Coso Annual Report 2003

CoSO Annual Report July 2003

Written by James Knox 1 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation Vision Statement

The Coalition on Sexual Orientation brings together lesbian, gay, bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) groups and individuals to work towards an inclusive society, which embraces diversity and where the rights of LGBT people are fully respected and protected under the law.

Written by James Knox 2 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation Contents:

 CoSO History……………………………………………………4

 Convenor’s Report……………………………………………5-6

 Tasks undertaken in 2002-2003…………………………….7-8

 Conferences, meetings and workshops………………………9

 Catalogue of meetings held on behalf of CoSO………...10-13

 List of Acronyms………………………………………………..14

 New partnerships………………………………………………15

 Accounts for 2002-2003…………………………………...16-19

 Acknowledgements…………………………………………….20

 List of member organisations, advisory organisations and CoSO contact details……………………………………..21

Written by James Knox 3 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation CoSO History

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans groups in Northern Ireland came together to work on the new equality legislation which emerged from the Belfast Agreement and the Northern Ireland Act 1998. From the outset, CoSO focused all its attention on this legislative or service functions of the various member organisations. CoSO also welcomed individuals who were interested in working on equality issues.

At first, the organisations worked together in loose formation to deal with the embryonic Statutory Duty and the proposed Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. Later, we recognised that it made sense to formalise the arrangement and the Coalition was created. The idea was to build a flexible structure, which would allow the organisations to come together to work in a creative way on equality and discrimination legislation and policy without encroaching on their own decision-making processes. Individuals and representatives of foundation organisations could come together and discuss policy, which each foundation organisation then had an opportunity to discuss and agree upon.

CoSO was and has remained a consensus organisation. People work together to develop responses and policy stances, which reflect the diversity and complexity of LGBT people in Northern Ireland. CoSO works with volunteers most of whom are already involved with another LGBT organisation, or one of CoSO’s member organisations.

CoSO has limited resources in terms of time and money but it brings together extensive experience both in terms of political and public policy issues.

Written by James Knox 4 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation Convenors Report

Dear friends,

Throughout 2002-2003, CoSO has worked with the many and varied groups who fall within the categories of section 75 and beyond. This has allowed us to develop strong working relationships with these groups and individuals and it helps to bolster the camaraderie within the voluntary and community sector as a whole. These relationships are essential to the smooth running of CoSO and it adds to the amount of lobbying we can do.

We have been able to raise our profile within public authorities, the voluntary and community sectors and have begun to branch out to the private sector in preparation for the new anti-discrimination legislation, which becomes law in December 2003.

Over the past year, an increasing number of developments have occurred in relation to sexual orientation. CoSO has, because of our networking within the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Europe and elsewhere, been in a position to monitor and learn from elsewhere and to prepare for possible difficulties and eventualities.

Over the coming months, we hope that we will gain core funding which will secure CoSO’s work for the near future. We intend also to develop the CoSO pamphlet by adding further pamphlets, each issue will deal with a specific area of interest. This series of pamphlets will allow public authorities and other organisations to make their workspaces more accessible to LGBTs by aiding them in developing plans that include the specific needs of LGBTs.

CoSO has had an active role in civic society throughout Northern Ireland and has attended meetings, events, and seminars where it provided a voice for the LGBT community and at events where it was necessary for that voice to be heard.

The tide is beginning to turn on the unacceptability of homophobia in Northern Ireland. Discrimination towards LGBTs is still an unpleasant fact and unfortunately, it will still take many years before LGBTs are fully protected and accepted as a part of society.

Written by James Knox 5 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation My hope is that the Institute for conflict Research report on homophobic violence, commissioned by OFMDFM, will add weight to the need for government, public authorities and the voluntary and community sectors to work in partnership with the LGBT community, to help combat discrimination, before another needless homophobia related death occurs in Northern Ireland.

Overall, I feel we have had a successful year and I look forward to the future development of CoSO as an organisation and as a scrutiniser of public policy.

James Knox Convenor of CoSO

Written by James Knox 6 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation Tasks Undertaken in 2002-2003

Consultation Documents

One of the main functions of CoSO is to serve as one of the bodies Public Authorities can consult with on sexual orientation issues. This may take the form of written responses to consultation documents or face-to-face meetings with the relevant public authorities. A list of meetings held might be found at the end of this document (Under summary of meetings), although this list should not be considered to be complete.

Updating of CoSO Pamphlet

In 2001, CoSO published ‘Equality and Sexual Orientation: A Guide to Involving and Consulting the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Community’. This pamphlet has been a key tool for raising issues with public authorities. As issues change and as copies of the pamphlet became scarce, a new edition became necessary. The updating of this could not have been done without the input from the member organisations of CoSO but also the diligence and patience of Michael Carchrie Campbell.

Some flaws within the text were amended and the new member organisations have been added to the back page for easy reference. We have also included within the body of the pamphlet a list of relevant research carried out by CoSO, its member organisations as well as organisations outside the coalition and Northern Ireland.

It is CoSO’s intention, over the coming months, to use the pamphlet to develop our thinking further into the five main themes of Family and Partnerships, Health and Welfare, Employment and the Workplace, Youth and Education, and Access to Services.

Our thanks go to Michael Carchrie Campbell for his work on the 2003 pamphlet.

Web-site

The updating of CoSO’s web-site was undertaken during the year, this was achieved by the help and skills mainly of Terry Sergeant from GLYNI and also Niall Gillespie of Cara-Friend. As with all

Written by James Knox 7 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation web-sites it can never be fully complete. All information from CoSO will be presented on the web-site for easier access both by member organisations, people interested in our work and the community.

Written by James Knox 8 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation Conferences, meetings and workshops

Sharing the Learning: LGBT Anti-discrimination Legislation and Campaigning

The seminar brought together the LGBT organisations in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England, whose work focuses on public policy and anti-discriminatory legislation.

The seminar enabled these LGBT organisations to share their knowledge and expertise about current and future developments in law and public policy affecting LGBT people. It also enabled LGBT organisations across the jurisdictions to form networks of information and support.

A series of meetings will now take place on an annual basis across the British Isles. The first meeting was held in Belfast the next is planned to be held in Wales in 2004 and annually thereafter. These meetings are essential for the development of thinking on LGBT issues across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

National Lesbian and Gay Conference of Unison, Plymouth.

CoSO was requested by Unison Lesbian and Gay group to present a workshop on our experiences to date of working within Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and the process of Equality Impact Assessments.

The presentation was carried out as a workshop and people were provided with a real EQIA to go through and comment upon. Everyone seemed to enjoy the session and understand the process of an EQIA.

Consortium, Bristol.

A presentation was provided to delegates at the conference on using CoSO itself as a template to further develop the LGBT sector in England and Wales.

CoSO is a unique organisation within the British Isles and is the only LGBT organisation which is an umbrella group working with

Written by James Knox 9 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation and within the development of Public Policy on representing the LGBT community.

CoSO is a ‘best practice’ example of how groups can work together in a coalition to effect change and should and is being sold as such a model.

Sexual Orientation Working Group of EARS (see list of acronyms)

The aim of the work was and is to create an opportunity for the voluntary sector combined with the Statutory sector and supported by the LGB sector, North and South of the border, to look at ways of making services in the region more accessible to the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual people who access their services.

CoSO is the ‘Northern’ partner of this venture.

Sexual Orientation Roundtable

The purpose of this event was to create an opportunity for the Equality Commission to outlay some of its powers as to the new anti-discrimination legislation in employment coming into effect on the 1st December 2003.

The second purpose of the event was to try to solidify the relationship between the Equality Commission and the LGBT sector in Northern Ireland.

The third purpose of this event was to allow CoSO to feed employment specific LGB issues into the objectives of the organisations present.

The meeting was held after a request from the Convenor to the Equality Commission to help involve LGBTs in the decisions, which will directly affect them.

It was requested that these roundtable meetings happen on a frequent basis to develop and maintain the links the Equality Commission already has with the LGBT Community in Northern Ireland.

Written by James Knox 10 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation Catalogue of meetings held on behalf of CoSO

You can find a list of some of the acronyms used on page 14

7-8: North South East West Conference, Belfast. 25: SDLP Conference; Celebrating the Good Friday Agreement.

2: Association of Northern Ireland Colleges 3: Falls Community Council 4: OFMDFM, Equality Unit, Single Equality Bill 31: Community Relations Fair, PSNI

August

1: OFMDFM, Gender Equality Unit, Gender Equality Strategy 5: ECNI, Seminar on Equality Monitoring 5: CoSO general Meeting, Derry. 12: OFMDFM, Anti-Discrimination Branch, to discuss what they were intending to do about EU Regulations for FEED 12: ECNI, Discussion with ECNI on what they were intending to do about EU Regulations for FEED 14: Initial Meeting with CITB 15: CoSO Funding Meeting 16: UCHT, General Discussion about their plans for a web site and how they want LGBT’s to be involved 19: CoSO, GHS Coming to discuss North/South Work 21: BCC, City of Culture Seminar 29: SOWG of EARS meeting 30: ECNI, Equality Advisory Group meeting

September

2: CoSO meeting, Belfast 4: Community Relations Fair, PSNI 11: NE, SOWG of EARS 12: Diversity Matters 13: Association of Northern Ireland Colleges 16: ICR, to discuss homophobia research 17: Initial meeting with representative from BORC

Written by James Knox 11 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation 18: ‘Protecting Personal Information’ Consultation by DHSSPS 18: Human Rights Consortium Meeting 18: BCC, Imagine Belfast, event. 18: Attended Reception for the Rt. Hon Tessa Jowell MP 19: DSD, Meeting with Equality Officer 19: OFMDFM, Gender Equality Unit, Gender Equality Strategy 21: SDLP, ‘Unity in Diversity Conference’ 23: ECNI, Regulations 23: VDA, Funding 27: DSD, Una Downey. 28: NUS/USI meeting with CoSO 30: DHSSPS, PPI Event

October

4: Southern Health Trust, Complaints Procedure Review 7: ECNI, Advisory Group Meeting 8: Equality Coalition meeting with RADAR in DA 9: NE, SOWG of EARS 10: CoSO, Training meeting for Trainers 16: Equality Coalition Conference on PPP/PFI 16: NDBC, Equality Consultative Forum 17: NE, SOWG of EARS meeting, Newry 21: NE, of EARS Meeting, Dundalk 22: Arts Council for NI/CoSO update meeting

November

1: NE, SOWG of EARS, Dundalk 6: Diversity Matters 8: Diversity Matters 9: LGBT NUS/USI Pink Training Conference 9: Diversity Matters in Queer Space 11: CoSO meeting 12-16: Diversity Matters, Transnational Meeting, Bolzano/Bozen 19: DFP, CoSO Meeting to discuss Recruitment Policies and Practices 22-24: Unison National L&G Conference, Bristol 25: OFMDFM, Consultation Advisory Group Meeting 27: NE, SOWG of EARS, Dundalk 28: Craigavon Area Equality Officers Network, CoSO Presentation to.

Written by James Knox 12 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation December

2: CoSO meeting 3: ECNI, Advisory Group meeting 4: NE, SOWG of EARS, Dundalk 5: CoSO/Lesbian Line meeting, Belfast 10: CoSO/Foyle Friend Meeting, Derry 11: Equality Coalition Meeting, Derry January

8: Human Rights Consortium 13: Interview with Research Student 14: Launch of “Introduction anti-discrimination training measures within Public Authorities” NICEM/Centre Europeen Juif d’information 15: Equality Coalition meeting 15: Meeting with NUS/USI 17: Meeting with NIHRC 20: Meeting with Equality Commission 20: CoSO general meeting in Derry 22: North Down Borough Council; Consultative Panel on Equality and Good relations 23: Meeting with DETI to discuss their ‘revised’ Equality Scheme 27: NE, SOWG of EARS meeting, Dundalk 27: Diversity Matters; Transnational working group 28: Diversity Matters meeting 29: Meeting with Business in the Community 30: Diversity Matters Meeting 31: Meeting in Derry on Funding

February

7: NE, SOWG of EARS meeting, Dublin 10: NE, SOWG of EARS meeting, Dundalk 10: CoSO general meeting 11: Diversity Matters, Communications group 12: Human Rights Consortium meeting 17: Meeting with Richard Steele 19: Southern Gay Men’s Health Conference, Cork 20: Business in the Community Conference, Belfast 20: Meeting with Invest Northern Ireland on their Equality Scheme 21: Meeting with South and East Belfast Health and Social Services Trust

Written by James Knox 13 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation 26: NE, SOWG of EARS meeting, Dundalk 27: Meeting with CSA and Blood Transfusion Service on their EQIA for Blood Donations 28: Diversity Matters, Transnational Meeting

5: NE, SOWG of EARS meeting, Dundalk 6: Meeting with ICR about homophobic violence research report 6: Diversity Matters meeting 11: Meeting with CITB 12: Diversity Matters meeting 19: Meeting with CITB 27: Meeting with Education and Library Boards and Staff Commission for same. 28: NE, SOWG of EARS meeting, Dundalk 31: Meeting with Equality Commission, on up-coming roundtable event

4-6: Consortium Conference, Bristol 9: Equality Coalition meeting 11: Amnesty International Conference, Belfast 14: CoSO general meeting 15: Meeting with the Community Fund 16: NE, SOWG of EARS meeting, Dublin 29: Meeting with Gender Equality Unit of OFMDFM 30: Equality Coalition Conference

1: NE, SOWG of EARS meeting, Dundalk 6-8: NE, SOWG of EARS conference on LGB inclusion in border region 11: CoSO funding meeting 14: Video for bullying in Schools 15: Training for CSA 19: NE, SOWG of EARS meeting, Dundalk 20: Meeting with Community Fund 21: Video for Bullying in Schools 27: Meeting with Dundalk Outcomers

Written by James Knox 14 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation June

5: Meeting with Equality Commission 6: Awareness raising for CITB 11-13: Diversity Matters Transnational Meeting 19: CoSO general meeting 23: Equality Commission/CoSO Roundtable on Implementing EU Equality Legislation by 1st of December 2003 30: Diversity Matters meeting

4: Task force on resourcing the voluntary and community sector, Government Policy Sub group meeting

Written by James Knox 15 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation List of acronyms used throughout this document

. BCC – Belfast City Council . CAJ – Committee on the Administration of Justice . CITB – Construction Industry Training Board . CSA- Central Services Agency . DETI – Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment . DFP – Department of Finance and Personnel . DSD – Department for Social Development . EARS – (See NE, SOWG of EARS below) . ECNI – Equality Commission for Northern Ireland . EQIA – Equality Impact Assessment . ICR – Institute for Conflict Research . ILGA - International Lesbian and Gay Association . NDBC – North Down Borough Council . NE, SOWG of EARS – North East Strategy, Sexual Orientation Working Group of the Equality and Racism Sub- group of the National Advisory Committee of the Community Development Support Programme (Republic of Ireland) . NICEM – Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities . NIHRC – Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission . NUS/USI – National Union of Students/ Union of Students in . OFMDFM – Office of the First and Deputy First Minister . PSNI – Police Service of Northern Ireland . SOWG – (See NE, SOWG of EARS above) . UCHT – Ulster Communities Hospital Trust Ireland . VDA – Voluntary Development Agency

Written by James Knox 16 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation New Partnerships:

Organisations CoSO has to joined:

 AIAC (Association of Independent Advice Centres)  B.O.R.C. (Belfast Out Resource Centre)  Community Change  Consortium (England)  ILGA World (International Lesbian and Gay Association)

Partnerships and Networks

Belfast City Council CAJ Disability Action Diversity Matters Equality Authority Equality Commission Equality Network ILGA Europe ILGA World NICEM Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission OFMDFM Police Service of Northern Ireland South and East Belfast Health and Social Services Trust Unison

This list is not exhaustive.

Written by James Knox 17 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation Accounts for 2002-2003

Coalition on Sexual Orientation Income and Expenditure Account Year Ended 31st March 2003

Year to 31st Mar 2003 £ Income NIVT – NSEW Conference 2,000.00 NSEW Delegate Fees 592.10 2,592.10

Expenditure Venue Hire / Catering (NSEW) 1,538.27 Venue Hire / Catering (AGM) 140.00 Facilitator fees 800.00 Office Expenses 148.17 Travel 265.95 Affiliation fees 30.00 Bank charges 26.35 2,948.74

Deficit for the period (356.64)

Written by James Knox 18 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation Coalition on Sexual Orientation Balance Sheet as at 31st March 2003

2003 2002 Note £ £ Current Assets Cash at Bank 1,445.06 1,794.58 Petty Cash 80.64 87.76 1,525.70 1,882.34 Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year 4 980.00 980.00

Net Assets 2,505.70 2,862.34

Reserves – Non-distributable Revenue 5 2,505.70 2,862.34

The financial statements were approved by the AGM on 28th July 2003 and signed on its behalf by:

Niall Gillespie James Knox Treasurer Convenor

Written by James Knox 19 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation Coalition on Sexual Orientation Notes to the Accounts Period Ended 31st March 2003

1. Company Status CoSO plans to become a Company limited by guarantee. Although it is currently an unincorporated association, these accounts have been prepared in a fashion which should meet the requirements of the relevant companies legislation. 2. Accounting Period These accounts cover the year from 1st April 2002 to 31st March 2002 and include a number of payments made after 31st March 2003 for expenditure properly incurred prior to that date. 3. Accounting Policies The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the historical cost convention. The principal accounting policies adopted by the association in the preparation of its accounts are as follows: a) Stock Remaining stocks of booklets and publication are negligible, and are thus not valued. b) Taxation No provision for taxation is necessary. c) Capital Expenditure In common with organisation of a similar nature, the organisation writes off capital expenditure in the year in which it is occurred. No capital expenditure was incurred during this period.

Written by James Knox 20 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation 2003 2002 £ £ 4. Creditors: amounts falling dues within one year Accruals and deferred income 980.00 980.00 (This represents the remaining instalments of the two NIVT grants) 5. Reserves Revenue – non-distributable As at 1st April 2,862.34 0.00 Creditors at 1st April (980.00) - (Deficit) / Surplus for the period (356.64) 1,882.34 Creditors 980.00 980.00 As at 31st March 2,505.70 2,862.34

Written by James Knox 21 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation CoSO’s thanks go to

The staff and Commissioners of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, The Rainbow Project, Cara-Friend and Foyle- Friend for providing working space for CoSO, Barbary Cook for all her friendship and hard work, Niall Gillespie for looking after our resources, Michael Carchrie Campbell for his patience and hard work in developing the second print of the CoSO pamphlet, NICEM, Disability Action especially Monica Wilson for her support and understanding, the Equality Coalition, the Human Rights Consortium, Terry Sergeant for developing a brand spanking new web site, the Gender Equality Unit of the Office of the First and the Deputy First Minister, especially Dorina Edgar for all her phone calls and all those hard at work in CAJ.

Written by James Knox 22 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation Full and advisory m embers of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation

Belfast Lesbian Line Foyle Friend Youth Foyle Friend LGBT Group of Unison NI Belfast Out Resource Centre (BORC) Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association (NIGRA) Queer Space Cara-Friend The Rainbow Project Press for Change The Belfast Butterfly club Belfast Gay Pride Committee Gay and Lesbian Youth Northern Ireland (GLYNI) Lesbian Advocacy Services Initiative (LASI) LGBT Branch of NUS/USI And the Many Individual members

Contact Details

Coalition on Sexual Orientation 2-6 Union Street Belfast BT1 2JF

P: +44 7788 570 007 F: +44 2890 319 031 E: [email protected] W: www.coso.org.uk

Written by James Knox 23 Convenor of the Coalition on Sexual Orientation