Dear Sirs,

Recently your player, Ravel Morrison, reportedly admitted posting a homophobic remark on Twitter. We are pleased that the FA has considered this disgusting remark serious enough to investigate and applaud the fact that the FA now recognise that homophobia is not acceptable in sport.

We are, however, very disappointed that you have failed to make a statement on the matter other than to say you are aware of the charge and will co-operate. This was an opportunity to make clear your support for anti-homophobia campaigns within sport and re-affirm a commitment to tackle prejudice in all forms and to also sign the sports charter against homophobia if you have not already done so.

PCS PROUD are encouraged by the statement from Oxford City Football Club for stating that homophobic comments, made by player Lee Steele via Twitter, were contrary to the clubs ethos.

The failure to challenge homophobic language perpetuates its acceptability!

PCS PROUD are also disappointed that following reports of Ravel Morrisons admission that he had used homophobic language he then captained the West Ham United development squad on 17^th February and his contribution was celebrated.

PCS PROUD suggests that this is an opportunity for Ravel Morrison and the club to gain some understanding of the seriousness of homophobia and its consequences. Perhaps he could spend some time with an organisation supporting victims of homophobia.

This is particularly poignant as last weekend was the launch of the annual International Football v Homophobia campaign and follows shortly after the BBC3 documentary ‘Britain’s Gay Footballers’ which showed a lack of willingness from the professional football league to discuss the issue of homophobia.

We would like to know if there is to be any further action taken and what steps are you taking to eliminate Homophobia in football?

Regards,

PCSPROUD National Committee
The voice of lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender members of the Public and Commercial Services Union

The club have responded with the following statement which is also now on their website.

West Ham United were this week invited by The Football Association to be part of a high-profile summit aimed at tackling homophobia and transphobia.

At the launch of the Opening Doors and Joining In campaign at Wembley Stadium, respected names from across the football family came together to air their views. They included two former Hammers midfielders in Bobby Barnes, representing the Professional Footballers’ Association, and The FA’s Director of Football Development Sir Trevor Brooking – as well as the club’s HR Director Michael Kerr.

All present confirmed their support for a drive to help lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGB&T) communities get actively involved without fear of discrimination or prejudice.

The event included a six-point FA action plan promoting inclusion, widening diversity in the game and addressing discrimination in all its forms – education, visibility, partnership, recognition, reporting and monitoring.

The issue has been brought into the public consciousness around a TV documentary by Amal Fashanu about her uncle, the former West Ham United forward Justin Fashanu who committed suicide aged 37 in 1998. Fashanu was the first openly gay footballer to come out in top-level English football.

Barnes, who took part in an awareness session with the Hammers squad this week, said footballers had done much in kicking out discrimination within the game, especially in terms of racism, and said they could lead the way again in terms of homophobia and transphobia.

A new poster campaign will be shown in dressing rooms around the country simply saying ‘gay or straight, we are all winners’.

The PFA assistant chief executive added: “I am very proud to be here. It is a necessary step on the road to equality and inclusion in football. [In football], we don’t give ourselves the credit we are due as an industry. Because of the fact football has such a resonance and reach, we can affect such areas.”

Sir Trevor spoke about the need to focus on those just coming into the game. In recalling his playing days and ongoing work with aspiring youngsters, he spoke of the need for greater education and setting the right example. “We have to make sure we treat everyone the same,” he said.

FA General Secretary Alex Horne had opened the conference and set the tone for a frank exchange of views which demonstrated how far the game has come, but also how far is still to go. The key going forward was to ensure an environment where discrimination will not be tolerated, and The FA outlined how they will, and already are, take a strong stance in punishing those who discriminate.

Horne said: “If someone is gay, we want them to feel secure if they choose to be open and know they will not be subject to abuse or ridicule.”

Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone made clear that whilst this was another positive step and a “red letter day”, there was still work to be done.

“Everything I heard today made me think that this was a genuine, committed serious step forward. This is day one; we’ll see where we are on day 366. That will be the test.”

A successful session concluded with an address from Club England Managing Director Adrian Bevington, who underlined that there was a desire to have a ‘so what’ mentality in the game, should anyone choose to be open about their sexuality. Work would continue to remove barriers and to ensure an eternal legacy where individuals are judged only on their football merits.

He said: “We want to ensure that if any player wishes to be open about their sexuality, then they can do it with the full support of the FA. We want a “So what?” culture in football.”

The club were keen to point out that West Ham United already have community projects and are keen to become involved in the football v homophobia campaign.

PCSPROUD are pleased that the club responded to our letter and that the club is taking steps to join important anti-homophobia and transphobia campaigns.

Introduction

Metropolitan Community Church proclaims the Good News of Jesus Christ that every person is loved by God. There is no condemnation because one is gay or lesbian. Perhaps you are gay or lesbian. Perhaps one of your loved ones or friends is. You undoubtedly know persons who are, whether you are aware of it or not. It may be that the traditional attitude of church and society toward gay and lesbian people causes you concern or pain. You may have become convinced that gay and lesbian people are shut out of Christ’s realm and out of the Church.

Many people have been taught that the Bible condemns homosexuality. Metropolitan Community Church believes that this is not the truth. We believe that gay and lesbian people are completely loved and accepted by God.

Deuteronomy 23:17-18

These verses have been applied to homosexual behaviour because of a mistranslation of the Hebrew. The King James Version reads “whore” and “sodomite“.

The Hebrew actually uses the same noun in its masculine and feminine forms, the words are best translated “temple (or cult) prostitute“. These verses have nothing directly to do with homosexual behaviour.

Cult prostitution flourished throughout the ancient world and this fact sheds important light on the other passages in this brochure. Fertility cult worship involved sexual activity in the temple, often with a sacred prostitute who was like a priest or priestess. This sacred sexual activity was believed to encourage the god(s0 to bestow fertility on the earth and its creatures.

Genesis 19:4-11

The sin of Sodom is clearly explained in Ezekiel 16:49-50. It was not homosexual behaviour, but for its deep and general sinfulness, the men in the story may have intended sexual abuse of the divine visitors (the translation of the verb “know” here is not clear).

The issue is not that the objects may have been homosexual but that it was to be abuse. This was in character with the whole of their uncaring, greedy and Godless lives.

Leviticus 18:22; 20:13-14

These verses are found in the “Holiness Code” which emphasized to the Israelites that they were to be set apart to God.

The context is prohibition of practices found in the nearby fertility cult of Molech. “Abomination” is a translation of the Hebrew word which specifically means idolatrous practices (not necessarily sexual).

The condemnation here is a reference to the fertility worship which the Israelites were to shun.

The seriousness of this idolatry in Hebrew eyes was compounded by the belief that “to lie with a man as with a woman” violated the dignity of the male sex. Women were property but men were the direct image of God.

To treat a man the way a woman was treated was to reduce him to property and, thereby, to violate the image of God. The issue was idolatrous activity which failed to acknowledge God’s creation

1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1Timothy 1:10

At issue are two words: malakee (found only in 1Corinthians) and arsenokeeteh, which is in both verses. Tradition assumes a homosexual meaning of the words. Actual study reveals that in its use there, malakee means “morally weak” or, perhaps, “immoral persons”. (The translation “effeminate” in the King James Version was an archaic one and, in any case, did not imply homosexuality in Greek–as it does not today.)

Arsenokeeteh means to refer directly to cult prostitution, again. Such practices were common both in Corinth and Ephesus (where Timothy was). It clearly refers, in this use and later uses in other writings, to prostitutes who engaged in both homosexual and heterosexual cult practice. Neither of these words can possible be translated to mean “homosexual” or any similar distortion of their meaning.

Romans 1:26-27

This is the only passage in Scripture which, apparently, talks about homosexual behaviour among women as well as men. The dangerous, traditional interpretation come from failure to relate it to the whole chapter. Paul talks about idolatrous people who put things or concerns before their devotion to God. As an example, he refers to fertility cult worship prevalent in Rome. The homosexual activity to which he refers is idolatrous. He implies that all of the cult worshippers engaged in it. (The interpretation that he is writing about homosexual behaviour in general would force this to say that all idolatrous people become homosexual–an obviously spurious interpretation.) The final sentence referring to their just reward is a reference to the venereal disease which was epidemic among such cults. This specific reference to fertility cult worship cannot be construed to condemn homosexual behaviour in general.

“Against Nature”

Some argue that God created male and female, as recorded in Genesis, only as a means of procreation. Homosexual behaviour is condemned on the assumption that it does not produce offspring. Since gender difference exists, they say, heterosexual contact is the only way god meant sexuality to be expressed.

Procreation was only one of God’s purposes in creation of humanity as recorded in Genesis. The other, equally important, was that God did not wish us to be alone. God gave us relationship with one another. It is dangerous to argue from simple biology when talking about ourselves as the image of God. Jesus told us that “God is Spirit” and we are created in the image of God. Human beings differ from animals in our spiritual nature. We are capable of relationship and this is the context of our sexuality. Our “natural” capacity for sexual expression, homosexual or heterosexual, is given meaning by our capacity for loving relationship.

The 150-plus page report, ‘Stonewalled: police abuse and misconduct against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the United States’ was released at a news conference in New York. Called the most comprehensive report of its kind Amnesty focused on four cities – Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Antonio – and included surveys of the 50 largest police departments in the country, as well as Washington, D.C.. Amnesty also conducted interviews with several hundred members of the LGBT community.

The report found widespread abuses.

“At times, the mere perception that someone is gay or lesbian provokes physical or verbal attacks,” the report said.

It concluded that there is a heightened pattern of misconduct and abuse of young gays, transgender individuals and all LGBT people of color, immigrants, the homeless and sex workers.

The mistreatment and abuse documented in the report includes targeted and discriminatory enforcement of statutes against LGBT people, including so-called morals regulations;

verbal abuse;
inappropriate pat-down and strip searches;
failure to protect LGBT people in holding cells;
inappropriate response or failure to respond to hate crimes or domestic abuse calls;
sexual harassment and abuse, including rape;
and physical abuse that at times amounts to torture and ill-treatment.

Young gay men and advocates in Chicago told Amnesty of a police officer who, according to one man, will “remove his badge, gun and belt and then beat you unless you give him a blowjob, after which he’ll just leave you there.”

Police officers accused a Latina transgender woman in San Antonio of stealing.

One officer reportedly said, “People like you make the world a bad place.”

Three police officers and two detectives allegedly surrounded her while one officer searched her, exposing her pubic hair, buttocks and one of her breasts.

She said, “I didn’t ask to be searched by a female officer. I’ve tried that before – they don’t care, to them we’re all men.” She was not charged with any crime.

Officers refused to give her their badge numbers. She said, “I know to be respectful to police officers but I’m tired of the way they are treating us.”

Two lesbians of color reported that two men in Brooklyn, NY, followed, harassed and threatened them, saying, “I’m going to kill you, bitch. You’re not a man..I’m gonna put you in your place.”

The verbal abuse escalated to physical abuse; the two women called 911.

When police were told this was a homophobic crime, the officers reportedly left without further investigating the incident or taking a complaint, telling the ambulance attendants responding to the women’s call to leave.

One woman reportedly was bleeding from the head due to a blow from one of the men. Her companion stated, “It was ridiculous. There she was running down the street bleeding and chasing after the ambulance.”

Of the 29 departments that responded to the Amnesty survey, only 31 percent instruct their officers on how to strip search a transgender individual;

two thirds of police departments reported providing training on hate crimes against LGBT individuals; and while most departments provide training regarding sexual assault (86%), about half do not include LGBT-specific issues.

“Police officers are hired to protect and serve all of their communities, not only the ones they deem worthy,” said Michael Heflin, Director of Amnesty International USA’s OUTfront program, which focuses on LGBT human rights.

“Every human being, without exception, has the right to live free from discrimination and abuse, yet LGBT people nationwide are afraid to report hate crimes or other abuses to the police, who at times prove themselves to be the criminals.

If we can’t count on law enforcement to set an example, hate crimes and discrimination will continue to flourish in a land that otherwise has made relative headway in the fight for LGBT rights.”

The Amnesty reported noted that it found some good policing.

Several police departments, the reported noted, have taken initiatives improve their practices.

The West Hollywood Station of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department has a Gay and Lesbian Conference Committee that is open to the public and allows police to stay in touch with community concerns.

The City of West Hollywood also established a Transgender Task Force that addresses policing issues.

In Washington, D.C., the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit is staffed by four full-time officers and ten volunteers, and the head of the unit, Sgt. Brett Parson, reports directly to the police chief. GLLU is also involved with training efforts within the police department.

©365 Gay.com 2005

The union has set out a call centre charter which covers many things like, terms and conditions, high adequate training, skilling and strong health and safety standards and making sure the patterns of work are flexible and meet that need of all staff.

The union hope to work with other unions and appropriates external experts and institutions in developing a charter for call centre workers that covers all the unions.

Another subject that came up was the subject of postnatal depression. It is it a large concern to the union that management are not able to see that postnatal depression is part of pregnancy. Management seem unsympathetic to this and instead of giving members of staff special leave for this time off, they are recording it as sickness. The union believes there should be more training for managers in this area.

The next area concerned was around personnel policy. The conference notes that the government has publicly endorsed recommendations on the meeting and squeeze skills levels of public sector workers across the civil service but the civil service departments keep introducing work systems that fail to make use of existing skills and discouraged workers from increasing their skills. There are many problems around work systems like LEAN, which have shown not to increase good customer service delivery but actually undermined and not enhanced it. This kind of programme has been introduced across many organisations in the Civil service under different names and union representatives should be made aware of the different names for the same system. The motion instructs the main committee to produce clear guidance to all groups and that of answers based on opposition to this kind of working process.

There needs to be keys safeguards around such issues as;

no individual output monitoring,
no individual targets,
access to for high standards of training,
a problem makes of work for the great bear actually,
no out of a great working,
defence of flexible working time arrangements,
and there needs to be a way to make sure that the vice of staff to take annual leave is cats.

This motion instructs the committee to publicise the findings of Whitehall studies and other evidence that show that this kind of work in call centres has an extreme impact on staff if the equipment and buildings are of a bad design that cannot facilitate the correct space, lightings, air condition etc. They want the union to campaign, lobby and negotiated at all levels to raise awareness of the counter-productive effects of this kind of system.

There are other things that were brought forward around call centres that are different to the ones mentioned before. I will try and now and summarise some of those things.

We have covered some of those things already, but I will now go through the other concerns of call centres across the country.

Excessive targets have been proven to be detrimental to customer service by careless this about numbers and it is not about giving a good service.

They are calling for a right to flexible working patterns, including the rights for members today the start of an inch time as an achiever workload balance that is right for the individual. They also were asking for sedition training to ensure the line of staff to affect the hand to handle calls uncover a staff and even absences.

This important to notice that a lot of people in call centres are not getting the adequate high level of training and it is rushed. They are not getting continual updated training. These are points that were in the motions by many different call centres across the country.

what the union hoped to do is work with other experts and organisations and other unions to come up with ways to push the plight of call centres to the public and come up with ideas based upon the facts and evidence, to make sure that the lives of people working call centres is enhanced.

They’re asking that core health and safety regulations are to be strictly enforced including to right to take breaks. That the rate of pay and conditions remain the or enhanced if the work of the call centres is given to other organisations outside the government.

There should be sight and hearing tests carried out in all call centres and that all new staff are given this before they start work in call centres. They are asking that these tests are radially done every year to all staff in call centres.

For the PCS National Committee to seek legal advice in preparing cases post traumatic dramatic stress and injury cases and also organize an advanced training programme for all call centre reps, so that there are able to encourage and support local and national or action weather management project improvements to working conditions. This will be backed up with professional research from experts who specialise in the work of call centres for use in the campaigning work.

The union is aware that the cabinet office promise to promote guidance produced by the home office around domestic violence and there was Assurance that all the directors of each department in the civil service would make this a guide is available to all staff, a make sure the staff knew it was there and to consider whether domestic violence policies need to be changed in light of this new guidance.

The union feel that this needs to be monitored to make sure that this guidance is included when negotiating workplace policies, that it is up to date and puts in a place persistent ensure that further changes now or in the future in the law are carried over to workplace policies.

They also feel that there needs to be training and material to make sure those who have experienced or are experiencing domestic abuse is handled correctly, and this includes domestic violence in the case of other minorities such as the lesbian, gay, bisexual and the Trans communities. They feel that the union to lobby the government to increase the funding to those people who are experiencing this, so that they have access to legal aid to make sure that this kind of thing can be stopped.

I’m not going to cover other areas that came up at the conference.

The union is very much aware of the discipline and dismissal procedures to get rid of staff on ill health and sickness grounds. They feel that this is a way to get rid of staff and speed up the reduction of staff within the civil silver service, without the need to pay redundancy payments and to pay the out small amounts of compensation payments.

June also feels that the coveralls for civil servants its prey been calculated for the last four years is unfair putting staff and a unnecessary hardship. The cobblers therefore ask that the committee look at the correct also upon which are sick pay is home to undergo shirt with the cavern out of this to make sure that this is by ours.

The unaware that current Health and Safety legislation does not includes the temperature of how hot the workplace it should be. Temperature problems in work have been a major concern for members across all of all of the Civil service, especially in the open plan offices.

The fact that there is no maximum temperature of the workplace means that workers are being exploited as their employer is putting the health of employees at risk and also not considering their duty of care while staff work in tropical temperatures.

Hot desking maybe a way to reduce accommodation costs and maybe okay one or two occasions, it is not a private that most of our police position there was a problem where departments are ignoring DFC assessments, and there was an additional risk of accidents due to start moving work related materials every day.

This year the problem of call centres where the major work is on the phones and working with display screen equipment. The problems seems to be well known that humidity levels lead to Problems with I us and contact lenses, headaches, skin rashes, try sulphates fun important faction and voice loss, and also migraines. These are what is called call centre hazard health.

The health and safety executive and the British Association recommends a 40 per cent committed level as a minimum. Unfortunately trillium is contracted to fulfil these obligations in respect of health and safety, but only contracted to maintain there are humidity level of 30 per cent. The health and safety executive crown cent share of age and the revenue and customs made a judgement on them for that ensure that the thermal comfort included a humidity level between of 40 per to 70 per cent. You do asking the committee to ensure that the government renegotiate its contracts with trillium I make sure that it feels is our practitioners in the Gaza Health and safety matter.

There is an important case where union members were refused permission to have the annual AGM meeting and this goes against policies agree with the union. The year went to Thompson’s solicitor for advice and were advised to tell the members not to challenge management. The members did not follow this advice with the branch and took their employer to a tribunal court and were all awarded compensation of over £1000 .

This made the point that the contract with Thomson solicitors needs to be reviewed as the union should have been giving the wrong advice. There was huge cheers in the conference and major support from the delegates, but only embarrassment for the national committee as they had not supported these members, but they still won.  Part of this problem is the solicitors only get paid for the work and the advice is not paid for. They are supposed to look at cases and gage whether they would be over 70% successful. It is based upon that information whether the union take on the case or not.

What the union needs to do is look at the contract arrangement with Thomson solicitors and look for a more supportive deal that gives union members are better deal the motion stated.

There was much talk about Making Your Vote Count and the Unions campaigns around that asked union members to write to their members of parliament, rally and make their voice heard.  There were many branches that did this and it is due to those actions that members of parliament come into the local offices to listen to staff and the real pressures facing our staff within different offices. This shows the power of the people, as in the staff, to make changes. It is important to remember how many members there are within the whole civil service and what a large portion of society we make in this union and also in other unions who are voters. Members of parliament recognise this and this can influence members of parliament to listen to the concerns of staff.

The union notes energy DWP, there is a high turnover of sickness absence that is much higher in contact centres than other parts of the department. This is due to the way that management are handling sickness manage and procedures. The unions states that the rather than resolving the underlying causes of sickness and resolving them they are blaming the staff and punishing them. The union noticed with alarm that in the DWP over 20 per cent of all the chords contact centres receives sickness warnings within a six month period. Union believes that through the national call centre forums a huge increase in the efforts to put pressure on contact centres to take responsibility and look after their staff.

The union also notice there’s a huge number of bullying cases across civil service and even had an acceptance of the scanner behaviour and society at large. The huge cuts in staff have led to further rises in all kinds of increase pressure on managers and staff alike, therefore the conference’s tracts of the committee to campaign for anti bullying laws and also a mediation service to help identify and resolve the cases of this nature at the early as opportunity. There were many cases of motions put forward to the NASA conference which were very similar across the defender departments I have covered as much as I can, as I think anything else would bore you.

I hope you feel enlightened about what has been discussed and debated at the national conference. I was not at the DWP conference and therefore cannot give a report just on our departments. The report Alan giving is based upon all government departments including ours. I’m as states that the DWP actually put forward the most motions towards conference, which shows that the DWP are facing the most difficulties across the hall civil service.

I am the Black members Rep and I try and represent all the ethnic minority groups including black, Asian and other races.

What is strange is that the in the world there are more BME than there are white LGBT so maybe the budget should be bigger, if dealing with international problems.

I am a mixed race person myself, half Chinese and half Caribbean.

I have been to some countries like Dubai where I lived for 4 years, Singapore, Austria, Germany where I lived for 4 years and Holland and Belgium.

I also lived in Devon as well for about 7 years. I think most of the places I have been been I may have been the only black person in the area.  In that kind of position you are very aware of that you are different and of your colour. I think the main problem was always having people to identify with and who knew how you felt or could share with about the kind of prejudice or discrimination that you received.

I am An Aries and born in the year of the sheep – strange as they are nearly identical signs for both the Chinese and English Zodiac sign…

Favourite films – do not get me started or I could be here all day. I will pick some of my favourites.

Color purple – the film seems to be me and my life especially Celies and Shug’s spirit.

Prince of Tides - a film about confronting our past, misery and even healing.

Fried green tomatoes - a story about friendship, love of two women and their friends through two eras that are connected.

Joy luck club – women – daughters, mothers and grandmothers – what stories – don’t I know the feelings of these women – I have been through what a lot of them have.

Lord of the rings - trilogy – an adventure of epic scale – containing all the elements of love, friendship, honour, adversity, growth, action, drama and everything – what fab films.

Crouching tiger – much better than hero and centred around the lives of three women and a man. such poetry of movement and words.

Titanic - slated but what a film to bring out what really happened – in a way I felt I was there.

Letter to Brezhnez – what a film and an adventure – Liverpool will neer be like that again.

Beautiful thing - loved the film and the soundtrack and have a whole CD of mama cass now.

Maurice - what a fab film and you can get a double disc of the movie with over 1 hour of extras.

Spiderman – what a film – loved the action and story – Tobey was fab.

Others - Flashdance, fame, xanadu, some great gay movies now – Lillies, circuit, latter days, my beautiful laundrette, green plaid shirt, page turner, Billy Elliot.

Favourite tv – Roswell, Dawson creek, monkey, charlies angel, mork and mindy, bewitched, voyager, deep space nine, star trek, knots landing, dynasty, sex and the city, will and grace, six feet under, George and Mildred, birds of a feather, wonder woman, thorn birds, pride and prejudice, wives and daughters, space 1999, bionic woman, buck Rogers, miss marple, grizzly Adams, cagney and lacey, Dallas, queer as folk USA, kung fu, kids from fame.

My biggest passions are Diversity work, standing up for peoples rights, music – writing and performing, dance, I like to paint, love films and actually did a course all about film techniques, love all kinds of music especially late 70s and 80s disco soul and divas.

The list would be too long but I would include Michael Jackson, Madonna, Celine Dion, Donna Summer, Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Abba, Boney M, Belinda Carlise, Olivia Newton John, Mariah Carey, the Carpenters, chic, five Star, Billie Holiday, The Jacksons, Janet Jackson, Bee Gees, Andy Gibb,  Irene Cara, Imagination, Shalamar, Linx and David Grant.

Discrimination takes all forms and it is not just white people against black either.  There is prejudice and discrimination within the Asian and Black culture.

Some parts of the cultures also do not like you going out with people of other cultures and black girls can get abuse from black men for going out with white guys.

Within the Chinese community you rarely will see a Chinese man or woman with an Asian man or black man. It is not something you will that often, as people can be cut off from their community for doing this.

At the end of the day I am not an expert but I believe in Equality and White male oppressors have treated many races across the centuries unfairly over the years, whether it be slavery, the way the aborigines or Indians were treated or how the Africans and Asian people were treated through the rule of the Empire.

Treat others as you would like to be treated”.

Don’t judge a man until you have walked 2 moons in his shoes” .

Simple famous phrases but so true.

How dare you tell your brother to get a branch in his eye when you have a log in yours.

If you what or how it feels to have prejudice against you, then it is not right for you to do the same to others because they are different or a minority like you.

If it is Ok for you to discriminate or beat someone up or shout abuse to others who are different then you have no right shout discrimination and compensation when it is done to you.

You cannot have equal rights when you deny equal rights to others. Someone should tell that to Bush.  He is a good example of a man with a log in his eye.

We will look at getting different perspectives from people so that we have a black page or two on the Proud magazine with regular articles from the members.

We will be pushing for Diversity pages in the PCS news and make sure Diversity is given more back up.

There is a perception that because gay people are in minority group like black people , and face the same kind of prejudices, that you would not find Prejudice against black people by other gay people or the other way round.

Sadly this is not true.

Part of this perception may come from the prejudice that gay people have faced Form the black community.

A black community should remember that it is just as bad To be prejudiced against the gay community as it is to prejudiced against Black people just because of the colour.

How much more difficult is it for A person who is black and gay living in the black community.

With that in mind , the discrimination can be even worse if you are part of An Asian descent.

So you  looking for partners narrow to  fewer options, as there’ll be a quota of the gay community who will sleep with you, but not have a relationship with you.

As you can see this devalues you as a person especially if you are only Good for sex and nothing else deeper.

There was a quota of the gay community that will not go out with black or Asian people and this is made very clear in their profiles .

So coming from a mixed culture background Can leave you with many questions As you do not fit into any category, What is my culture And or where do I fit in?

There is also a category of people who treat other cultures as if they were an exotic dish on a menu.  Do you have white on the menu ? No !  but we do have black or Chinese.

Well, I’ll try By black with a little Chinese on the side.

Sometimes you feel like piece of fashion, that is in style  one minute or not in the next.

Like an accessory, A handbag that matches The outfit they are wearing Or maybe just the coat.

I remember saying to a guy that I used to fancy him years ago, and his reply was, But it was a pity as he was into black years ago.

What does that actually mean?

What  does that tell you. It feels degrading that you are not seen as a person With a soul and feelings.

I now feel like a second class citizen.

Is finding people of a different descents Like puberty,  a stage you have to go through in order to grow up, If that is the case, then these people have not grown up?

I suppose it could be similar to gay men who are going out with women, having sex with them and then realizing that the gay.

Going into a relationship with somebody of different Ethnic background and breaking up with them because of their background or culture Can have the same affects Of deep hurt For those people .

It is not just of rejection of the person But it can feel like rejection of the race Colour or creed, this hurt can go much deeper.

We talk about identity and we understand how hard it is to come out, but for people of other cultures Colour or creed, there are other layers Of identity Which they must come to terms with as well As being gay.

Where does the word exotic come from in relation to people of ethnic backgrounds. this word exotic has a history to it.  If you look back in history you will find but this word goes back to the Victorian Times.

You’ll find that it during the Victorian empire that English men got to see women of different ethnic backgrounds.

Victorian women of class in those times did not have sex that, often it was something that happened in relation to having children and wasn’t to be discussed.

Men often went to prostitutes to have the kind of sex they wanted.

Many men went out to Africa are as soldiers to protect the empire, but there were introduced to a different culture that was so different to the home.

Black women and black men hardly wearing any clothing and women barely cover at showing their bosoms.  What was forbidden to see in Victorian Times was now allowed.  The women In Africa were very different and celebrated sex compared to their Victorian counterparts.  Many men would join in the forces to go abroad and taste the forbidden fruit.

Later on, there were  even occasions, where high society women starting having relationships with black natives.

High society women were fascinated by these men. The men, according to stories, were very adventurous and open when it came to sex.

Some women even reported that  black men were able to satisfy them sexually in a way that the white counterpart men could not.  This had led two hostility from the white men in the community.  And throughout a series of years a series of insults would build up about black men.

This include phrases like, ” They are beasts in the bedroom.“  This strongly implied that black men were not people and they were animals.

Other insults included, to” being of low intelligence”, being slow, and being beneath white men and that they were superior.

This image has lasted throughout the ages and the beliefs have lasted throughout centuries.

There was the myth that all black men have huge weapons in relation to size of manhood.

This belief has carried on and it clear to see in sex DVDs, which only help this misconception.  It took many years before mixed relationships between black and whites heterosexual  sexual couples became acceptable.

How long would it take for makes relationships between gay men and women to also be acceptable on the scene?  The problem is that  this kind of prejudice does not only come from the white community, it also comes from from other communities like the Asian and black and Chinese communities.

So what is the answer?

Maybe I should try and accept and love myself and others with out restraint.

To accept a laugh other people for who they are, no matter, what their sizes, there disability, but traditions, colour, sexuality, gender or background.

To set an example of love and to remind all people what can be achieved when you accept people for who they are.  Hopefully we can pass this on light. Like in the movie, pay it forward.

Down on the scene gay people put others down because it makes them feel better and superior to others on the scene.

That is not love or acceptance, which is what we are all crying out for.

I must accept my colour, background, difference and personality and must not be ashamed of those things.

If others fail to see the real me then they have not reach that place of love within themselves and they are not people to be around at that stage.

I do not think it is wrong for people to fancy all be attracted to people who are similar to them.

I know that it takes more courage to explore and get to know people of different cultures and backgrounds.

To straight people gay people of very different.  should straight people reject other gay people just because of their sexuality?

Should gay men reject others because of their colour race or creed?  When people’s state on their profiles  “ no blacks or Asians”.

This statement is very similar to the ones written on restaurant doors and shops in the deep south in America.

It has the same nasty  taste of discrimination and prejudice and that rejection can went deep,  because it does not know who you are and also does not want to give you a chance to show who you really are underneath the colour of your skin.

There was an example, where men read my profile  and really liked what he had seen  on the profile, and he asked to see a picture of myself.  As soon as he saw the picture he was not interested,  as he was not attracted to people of my colour.  The message I received was,  I was not good enough only because of my colour.

On the gay scene,  this can happen very often and hurts other people’s saying  these kinds of things, without thinking or being sensitive and do not see the damage or hurt in their behaviour or what they have said.

Gay people know how hard it is to be accepted,  but they forget it is much harder to be accepted if you are also of another culture, colour, creed, religion and background.

One size does not fit all, not all Chinese people are clever.

Not all black people can sing.

Not all black people are un- intelligent.

Not all people with red hair have hot tempers.

Not all Irishman are alcoholics.

Not all Asian men are Muslim.

All these are stereotypes because all people are different.

There may be similar traits and customs but we all different.  Discrimination and prejudice are the same.

And people of minority groups should learn to be aware and  to do to others and treat others the way they are being treated, and  not reject people because they are different.

It is something I hope we will all learn soon, so that we will be marching on the same road together in harmony against all kinds of discrimination, fighting for better world.

Jeremy Bedford © 2012

It has been very important as we had the highest amount of black and Asian people ever come to conference over the last 2 years.  Over the years we have had many guest from BME people from different groups.  These have included Imam, BME Terence Higgins Trust, chair and Commission for Racial Equality, Lord Wali – Asian Gay MP, the Venevelan group, the Iraq LGBT group, JFLAG and many other Asian and Black groups.

There have been motions on many different issues affecting BME LGBT people.

One motion looked at the amount of Asylum seekers who are LGBT being refused their applications for Asylum and being sent back to countries that are homophobic and put gay people in jail or murder or torture them.

The other motion was connected with JFLAG, which also deals with the way Gay Jamaicans are treated in their country by the police, hospitals and their own people.

There was a motion on Colombia and what is happening to LGBT people there.  I supported this motion and this is what I said.

MOTION RE COLOMBIA

I have been doing a lot of work around matters re Colombia with PCS Proud. I went to a meeting last year and 2 with the top union leaders and the leading human rights lawyers fighting for human rights.

There are some things to point out from that meeting.
1. After talking about issues affecting union leaders and other people in Colombia nobody mentioned what was happening to the LGBT people an their plight, until I brought up the question.
2. Until recently there has been little support or help for LGBT people suffering under the regime.
3. There is little publicity or stories of LGBT people in Colombia. There are underground LGBT groups now fighting for the cause. We need to publicise the killings, personal stories of terror and name and shame the government.

Get TV programme makers out there, record their stories, write about the plight and make sure it reaches across the world. It is the support and lobbying for change from the rest of the world that will embarrass the government. as they fear bad publicity.
We need to make sure that people from Colombia get the support and their applications for asylum are not refused from these countries. We need to help our brothers and sisters in this country.

International Homophobia – Jamaican Violence

This motion was important as member of JFLAG was here at the conference to talk to the conference about this issue and he was the co-chair of the group.

This is a summary of what he said.

Homophobia is rife is Jamaica where LGBT people live in constant fear of their lives.  JFLAG is not even recognised as an organisation by the government.  JFLAG works with other organisations to help put in simple laws and give support to LGBT women and men.  The Government has kept the laws that were put in place and repealed in this country back in the late sixties around Homosexuality.  Jamaican Government has no plans to change the law now or in the future at this moment in time. He has had death threats in the street and by phone and by emails too. He has watched friends being beaten and even killed and when he reports it nobody in the police wants to know, as gay people are not important and are worth less than an animal.  A couple of policemen were beating on a gay man and the crowd found out that the man was gay.  They asked the police to give the man to them and they would finish him.  The crowd chased him and beat him nearly to death.  They had broken ribs, legs and other parts of his body too and he is blind in one eye as a result of this. At one time a group of 60 people came to his house and asked him to leave, as he shared his house with other males.  Sometimes when he takes phone duty he does not want to answer the phone due to the death threats. What makes this worse is that the government do not want to believe that this sort of thing goes on but even politicians use anti- gay songs in their campaign empowering people to treat gay people in the way that they do.

People who denied protection and are sent back to Jamaica have lost ties with their family and most of the time the family does not want to know them.  They have no home or place to stay or a job and then are left to fend for themselves leading them into crime.  Others are sent back to die or to suffer.  They are not wanted in their country and all they want is to be free and themselves – something gay people in the fifties and before had to fight.

He was asked what was the response from the black community and he said that he had been sent hate messages.  A lot of Jamaican organisations had been very hostile as they felt that letting the outside world get involved was helping to paint a bad picture of Jamaica.  They felt it was a European sickness that has affected the Black community.  The Black community see that there is no real gay people in their community and those who are have been infected by white illness.  How can you challenge people who will not admit to the existence of gay black men in their community?

This kind of attitude makes me sad as black people are just like other people in lots of ways and there are people who are open and accepting and those who are blinkered and sexist, racist and homophobic.  When I hear comments made to black women who are with white men, aren’t black men good enough for them and other hateful things I feel ashamed of these men shouting the comments.  This attitude can also come from women.  Love is not about colour; it is about feelings towards another person.

In the same way the black community were against the movie the colour purple because of the way it portrayed black people they are doing a similar thing with the gay issue and other issues too.  “The colour purple” was about us, about love, about abuse, about hope and also about women who love women. It was honest and showed the black community at that time and was written by a black woman.  It took a long while for the Black community to accept that film and that makes me sad.  What does this say about the black community to come forward with these adverse and negative and extremist views?  How different is that attitude to the people who have persecuted black people and their fights in history and still are now.

I am only part West Indian but I have not grown up in the black community and what I hear makes feel that it is best that I did not.  The most important thing to mention is that not all the black community are Anti-gay and they’re a lot of black women and some men who are supportive of gay people. There are a lot of issues regarding male sexuality within the black community.  Gayness is therefore a real challenge to this and is treated with hostility from a portion of the community.

Religion and homophobia

I agree with freedom of speech and the right to discussion, but there is a fine line between freedom of speech and promoting hatred. It all starts with words and then that leads to actions and that leads to consequences. Some churches and people preach hatred against gays and other people like transgendered people from the pulpit.  They call them evil, paedophiles and lots of other untrue things.  They incite hatred by giving people the belief that taking out that hatred against these kinds of people is ok and their speech gives them permission to do so. This has led to people killing gay people and crowds acting out hatred towards these kinds of people. In fact – this has led to murder and therefore spreading hatred means churches and other people have colluded and in fact have blood on their hands.

Here are some of the questions I asked the panel –

” How can we help Jflag as it is an issue that the PCS Proud committee have been dealing with and we have become a little stuck in, the way forward?” Jamaica should protect the civil liberties and human rights of all people including LGBT people in law and life.

The second motion was around the Human Rights abuse all over the world in many countries to LGBT people, something that Amnesty International have been involved with publicising the plight and treatment of LBGT people in certain countries all over the world.

Spreading hatred from the pulpit and passing that on was giving people empowerment to abuse and discriminate against LBGT people. The Mormon Church spends thousands of dollars near a million to oppose the gay marriage law.  It shows the discrimination and prejudice in a lot of religious groups and societies. We can only change this through law, education and challenging what is said and done.

Jay © 2012

Many strands of diversity are reaching towards equality like race and disability but sexuality and transgender are way behind and have only been protected recently in law.

We need to make sure that the agenda for equality for LGBT people is not forgotten or that we are given a watered down version of the protection – which supports the idea that LGBT people are not as important.

This is not equality.  I am black and gay but is my race more important than my sexuality?  No. I need to be protected in law for both my race and sexuality.

Religion has been the cause of many wars, bigotry, hatred and many terrible crimes have done in the name of religion, but at the end of the day religion is just a set of beliefs and nothing else.

Why should religious groups have more protection and exceptions in laws?

This would only help them avoid taking responsibility for their action and give them a licence to use prejudice against minority groups.

I have a set of religious or spiritual beliefs that I share with others but I do not have the right to use them to persecute other minority groups or spread hatred or killing of these groups.

I believe that equality should include LGBT people and religious groups should not been allowed to be exempt from any new laws re equality.

The LGBT community and even in Unions, can divide equality by forgetting or putting to the back of list BME, disability and trans issues. This can become a double discrimination when trying to push the needs of minority groups within a minority larger group.

Feb 2012 Jay ©

Simon Nelson, Sector Development Officer for BME communities at Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “Whilst homophobia is by no means exclusive to black communities, there is evidence to suggest that homophobic lyrics used by certain artists which incite violence towards gay people have a detrimental effect on the physical and mental wellbeing of black lesbian, gay and bisexual people, particularly gay men.

He continued: “Black gay men are far less likely to be out to friends and family, are more likely to face homophobia from within their own families and may find themselves with no option other than to lead a double life, often feeling that they should remain silent on such issues. This can increase the likelihood of black gay men engaging in risky sexual behaviour, while also not seeking out sexual health information, putting them at increased risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.”

Dennis Carney, chair of the Black Gay Men’s Advisory Group added: “As black people, we want to celebrate our culture, and the MOBOs are an excellent opportunity to do this, but homophobic lyrics in music normalise hatred towards black gay men. We’re keen to work with the MOBOs to resolve this issue by removing all homophobic artists from the awards process and furthering the debate within the wider music industry.”

Simon Nelson continued: “We need to widen the debate on the whole issue of tolerance towards gay people within black communities – this must include the issue of homophobic lyrics and the “normalisation” of homophobia, both of which damage our efforts to promote good sexual health and well being. Black gay men experience racism and homophobia on a daily basis and many will only feel further isolated as a result.”

Dennis Carney is highly qualified and has a once a month black men’s meeting in London at Islington at PACE – which I have been on and highly recommend for anyone to go.

In 2005 – motions were brought to the TUC LGBT conference re our ethnic, black and Asian people being persecuted killed and tortured in their own countries.  These people were also being denied asylum and sent back to their own countries.

I went along to the Amnesty International conference with leading Union leaders from Colombia and one of the top human right lawyers.  This can be seen in my report on the website.  This conference made it clear that the plight of Colombia needs to be highlighted.  This is now happening as the PCS have taken this forward Nationally.

The plight of LBGT BME people in other countries such as Nigeriahas been highlighted too in relation to Asylum seekers.

Phyl and I went to 2 meetings with the LBGT Immigration group and solicitors.  We have developed a working relationship with them.  It was after meeting them I wrote a motion with Phyl around the plight of LBGT asylum seekers being refused asylum and sent back.  It brought together all the information from the Meetings with LGBT Immigration group, Amnesty International and other sources around training, procedures and services for LGBT people. We are now all working together to put right the problems with Immigration Service.

2006 LBGT TUC conference was great, we met and got to hear about the plight of LBGT people inIraqand amazed to hear that under Sadam Hussein LGBT people were protected and had rights.  Now under the so-called democratic system in place they are persecuted, tortured and killed.

The motion re Asylum seekers was never heard at the PCS National Conference 2006.  This was disappointing, but that was not going to stop us.

Great news is that all the meetings and the hard work paid off. The motion around the Discrimination that LBGT people face was passed at the National PCS conference.  This means we will be able to meet with the Home Office and the Immigration department, and look at ways to change the system, improve services, hopefully give the training and information, to improve the way LGB people are dealt with, who are fleeing persecution or facing death due to their sexuality.

This is a small step and thanks you to Lorna and Phyl for making alterations to last years same motion so it could be passed this year.

Pressure needs to be put on the government to change the way applications are dealt with, so that a lot of LGBT people do not have to go back to countries where they would not be safe. Now we have to go ahead we can take this matter up formally.

Policies need to be changed around this so that a lot of applications do not have to the Appeal Courts costing the government a lot of money.

The application form I have been informed around LGBT people is discriminating in a lot of ways. The application form is type casting and offensive, asking questions about decoration and whether you use Laura Ashley or liking the music of Barbara Stressed etc. While some gay men do like these things gay men are very different in their tastes in music, culture and film and anybody who bothered to find out this would find this to be the case.

I think there should a group of people including gay organisations that should monitor the applications of people who seek Asylum.

I agree with the campaign to promote and campaign against the discrimination against LBGT asylum seekers. We need to get money from all gay organisations and gay press or for gay press to advertise this for free to help the campaign. I also agree that this matter should go to the international agenda.

The information that is used about countries that are violating human rights and persecuting LGBT people needs to be updated regularly. Other sources of information should be used check these countries apart from the one used by the Home Office.

The government are refusing applications from these kinds of people telling them to go back and keep their sexuality quiet and they will be all right. They are sending these people back to be killed, tortured, raped or worse. Are the Government murderers? Do they have blood on their hands and what is being done to monitor what happens to these people when they go back? Most of the time these people suddenly disappear.