£500,000 is a drop in the ocean for a city that generates many billions of pounds a day and can afford to pay bankers multi-million pound bonuses.

A cut in funding would affect support for young LGBT people facing homelessness, victims of LGBT related domestic abuse and victims of LGBT related hate crimes. It would undermine decades of hard work while also calling in to question the Government’s commitment to support vulnerable groups and promote equality, as they are obliged to by the Public Sector Equality Duty in the Equality Act 2010.

We urge Government to put themselves in the shoes of those who will be affected and to imagine:

·    being kicked out of their home as a teenager because of their sexuality and having nowhere to turn to,
·    being abused by a same-sex partner but finding support networks focus their support mainly to heterosexual women,
·    being assaulted in the street but feeling uncomfortable reporting it to the Police.

If these cuts go ahead we have to wonder exactly what is meant by ‘The Big Society’ and exactly who it is meant to support.

Dave Plummer and Stephen Bowen Lawrence,
PCS Proud National Committee (London)

Please see the LGBT London website for more details.