implications of married women reading the publication, the original founders of Arena Three set in place a requirement for married women to obtain written consent from their husbands as part of their subscription requests.
In the first year, the core members of the MRG wrote much of the content, but as the readership grew, so did its contributors. Clare Barringer led the book review section and Lorna Gulston contributed articles on lesbian history. The letters pages were by far the most popular section, providing a forum where women could make contact with each other around the country – as well as crucially, finding others in their own hometown.
The social function of Arena Three cannot be understated, with demand for meetings and events evident from the very earliest issues. The first meeting took place at the Shakespeare’s Head pub on Carnaby Street, London, in May 1964. These meetings were held monthly and usually began with a discussion or talk, before opening out into a more social affair.
The meetings themselves generated debate about lesbian identities and consensus was often hard to come by. On top of this, the presence of ‘butch’ lesbians at these meetings – who dressed in men’s suits and styled their hair with Brylcreem – made venue owners suspicious as spaces were usually booked for ‘women only’ meetings.
One of the early meetings addressed this issue head on by tabling a motion for discussion: ‘That this house considers the wearing of male attire at MRG meetings is inappropriate’. The vote went against the motion, by 28 to 25, with six abstentions – meaning full 'butch' attire continued to be allowed at MRG meetings. However, a tone was set that ‘butch’ lesbians were not welcome in the MRG community.
The ‘butch’ identity was also evident during this period at the lesbian club The Gateways in Chelsea, London. In its early years Arena Three was critical towards the lesbian bars and clubs of the time, despite many of its founding members being regulars on the scene. Some scholars have suggested that there was a class dimension to the hostility towards butch lesbian identities.
The nature of lesbian identities was regularly discussed in Arena Three. Married lesbians and lesbian mothers were a minority within the readership, but they existed. Their experiences and the issues they faced were explored in several articles which ultimately revolved around questioning the societal and family pressure for women to marry and have children. These articles often generated discussion that would later be magnified by the emergence of the Women’s Liberation Movement in the early 1970s.
Researchers also contacted Arena Three in order to interview and collect information from its readership. These relationships were often problematic however, especially if researchers’ findings conflicted with the views of the MRG.
The rocky relationships also extended to media interactions with the MRG and Arena Three. In 1967 several members of the MRG appeared in the BBC-produced Man Alive series in a programme exploring female homosexuality in light of the Sexual Offences Act passing into law, partially decriminalising homosexuality. However, the MRG was critical of the programme owing to its focus upon participants with a ‘butch’ identity. So while the MRG welcomed discussion in the media, it was often contingent on representations conforming to its own notion of lesbian identity.
The final issue of Arena Three was published in July 1971, owing largely to factions and conflict over administration and finances within the main organising body of the MRG. From the ashes though, a new publication called Sappho was born, with the first issue being published in April 1972. Sappho had a progressive feminist voice which was in keeping with the convergence of the ideas of gay liberation and women’s liberation in the early 1970s.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/LRxcVPO.jpg?1[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/Hod6AOf.jpg?1[/img]Sappho would be the dominant means by which a lesbian feminist voice was developed in the UK until its final issue was published in 1981.
The HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s put gay sex under the full spotlight of public debate, inflaming longstanding prejudices and birthing new myths and misconceptions about gay men in particular. For a time, it was reported as a ‘gay plague’.
The public policy response to HIV/AIDS is widely held to be a success. Then-Health Secretary Norman Fowler succeeded in convincing Thatcher’s government to go ahead with an unprecedented health information campaign. In 1986/87, a leaflet drop to every household in the UK along with a remarkably stark TV campaign (featuring the famous John Hurt narrated ‘Tombstone’ ad) formed the world’s first major government-sponsored AIDS awareness drive. The strategy risked stoking fears in its attempt to raise understanding, but ultimately new diagnoses fell by a third and plateaued for the remainder of the century.
Local Government Act 1986 – Section 28
In 1988, Parliament amended the Local Government Act 1986. Section 28 prohibited local authorities from ‘intentionally promoting homosexuality’ or the ‘teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’. It stayed on the statute books for 15 years and became another rallying point for the LGBTQ movement, with key moments including:
Sir Ian McKellen coming out in a Radio 3 debate on the issue
Three lesbians abseiling into the House of Lords during debate on the ruling
four campaigners invading the BBC studios the day before the section became law, while Sue Lawley read the news.
Clause 28 was eventually repealed in 2003. In 2009, then-Leader of the Conservative Party David Cameron, despite having opposed the 2003 repeal, issued a historic apology for the policy.The acceleration of legislative changes since the turn of the century makes it tempting to believe in a linear story of irreversible social progress. For the current generation, the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013 might appear as a definitive closing act, without the context of the battle to get there.
And this is why it still matters; why the 2017 year of commemoration – marking 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality – was so essential not just for the LGBTQ community but for anyone concerned for the state of civil rights today. It is why the Pride movement is as important and relevant as it ever has been – offering a reminder, not just of the battles waged and ultimately won, but of the ever-shifting nature of the battleground itself.
The ‘big-ticket’ legislative changes (same-sex adoption, marriage, gender recognition) might have been won, but policy debates are still being fought on inequalities that remain. Regrettably, Northern Ireland still does not have equal marriage.
In July 2017, the UK Supreme Court ruled in favour of John Walker, who sought equal spousal pension rights for his same-sex partner. Walker challenged an exemption in the Equality Act 2010 that allowed firms to exclude same-sex partners from providing pensions prior to the introduction of Civil Partnerships in 2005. Earlier in that same year, the Policing and Crime Act pardoned historic offences of gross indecency (known as the ‘Alan Turing law’) for consensual sexual activity between gay men.
And there remain continuing points of contention in how broader public policy is implemented. For example, guidelines on blood donation have been changed to enable gay men to donate three months after having last had sex, compared with 12 months previously. The Government has also signalled its intention to consult on proposals that would make it easier for transgender people to choose their sex legally, removing the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and making the transitioning process less bureaucratic. This follows 2017’s first ever national LGBT survey carried out by the Government.
Prime Minister Theresa May acknowledged that ‘when it comes to rights and protections for trans identifying people, there is still a long way to go.’ In areas such as the rights of transgender prisoners, this is literally a matter of life and death, starkly illustrated by two high profile suicide cases in 2015.
John Walker’s successful legal challenge to the UK Government was ultimately made possible by EU equal employment rights. The UK’s decision to leave the EU (and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice) therefore raises the need for vigilance over the ongoing protection of hard-won LGBTQ protections. The newfound influence of the Democratic Unionist Party in determining the balance of UK Parliament is an early indicator of the risks. Many in the LGBTQ community have been appalled by the UK Government’s willingness to enter into a formal agreement with a party that has repeatedly blocked equal marriage in Northern Ireland and which is notorious for expressing anti-LGBTQ sentiment.
The sudden volatility in the United States’ political landscape is a cautionary example. After one of the most remarkable shifts in public opinion in US history – from a 68/27 split against equal marriage in 1994 to a 60/37 split in favour of equal marriage by 2015 – the LGBTQ community suddenly faces a Vice President with links to ‘gay cure’ therapy, a President attempting to ban transgender service in the military, and an Attorney General whose stated position is that anti-LGBTQ discrimination on the grounds of religious freedom is legal under federal law.
Furthermore, the lifetime appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court vacancy tilts the balance of the seven Supreme Court judges in favour of social conservatism. The current experience of the US is a timely reminder for the UK that the victories won over the past 50 years are far from immutable.
Access to public services (and the social impact of growing up LGBTQ)
There is also a very live challenge in ensuring that LGBTQ are able to access the public services they need and are entitled to. That’s often not about addressing active or intended discrimination, but more about ensuring that the lived experiences of LGBTQ people are understood by service providers. According to LGBT Foundation statistics, LGBTQ people are:
– twice as likely to experience suicidal thoughts or attempt suicide
– two to three times more likely to experience depression
– seven times more likely to engage in some form of substance abuse and far more likely to have an eating disorder.In addition, over half of young gay people have self-harmed (compared to somewhere between 1 in 10 and 1 in 15 for young people generally).
Former Attitude editor Matthew Todd has written eloquently on this:
What’s wrong is not our sexuality, but our experience of growing up in a society that still does not fully accept that people can be anything other than heterosexual and cisgendered (i.e. born into the physical gender you feel you are). It is the damage done to us by growing up strapped inside a cultural straitjacket – a tight-fitting, one-size restraint imposed on us at birth – that leaves no room to grow. It makes no allowances for the fact that, yes, indeed, some people are different and we deserve – and need – to be supported and loved for who we are, too.
Despite the extraordinary advances made since 1967, it is clear the experience of growing up LGBTQ in the UK can still be traumatic and create long-term health and behavioural issues. It is to be hoped that the long-term impact of recent advances will be an improvement in the shocking figures currently reported. But there remains an immediate and pressing set of issues for LGBTQ people in the UK and every aspect of public service provision needs to be sensitive to these.
Many thanks for source materials to :
Rob Field, Steven Dryden and The British LibrarySoniaslutParticipantThis post has had to be split into 2 parts because of its length
Part One
A little LGBTQ history – a few snippets
The Buggery Act of 1533, passed by Parliament during the reign of Henry VIII, is the first time in law that male homosexuality was targeted for persecution in the UK. Completely outlawing sodomy in Britain – and by extension what would become the entire British Empire – convictions were punishable by death.
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[img]https://i.imgur.com/JPa8mv5.jpg?1[/img]It was not until 1861 with the passing of the Offences Against the Person Act, that the death penalty was abolished for acts of sodomy – instead being made punishable by a minimum of 10 years imprisonment.
The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 however, went a step further once again, making any male homosexual act illegal – whether or not a witness was present – meaning that even acts committed in private could be prosecuted. Often a letter expressing terms of affection between two men was all that was required to bring a prosecution. The legislation was so ambiguously worded that it became known as the ‘Blackmailer's Charter’, and in 1895, Oscar Wilde fell victim.
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[img]https://i.imgur.com/JvBy7Ci.jpg?1[/img]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/OykSZlV.jpg?1[/img]Female homosexuality was never explicitly targeted by any legislation. Although discussed for the first time in Parliament in 1921 with a view to introducing discriminatory legislation (to become the Criminal Law Amendment Bill 1921), this ultimately failed when both the House of Commons and House of Lords rejected it due to the fear a law would draw attention and encourage women to explore homosexuality. It was also assumed that lesbianism occurred in an extremely small pocket of the female population.
In the post-war period, transgender identities started to become visible. In 1946 Michael Dillon published Self: A Study in Endocrinology. The book, which in contemporary terms could be described as an autobiography of the first transgender man to undergo phalloplasty surgery, recounted Dillon’s journey from Laura to Michael, and the surgeries undertaken by pioneering surgeon Sir Harold Gillies. Dillon wrote: ‘Where the mind cannot be made to fit the body, the body should be made to fit, approximately at any rate, to the mind.’
In May 1951 Roberta Cowell, a former World War II Spitfire pilot, became the first transgender women to undergo vaginoplasty surgery in the UK. Cowell continued her career as a racing driver and published her autobiography in 1954.
Meanwhile, a significant rise in arrests and prosecutions of homosexual men were made after World War II. Many were from high rank and held positions within government and national institutions, such as Alan Turing, the cryptographer whose work played a decisive role in the breaking of the Enigma code. This increase in prosecutions called into question the legal system in place for dealing with homosexual acts.
The Report of the Departmental Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, better known as the Wolfenden Report, was published in 1957, three years after the committee first met in September 1954. It was commissioned in response to evidence that homosexuality could not legitimately be regarded as a disease and aimed to bring about change in the current law by making recommendations to the Government. Central to the report findings was that the state should focus on protecting the public, rather than scrutinising people’s private lives.
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[img]https://i.imgur.com/F2nMtz3.jpg?1[/img]It took 10 years for the Government to implement the Wolfenden Report’s recommendations in the Sexual Offences Act 1967. Backed by the Church of England and the House of Lords, the Sexual Offences Act partially legalised same-sex acts in the UK between men over the age of 21 conducted in private. Scotland and Northern Ireland followed suit over a decade later, in 1980 and 1981 respectively. The Sexual Offences Act represented a stepping stone towards equality, but there was still a long way to go.
In 1966 The Beaumont Society was set up to provide information and education to the general public, medical and legal professions on ‘transvestism’ and encourage research aimed at a fuller understanding. The organistaion is now the UK’s largest and longest running support group for transgender people and their families.
In the wake of the Stonewall Riots in New York in June 1969 over the treatment of the LGBT community by the police the UK Gay Liberation Front was founded (GLF) in 1970. The GLF fought for the rights of LGBT people, urging them to question the mainstream institutions in UK society which led to their oppression. The GLF protested in solidarity with other oppressed groups and organised the very first Pride march in 1972 which is now an annual event
It took 10 years for the Government to implement the Wolfenden Report’s recommendations in the Sexual Offences Act 1967. Backed by the Church of England and the House of Lords, the Sexual Offences Act partially legalised same-sex acts in the UK between men over the age of 21 conducted in private. Scotland and Northern Ireland followed suit over a decade later, in 1980 and 1981 respectively. The Sexual Offences Act represented a stepping stone towards equality, but there was still a long way to go.
In 1966 The Beaumont Society was set up to provide information and education to the general public, medical and legal professions on ‘transvestism’ and encourage research aimed at a fuller understanding. The organistaion is now the UK’s largest and longest running support group for transgender people and their families.
In the wake of the Stonewall Riots in New York in June 1969 over the treatment of the LGBT community by the police the UK Gay Liberation Front was founded (GLF) in 1970. The GLF fought for the rights of LGBT people, urging them to question the mainstream institutions in UK society which led to their oppression. The GLF protested in solidarity with other oppressed groups and organised the very first Pride march in 1972 which is now an annual event..
[img]https://i.imgur.com/11qS4My.jpg?1[/img]
When the GLF disbanded in late 1973 the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE), based in Manchester, led the fight for equality by legal reform. Age of consent equality however, did not come until 2001 in England, Scotland and Wales, and 2009 in Northern Ireland.
The fight for sexual equality however, was far from over. Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, introduced by the Conservative Government under Margaret Thatcher, banned local authorities from ‘promoting homosexuality’ or ‘pretended family relationships’, and prohibited councils from funding educational materials and projects perceived to 'promote homosexuality'. The legislation prevented the discussion of LGBT issues and stopped pupils getting the support they needed. Section 28 was repealed in 2003, and Prime Minister David Cameron apologised for the legislation in 2009.
In 2004 the Civil Partnership Act 2004 allowed same-sex couples to legally enter into binding partnerships, similar to marriage. The subsequent Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013 then went further, allowing same-sex couples in England and Wales to marry; Scotland followed suit with the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014. Northern Ireland enactment the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2019, making same-sex marriage legal on 13 January 2020.
The Gender Recognition Act 2004, which came into effect on 4 April 2005, gave trans people full legal recognition of their gender, allowing them to acquire a new birth certificate – although gender options are limited to ‘male’ or ‘female’. Between July and October 2018 the UK Government consulted the public on reforming the Act. As of 1 September 2020 no report from the consultation has been published.
The Equality Act 2010 gave LGBT employees protections from discrimination, harassment and victimisation at work. The legislation brought together existing legislation and added protections for trans workers, solidifying rights granted by the Gender Recognition Act.
The LGBT community continues to fight for equality and social acceptance.
Many thanks for source materials to :
Rob Field, Steven Dryden and The British LibrarySoniaslutParticipantAurorA
Churchyardhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00hbcQ8aUjU
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SoniaslutParticipant[img]https://i.imgur.com/iwWvgsK.jpg?1[/img]
SoniaslutParticipantScary Pockets
MMMBop (Hanson)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiShsfvbFUA
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SoniaslutParticipant
I've no desire to build up my post count. Is that what you're attempting to do posting pic after pic?
I shan't PM you as there's little point attempting to debate a subject with someone who won't accept another viewpoint is just as valid as their own.
As far as I'm concerned no more need be said on the subject.SoniaslutParticipantI didn't “ridicule” anyone Vaughan.
That's your interpretation of my post.If the person I gently poked fun at wishes me to remove the post I'm happy to, as I've already stated.
All you've demonstrated tonight are your bullying tactics and an incredible ability to misinterpret other people's words. -
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