LGBT Members – Building a Stronger Union UNISON National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Members Committee Annual Report 2013

UNISON national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members committee Annual report 2013 LGBT members – building a stronger union UNISON national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members committee Annual report 2013

Contents

Co-Chairs Introduction to Annual Report 3

Recruiting and organising 4

Negotiating 6

Campaigning 8

Internationally 11

From the caucuses 13

In the regions 16

This report of UNISON’s national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members committee covers our work from November 2012, following the last annual conference, to October 2013.

Actions on last year’s conference decisions and monitoring information are included in a separate document. For a copy, email [email protected] or write to Carola Towle, UNISON LGBT equality, 130 Euston Road, London NW1 2AY.

UNISON is the UK’s largest public service union. We have a proud history of working for equality for all. For information on joining UNISON and about LGBT workers rights: visit unison.org.uk/out email [email protected] phone 0845 355 0845 (minicom 0800 096 7968)

2 Co-Chairs Introduction to Annual Report

It’s been 20 years since UNISON was born and 30 years since the first conference of the NALGO LGBT group at a children’s nursery in Camden. We also recently celebrated the 50th edition of our Out in UNISON LGBT newsletter. So it’s been a year of anniversaries and looking back at how far we’ve come, from a lesbian and gay group to a more inclusive LGBT group with strong Black and disabled representation and with a focus on organising, campaigning and recruitment that is recognised across the union. We’ve been instrumental in helping to make some of the huge advances for LGBT people happen over the last 30 years. We’ve campaigned against discrimination and the hated Clause 28 under the previous Conservative government, and we worked with the Labour Party to ensure the introduction of a raft of measures that have radically changed the life of LGBT people in this country. It now seems unimaginable that 30 years ago LGBT people could be lawfully sacked or refused services, weren’t entitled to their same sex partner’s pension and could not gain legal gender recognition. And yet there’s still so much more to do. In many ways the clock has turned back again under this government, with equal marriage used as a smoke screen to hide cuts to LGBT services and to the public services we all use, and to camouflage the impact of poverty pay, redundancies and reduced terms and conditions on LGBT workers. But over the last 12 months our LGBT members have been unrelenting in keeping up the pressure on this government, fighting the far right and the emerging threat from UKIP, and building our capacity through recruitment and organising. Those who met at that nursery in Camden 30 years ago must have thought the forces ranged against them were insurmountable. And yet they fought and eventually won. If our history as an LGBT group teaches us anything it’s that if we are organised and inclusive then we can win. Here’s to another 30 years of the good fight! Deirdre Costigan and Phillippa Scrafton

3 UNISON national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members committee Annual report 2013

Recruiting and organising

Our LGBT group has always been strong on Scrafton, who has been in high demand, giving organising. We understand the importance of interviews, public speaking and running training. And recruiting LGBT workers into the union, building in April, we held the first national training for branch activists and reaching out to community LGBT officers. Massively over-subscribed, this was a organisations. This is more important than ever as high-energy day which revealed the wealth of talent both public services and trade unions face we have in our group. The national course will re-run unprecedented hostility from the Westminster in the spring of 2014 and regional groups have been government. Given the numbers of UNISON encouraged to deliver the training jointly with members who have lost their jobs through the neighbouring regions. government’s misplaced austerity measures, UNISON activists can be rightly proud that membership numbers are holding up due to their work bringing in Supporting regional and branch organising new members. We continue our programme of supporting branch and regional groups, with the twice-yearly meeting of Recruit, recruit, recruit regional LGBT convenors proving as productive as ever. This year, the first meeting focussed on We have supported LGBT members in this by recruitment, particularly on reaching less well- developing training materials on face to face represented groups such as trans workers and Black recruitment. We recognise that people may lack LGBT workers. Our thanks to Fidelma Carolan from confidence, so have promoted useful tips and a ‘flow- Northern Ireland for leading on this. The second day chart’ of how to start a recruitment conversation went back to basics on the role of the regional LGBT leading to the ‘will you join us today’ moment. This group convenor: always worth spending time on. can be used in workplaces and at pride and other community events. This was also the lead feature of We welcomed the outcome of the NEC review of self- the spring issue of Out in UNISON. organisation. The recommendations included strengthening the rule on the purpose of self- We’ve also developed our use of Twitter and organisation. The amended rule more accurately Facebook and encouraged regional LGBT groups to reflect the place of SOGs at the heart of UNISON’s do the same. We’ve included information and advice priority work of promoting the equalities and in Out in UNISON and our e-bulletin. bargaining agenda, defending jobs, terms and The annual LGBT recruitment and organising awards conditions and services and building density, with a are now a well-established part of our conference. strong and dynamic presence in the workplace. There are some novel entries this year and the jury will have its usual challenging task. Addressing under-representation 2013 is UNISON’s Another recommendation of the review will see all 20th birthday, but also costs for national caucus meetings met from national marks 30 years since funds from 2014. For the LGBT group, this is our our first lesbian and annual bi, trans, Black and disabled LGBT network gay (as it was then) meetings. This change recognises the role of these conference and 39 meetings in reaching under-represented groups. years since our group Previously, there was the same funding arrangement started. In this as for SOG conferences, with branches paying some anniversary year, we of members’ costs. are pleased to be celebrating a number All four of this year’s meetings were lively and well- of firsts. UNISON has its first out gay president, attended, with a good balance of people attending for Maureen Le Marinel, who will be addressing our the first time and more seasoned activists. We conference in November. The national LGBT welcome a number of new caucus reps onto the committee has its first trans co-chair, Phillippa 2014 national committee. 4 Involving retired members We’ve continued to look at ways to engage retired members in our LGBT group and keep them involved, so we can benefit from their knowledge and capacity. We’ve secured the support of all the national SOG committees and the NEC equality liaison committee for a rule amendment to give retired members the opportunity to send delegates to national SOG conferences, with the right to speak but not to vote. The proposal is now with the NEC. Our advice on involving retired members has been used as the model for a cross-SOG leaflet which was promoted in the Unizone at national delegate conference.

We looked again at our range of recruitment and At the TUC organising resources. The Pride in our Work leaflet got a makeover, with a new photo (taken at the UNISON’s delegation to this year’s TUC LGBT branch LGBT officer training), snappier messaging conference was led Maureen le Marinel as her first and an anti-austerity theme. We circulated new official duty as President, a fact welcomed by advice for branch LGBT officers and are working on delegates at the conference with a resounding cheer. other materials to support branch LGBT groups. Our motion ‘Pay and Pride’ (similar to one of the LGBT motions to national delegate conference) was Monitoring data from successive LGBT conferences well received and UNISON intervened in a number of show a welcome increase in numbers of bi and trans other debates with mostly supportive speeches. delegates, and also reveal that more of our activists UNISON’s amendment was to a motion from are now in senior branch positions such as branch Community on ‘Improved access to HIV Testing’, secretary, not solely concentrated in equality and introducing a focus on tackling workplace LGBT roles (however vital these are). The weakest discrimination against people living with HIV, and area continues to be reaching low paid members. We raising the importance of a properly funded public have increased our stock of factsheets targeted at health service. Conference narrowly voted to send a sector groups, particularly those where lower paid motion on International LGBT rights to Congress over members such as homecare workers are UNISON’s motion Pay and Pride. UNISON’s nominees concentrated, and made sure these are at all UNISON to the TUC LGBT committee, Bev Miller (general seat) sector events. and Asha Wolfe-Robinson (seat representing bisexual Thanks to GPF funding, we had our usual high-profile members), were elected unopposed. presence at London Community Pride, UK Black Pride, Sparkle and BiCon. We were particularly pleased that UNISON was presented with an award at BiCon for our work on bi equality. The committee has reviewed our internal fair representation, reserving seats for bi and trans members on UNISON’s delegation to TUC LGBT conference and looking at reserved seats on our main sub-committees.

5 UNISON national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members committee Annual report 2013

Negotiating

Our negotiations take place in an ever more if for their own sake. Our work has to be about challenging climate, as government austerity cuts and improving our members’ – and potential members’ - attacks on terms and conditions bite deeper and working lives. harder. We have worked hard to inform and engage LGBT Working with the service groups members in UNISON’s priority campaigns on pay and We work closely with the national service groups. An pensions equality. We have promoted the campaigns increasing number of our activists hold positions in for the living wage and against postcode pay. national service group and sector committees, To support negotiations on pay and pensions, it is elected in their own right. We have formal liaison vital to challenge the Tory narrative of well-rewarded arrangements with some and refer particular issue to and complacent public sector workers and to show all. how offensively wrong is their claim that we are all in it We agreed to have a particular focus on trans equality together. The truth is that it’s cuts for the poor and this year, encouraging the use of our trans workers tax cuts for the rich under Cameron’s government. rights bargaining factsheet and our guide for reps Our members are suffering pay freezes, caps and supporting trans members. Trans workers rights were cuts, with increasing numbers of us relying on in-work the main or partial topic of our LGBT motions to all welfare benefits, which subsidise employers’ wage service group conferences. We can send two motions bills. to each conference. The other motions this year were Not only are members’ pay packets taking a direct on care workers and the ethical care campaign for hit, but we are paying more for less. And as we have local government conference; on defending terms less to spend in our local economies, local and conditions and building our strength for health businesses suffer and the economic recovery is conference; on the call centre charter for energy further damaged. conference; on tackling biphobia for water, environment and transport conference; and on organising LGBT members for community The LGBT effect of austerity conference. Our research into the effect of austerity on LGBT Unfortunately, our motion on ‘equality when people, which is covered in more detail in the universities go international’ was ruled out of order by campaigning section, will give us a better picture of the higher education standing orders committee how our members are being affected as LGBT because of a wording issue. As the substance of the workers. We will feed this into UNISON’s motion is still very relevant, we are re-submitting it to campaigning, as it is ramped up in the lead up to the the next HE conference, duly amended, and hope for next general election. more success this time. We have featured UNISON’s pay campaigns in all our Can we put on record our thanks to the LGBT publications this year – and this will continue. We delegates who represented our group so ably at have also made sure our members know about the these conferences. They did us proud. safety net UNISON can provide through our welfare We were particularly pleased to see motions and charity, There For You. amendments on LGB and trans workers rights from a One of our LGBT motions to UNISON national number of branches at service group conferences. It delegate conference this summer was on the themes is a very healthy sign when it is not only the LGBT of Pay and Pride. At that same conference, an NEC group itself putting LGBT equality on the agenda rule change made clear that one of the primary (though of course we are aware it is usually LGBT purposes of self-organisation is to promote the activists in branches who make this happen). union’s equalities and bargaining agenda. We also welcome the fact that service group and We have always recognised this. But some have sector seminars have included LGBT content. We tended to equate self-organisation with meetings, as always send LGBT materials to these events anyway, 6 but this year’s business and environment equality Developing our skills as negotiators seminar included a whole session on trans equality, The LGBT self-organised group has a vital led by our co-chair Phillippa Scrafton. contribution to make in identifying the negotiating This focus on trans equality has not meant that issues for LGBT workers and informing the rest of the lesbian, gay and bisexual equality has taken a union about them. Every year, we update our core backseat. We have pursued the broad LGB agenda LGB and trans negotiating factsheets and promote and raised particular issues including parenting, them widely. pensions, bullying and harassment. We had a This year we have also focussed on encouraging particular push on bi workers equality for Bi Visibility LGBT activists to be involved as negotiators. At our Day on 23 September, launching our new fact-sheet policy weekend in March, we role-played negotiating Bisexuality: a trade union issue. scenarios. (As often with role-playing, some became the bad bosses with worrying enthusiasm!). The feedback was that people found this very useful and we are offering a similar activity as one of the discussion groups at conference in November. We have showcased our activists’ negotiating successes in Out in UNISON and urged members to submit good agreements to build UNISON’s bargaining support database.

7 UNISON national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members committee Annual report 2013

Campaigning

After three years under the Tory-led government, the impact of austerity is starkly etched in our workplaces, public and community services, housing, high streets, pay packets and welfare benefits. Less clearly seen is the effect of austerity on LGBT people. This matters because it perpetuates the pernicious myth that LGBT people are a privileged group who do not rely on public services the way ‘ordinary’ families do.

Finding the evidence on the effect of austerity We know that years of work to build LGBT specific services are being destroyed: LGBT youth and launched on 17 May this year, International Day education, anti-hate crime and domestic abuse, Against Homophobia and Transphobia. The results LGBT homelessness, support, advice and mental were not surprising, but they were nevertheless a health, gender reassignment, HIV and sexual health sharp reminder of the extent of discrimination. There services and many more. were 6760 UK responses out of total of over 93,000. UK results included: UNISON is one of the few authoritative voices to speak up for LGBT people. This is one of the reasons • 45% all LGBT people and 65% transgender people join UNISON. But given the challenges, we people personally felt discriminated against or need robust evidence to strengthen our voice. This is harassed in the past 12 months particularly important as we approach the next • 21% of all LGBT people and 30% transgender general election. people felt there was often or always a generally So the LGBT committee was delighted when negative attitude at work against LGBT people UNISON’s general political fund agreed funding to • 34% of all LGBT people (25% gay men, 31% commission the highly-respected independent social lesbians, 53% bisexual women, 60% bisexual research organisation NatCen to investigate the effect men and 61% transgender people) always or of austerity on LGBT people. As we write this annual often hid or disguised that they are LGBT in their report, the deadline for written submissions to the employment during the last five years research has just passed. NatCen report that the number of responses exceeded their target. They are • 19% of all LGBT people (17% gay men, 22% now conducting follow-up in depth telephone lesbians, 20% bisexual women, 18% bisexual interviews. They also report that responses come men and 31% transgender people) felt personally from a wide and well-balanced diversity of people. discriminated against at work because they are This is no accident: we have worked very hard to LGBT in the past 12 months publicise the research and thank all of you who For 84% of respondents (84% gay men, 88% helped with this. lesbians, 90% bisexual women, 76% bisexual men The findings will be reported at our LGBT conference and 78% transgender people), neither they nor in November and should form the basis of our anyone else reported their most recent incident of campaigning over the following months. discrimination Most frequent reasons given for not reporting included Discrimination survey ‘Nothing would happen or change’ (60%); ‘Not worth reporting it – it happens all the time’ (52%); and ‘The Many of you also responded to a survey carried out incident would not be taken seriously’ (44%). last year by the Fundamental Rights Agency of the European Union, for which we were the UK There is certainly still much for us to do in negotiating dissemination point. The findings of that survey were and campaigning for equality. 8 Marriage equality Framework Employment Equality Directive, as interpreted by the European Court of Justice. We’ve stepped up campaign for equality in marriage Innospec are appealing to the employment appeal and civil partnership. For the bill for England and tribunal and the Government has been given Wales, we concentrated on pensions equality, arguing permission to intervene on their behalf. The case will against a ‘conscience’ opt-out for registrars, and take some time to be resolved. extending civil partnership. In the meanwhile, the government has repeated this We urged members to contact their MPs about why inequality in the same sex marriage bill. They claim these issues matter to them, using social media the costs of equality would be prohibitive. Even alongside more traditional campaign tools. We issued leaving the issues of justice and equality aside, we – a series of briefings to UNISON linked MPs and the and the actuaries who advise UNISON – do not UNISON group in the House of Lords. We met with believe this. We have demanded that the government Kate Green MP, Labour’s lead on the bill in the House show their workings out: how they got to the cost of Commons. We worked closely with the TUC and figures they claim. The government failed to do so Liberty in supporting each other’s campaigns. and in the final days of debate on the bill, an We won a number of concessions during the passage amendment was carried which requires the of this bill. First – we repeatedly called on the government to review pensions equality, reporting by government to justify the proposed inequality in 1 July 2014. survivor pensions. Secondly, a number of attempts to amend the bill to The inequality is highlighted by the case of Walker v allow registrars to opt out of registering same sex Innospec Ltd. The Innospec pension scheme, which marriages were prevented. Evidence provided by our complies strictly with the minimum requirements of members who work as registrars was vital in this: our current UK legislation, treats civil partnerships the thanks to them. same as married couples for the calculation of Third – the government has agreed to review civil survivor’s benefits, but only for service since 5 partnership this autumn, with a view to publishing December 2005. Mr Walker’s civil partner would only recommendations during winter 2014. The review will receive a survivor’s pension of around £500 a year, consider how the current arrangements for civil whereas if Mr Walker was married to a woman of the partnerships are working in England and Wales, same age, she would be entitled to a spouse’s whether they need to change when marriage is open pension of around £41,000 a year. Mr Walker took a to all and whether civil partnership should be available case to employment tribunal, to test UK legislation. to mixed couples. The employment tribunal held that this was direct discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation. It also The Scottish bill is currently being debated in the said that the exception in the Civil Partnership Act Scottish parliament, with many of the same issues that allows for this was incompatible with the EU and concerns. As with the Westminster legislation, the Scottish government has pledged to review opening up civil partnership to all couples. Pensions legislation is reserved to Westminster. The issue that is now coming to the fore is the requirement that a married person will need the consent of their spouse to obtain gender recognition. This was pursued by trans groups during the passage of the England and Wales bill and although some improvements were secured, they do not amount to enough. This is high on the agenda for those campaigning for equality in the Scottish bill, with UNISON’s support.

Public services for all We continue to push for appropriate and inclusive public services, even as services are reeling under devastating cuts. Of course this is not on our own, but as part of UNISON’s priority campaign to defend and promote public services. We have fed into UNISON’s ethical care campaign, which calls for a 9 UNISON national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members committee Annual report 2013

minimum baseline for the safety, quality and dignity of sector equality duty. The result of concerted home care by ‘ensuring employment conditions which campaigning is that the outcome of the government- a) do not routinely short-change clients and b) ensure commissioned review of the duty is not as bad as the recruitment and retention of a more stable was feared. The review steering group was divided on workforce through more sustainable pay, conditions many issues. One thing they could agree on was that and training’. it was too soon to properly assess the duty’s impact – something we said from the beginning. However, We push LGBT inclusion in health services. We have the government has said it will conduct a full review of updated our LGBT health factsheet and are the duty in 2016. Should they win the next election, developing a new guide on providing nursing care to this could be a dangerous moment. trans people with trans group GIRES. We raise issues of discrimination and prejudice about HIV and those who are affected by it. Political engagement and fighting the far We continue to tackle hate crime; media attacks, right such as the shocking transphobia meted out to Of course we are not sitting by waiting for that. High teacher Lucy Meadows; and domestic abuse. We on our agenda is the political education and have spread information to our members, engagement of LGBT members. We urge our encouraging them to report, signposted support members to register to vote and use their vote for services and campaigned for dedicated and public services and against the far right, including in appropriate services for LGBT people. We contributed this year’s county elections. to UNISON’s response to the Law Commission consultation on reforming hate crime legislation in We’ve promoted the countless ways activists can be England and Wales. involved in local and national decision making, including Labour’s Future Candidates programme. We We are active members of the Forum for sexual regularly include examples of members holding public orientation and gender identity equality in post-school office in Out in UNISON – and there are plenty to education and work closely with Schools Out. choose from. We have made sure there is a visible LGBT presence We welcome and publicise the excellent work of on UNISON demonstrations and protests, including branch and regional LGBT groups against the far this September’s Save Our NHS demo at Tory party right, busting their myths and lies. Increasingly, we conference. also need to dispel the myths put about by UKIP, who seek to scapegoat migrant workers for the league of Equality law problems caused by the Tories’ austerity measures. Case law has taken a step forwards: in January the European Court of Human Rights rejected the Labour Link appeals of Ladele (a civil registrar who refused to conduct civil partnerships) and McFarlane (a sexual The LGBT group has long had a strong relationship relationship counsellor who refused to counsel same with Labour Link. This has been put on record this sex couples). Both had claimed that their employers – year with joint letters from the chairs of the national by insisting they provide their services to all, without LGBT committee and chair of national Labour Link discrimination - had failed to protect their right to hold committee to all regional LGBT and Labour Link and express a religious belief. The European Court committees, setting out the key LGBT equality issues confirmed that the right to express a religious belief to raise in our work with the Labour party and does not justify discrimination against others who the practical ways the committees can support each law protects. other’s work. But overall this year has not been a happy one for As always, the LGBT group was represented at equality law. After great strides forward under the last Labour Link Forum and on UNISON’s delegation to Labour government, the Tory-led coalition has put Labour party conference. Our motion to Labour Link great energy into undermining and undoing a range of Forum, which summarised our LGBT demands as we protections and equality requirements. They have move into the manifesto-setting process, was carried consistently portrayed equality as red tape and overwhelmingly. burdensome. They’ve even suggested it is the duty on We also continue our active involvement with LGBT public bodies to consider equality in decision making Labour, with two activists on their national committee that is responsible for lack of growth in our economy! and three motions to their last AGM, on trans We have worked hard with the rest of UNISON and workers’ equality; austerity and privatisation of police the broad equality community to defend the public and justice services; and aid conditionality. 10 Internationally

Two of our long-standing aims are to encourage However none of this stopped the federal level anti- UNISON’s LGBT members to have an internationalist propaganda law from being adopted this summer. perspective and to raise the profile of LGBT human And in a matter of weeks, all dialogue stopped, while rights within wider international work. Sometimes this anti-LGBT violence has increased. has felt like quite a task. LGBT members can struggle ILGA-Europe advises of the importance of recognising to deal with what’s going on in their workplace, never that the attack on LGBT rights is part of a broad attack mind on the other side of the world. Many of our on civil society. Yes it targets LGBT people, but migrant global union bodies and sister unions have historically workers and vulnerable ethnic and religious minorities addressed women workers rights, but not had are equally scapegoated, in a familiar pattern. programmes on tackling sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. The anti-propaganda laws are part of a much broader attempt to clamp down on civil society. A number of This year has been a bit different. Cameron declares new laws clearly violate freedoms of assembly, that he wants to export gay marriage around the association, expression and information, in an attempt world. And it seems as though the world and her wife by the government to stop any organising that have a view on what’s going on in Russia – and how threatens their leadership. In criticising Russia, to sort it out. From pouring vodka down the plughole focussing on LGBT rights is not effective. It actually to boycotting the Sochi winter Olympics – the isolates and harms the LGBT community more. It enthusiasm for getting involved is palpable. gives Russian politicians new ammunition to feed the public sentiment that is already anti-LGBT. The LGBT Listen first community will be held responsible for an export decrease, ending of twinning relationships and the As twitter and Facebook explode with suggestions, failures of the Sochi games. It is highly reminiscent of we have the benefit of long-established principles to what happened when western governments – test possible responses. And the first is to listen to including Cameron - threatened to stop development those directly affected. As always, we gain so much aid to some African countries. Whilst well intended, from our membership of the international LGBTI such campaigns may have a reverse effect. There is association, ILGA, which has ten Russian groups in much more information on all this on ILGA-Europe’s membership. website. ILGA-Europe has sent out a very clear message: it is not helpful (or true!) to portray what is happening in Russia as though gay people are alone in being Building alliances for global LGBT equality persecuted. Certainly the ban on so-called We are covering what is happening in Russia in this ‘homosexual propaganda’ – more specifically a ban detail as it is a real learning point for our international on propaganda on non-traditional sexual relations to work. Trade unions above all understand the true minors - which began within some Russian regions, is meaning of solidarity – standing with people, not to be condemned. doing things to or for them. Let us be clear – this is Our conference has previously done so. When an issue of ‘how’, not a question of if we should proposals for a federal – all Russia – ban first continue to pursue global LGBT equality. emerged, Russian LGBT groups were clear about the The rhetoric of traditional values as a way to need for public action. Many community groups, demonise minority communities has echoes far governments and international organisations beyond Russia. Serbia, Ukraine, Uganda, Nigeria, responded with statements and the development of have all hit the headlines. In all cases, building campaigns. This initially seemed to be yielding results alliances between minority communities and human as a number of regional ombudspersons’ offices rights defenders is a crucial part of the strategy. started dialogue with LGBT groups. Even President Putin - in response to international pressure - Despite hostility and indeed violent repression, LGBT acknowledged that LGBT people have the same communities continue to organise. To provide a few rights as other people. snapshots: Kiev in Ukraine celebrated its first Pride 11 UNISON national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members committee Annual report 2013

this spring. Despite attempts from Vilnius City to prevent it, Baltic Pride went ahead as planned in July, with several hundred participants marching down the main avenue. ILGA-Asia held the largest ever LGBTI conference in Asia. Themed ‘the Phoenix Rising’, the success of this conference was particularly welcome as the last one had to be abandoned due to fears for delegates’ safety. We have profiled the situation in Jamaica - regularly dubbed ‘one of the most homophobic countries’ - in Out in UNISON, providing some nuance to the headlines. UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis has written to the Jamaican High Commissioner welcoming Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller’s positive statements on repealing the buggery law and asking for an update. The United Nations is increasingly vocal on LGBT human rights. This July, the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights launched Free & and insight, and fund-raising to support its work. We Equal - a year long campaign on the need for legal find the ILGA maps of global rights and wrongs, reforms and public education to counter homophobia alongside Transgender Europe’s (tgeu.org) map of and transphobia. The main message of the campaign trans rights, to be great conversation starters at pride is that human rights are universal and we can change events. Once more this year, we supported ILGA by attitudes for the better. You can find out more and paying for copies to be printed for the global launch. watch the launch video at unfe.org . We provided a digital copy of the ILGA map with UNISON’s pride in our work and recruitment information on the reverse for use at regional and LGBT workers rights and global unions local pride events. Our work to place LGBT workers rights firmly on the We are looking forward to this year’s ILGA-Europe agenda of our global union bodies continues. conference, which will be attended by a delegation of UNISON’s amendments on including LGBT rights in two from the national LGBT committee and the Public Services International programme of action representatives of some of our regional LGBT groups 2013-2017 were agreed at its Congress in December which are themselves affiliated to ILGA. The theme of 2012. That Congress also agreed an emergency the conference is ‘family matters’. UNISON is running resolution on the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill. At a workshop on LGBT family friendly workplaces. our request, the British TUC has agreed to seek a higher profile for LGBT workers rights at the next UNISON member Louise Ashworth’s term of office on Congress of the International TUC, which takes place the ILGA-Europe board comes to an end at the in 2014. And UNISON has proposed amendments to conference. UNISON has re-nominated her, but what the constitution of the European Public Services is noteworthy is that so have ten other ILGA member Union to broaden its equality remit to include sexual organisations: a measure of Louise’s considerable orientation and gender identity. As UNISON has contribution to ILGA and of UNISON’s healthy secured the backing of the EPSU executive, these are reputation. likely to be adopted at next year’s EPSU Congress. We welcome the fact the PSI, together with No pride in Israeli apartheid Education International, called a meeting of trade We continue to support and promote the Palestine unionists to discuss the future programme of joint Solidarity Campaign. UNISON activists play a leading work for LGBT equality, attached to this year’s Out role in the ‘No pinkwashing’ campaign, which had a Games Human Rights Conference. Although called at high profile at this summer’s London pride and very short notice, it was attended by 20 participants materials on UNISON stalls at many other pride from 10 countries and 3 continents. We look forward events. You can see the film of the action on Brighton to receiving the recommendations of that meeting. beach by delegates at our LGBT conference last November at nopinkwashing.org.uk Working with ILGA We continue our active participation in ILGA, promoting it as an invaluable source of information

12 From the caucuses

Bisexual members Yet again, the year has been dominated by the challenges arising from the coalition government’s attack on public services. It was with great reluctance that Jodie Crawford stood down as the co-convenor at the beginning of the year. We would like to record our thanks for all her hard work. Sarah Shahid, the other bi caucus convenor, has been working hard to raise the caucus profile whenever the chance arises. Sarah felt very honoured to interview Asha Wolfe- Robinson for Out in UNISON’s summer edition, for a feature on bi visibility. Asha was the first person to hold the seat reserved for bisexual workers when it Disabled Members conference. Bi members have was created on the TUC LGBT committee. UNISON been present at a host of other events including re-nominated Asha to the seat this summer and she London’s Bi-Fete on 28 September – for which we was elected unopposed. thank Greater London LGBT group for running a stall UNISON was well-represented at BICON 2013, held – and the demo to Save the NHS outside Tory party in Edinburgh in July. We presented a workshop on Bi conference. visibility in the workplace and led a discussion on The year is rounded off with a discussion group on what should be included in our new factsheet bisexuality and bi equality at this year’s LGBT regarding bisexuality in the workplace and biphobia. conference in November. We then took the draft to our UNISON bisexual members network meeting, following which it was Sarah and Jodie wish to thank the national LGBT finalised for launch on Bi Visibility Day. committee for their support over the last year and the bi caucus members for their participation. UNISON was presented with the Ilitha award at BiCon, to recognise the work that we do on LGBT equality in the workplace (the Ilitha award is based on Black members a South African word for bringing wood to the fire and LGBT Black members know that as workers we are making others feel warm and welcomed). among the most likely to be victims of current Our national bisexual members network meeting was austerity measures. This means real job cuts for many held in the summer and was well attended, with a of our frontline workers. This has galvanised the Black number of new members. We agreed on two motions members caucus to ensure a Black LGBT presence for the consideration of national LGBT conference in at significant LGBT community and organising events. Brighton this November, which are on tackling This has included sending a rep to Sparkle, the biphobia and on harmful use of alcohol and drugs in national Transgender celebration: a whole weekend of the LGBT community. events from music, film and club nights to workshops on activism, health and keeping safe. We had a big push for bi visibility day, with the launch of the new leaflet, a news story on the UNISON At the start of the year we made sure the two LGBT website and social media activity. seats on UNISON’s national Black members committee (NBMC) were filled. We were then able to Sarah was very proud to represent the national LGBT have an increased input on Black LGBT issues and in committee at Women’s conference and Black underpinning motions to NBMC with an LGBT Members conference and will be attending the perspective. 13 UNISON national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members committee Annual report 2013

Bev Miller and Asha Wolfe–Robinson have made National caucus representatives have played an substantial contributions as representatives on the integral role in the work programme of the national TUC LGBT Committee by suggesting options based LGBT committee with membership on the on UNISON policy and good practice. During the international, organising and development and planning of the conference, Bev and Asha made campaigning and policy development subcommittees. suggestions on speakers and Bev was again elected They played a key role: disabled members were to chair part of the TUC LGBT conference. considered and represented in all areas of the work programme. The caucus is instrumental in organising Black LGBT network day. This year it was particularly great not Representatives from the national LGBT committee to only to have high numbers in attendance but to have the national disabled members committee have been so many of them be completely new faces. We also working hard to ensure that LGBT voices are heard in had representation from Scotland for the first time their work. The LGBT committee sent two delegates and they commented on being made very welcome. to national disabled members conference and There are several attendees who are coming to LGBT members also made sure that UNISON was conference which is very uplifting. We discussed and represented at regional, national and international agreed motions to both Black members and LGBT events. members conferences. We also had UNISON’s race equality officer Khadiee Campbell open our day by The annual disabled LGBT members network day updating us on the work of NBMC and how this fits in was held in September and was very well attended. with other self-organised groups and our caucus in Thanks for all those who attended and participated. particular. Training was held on public speaking and motions to conference were agreed. LGBT materials were Khadiee’s input generated a lot of questions and included in UNISON’s stall at the Liberty festival to discussion which set us up for the contribution from make clear the breadth of our work. Kofi, an activist and film maker whose film and video projects seek to promote a better awareness of Black UK Disability History Month is being held 22nd lesbian and gay people. He led an animated November – 22nd December. Members will be discussion on how he would include Black bi and involved in local events and initiatives. trans people in future projects. Kofi showed his award winning short film Say My Name and also shared clips Work for the upcoming year will continue to of his work in progress, that will form part of the Say mainstream of disabled members’ voices in the LGBT My Name series. Kofi is looking for involvement in his work plan next year. work from Black LGBT people. Caucus is the lynchpin presence for UK Black Pride Transgender members which this year had a new address and date. There is The last twelve months have been incredibly no questioning how successful the day was with the successful for our caucus and have culminated in stall constantly busy with Pride goers interested in what we believe to be our most productive and UNISON and signing up for information and effective year yet. membership. Black Pride is a major trade union membership recruitment event for us and gives a Against a backdrop of austerity and savage cuts by chance to talk about the work of the caucus and how this appalling Tory-led coalition government, trans UNISON protects workplace rights. visibility amongst our membership continues to rise as members come forward to challenge this We believe that Black LGBT activism needs to be ideological attack on public sector services. As a encouraged especially as so many of us feel result our caucus is going from strength to strength. stretched and insecure in our jobs. At our conference in 2012, several motions around transgender services, numerous trans speakers and Disabled members trans-specific workshops raised our profile, as did This year, disabled members have been working hard Phillippa’s election to co-chair of the national LGBT to mainstream disability issues within the national committee in January 2013. committee’s work and mainstream disabled LGBT This gave us an even greater platform to engage with members issues across our union. Members have the wider membership and where possible look to been active in the length and breadth of UNISON’s every opportunity to engage with trans members as a work and within the community. We have been recruitment opportunity. actively campaigning against austerity measures including welfare cuts and attacks on terms and As a direct result of our increased profile and the conditions. work of the caucus Phillippa has been guest speaker 14 at several events during the last twelve months, work of the caucus and we will look to attend again including: next year. • Barriers to LGBT people - Tyne & Wear Fire We have been acutely aware that we needed to have Service/Equalities North East a better gender balance in the caucus and a significant positive step forward for us this year is the • Tackling Hate Crime - Police & Crime number of trans men actively taking part. It is hoped Commissioner, Ron Hogg, Durham Constabulary this is a trend that we can develop and maintain. • Celebrating IDAHO - Newcastle City Council/ At our network day in July we had an increased UNISON Local Government Branch number of attendees on previous years. The • UNISON Business & Environment Equalities discussions ranged from cuts in gender reassignment Weekend, Leicester - Trans Awareness services in health and social care, transphobia, even from within the LGBT community, and of course our In addition, on several occasions this year Phillippa continuing recruitment campaigns. The network day has been interviewed by local media talking about is an important date in the caucus calendar and we trans inclusivity. In one radio and television interview would urge all our trans members to consider she mentioned ‘UNISON LGBT self organised group’ attending. eighteen times in a three minute section! As we look forward to this year’s conference in Once again we had a good profile at ‘Sparkle’ trans Liverpool and the year ahead, we will not be resting pride event in Manchester. Immense thanks must go on our laurels; but refocusing our efforts to increase to our caucus member and regional UNISON activists our numbers. who delivered this activity at the last minute ...thank you!! Feedback from the event highlights the positive

15 UNISON national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members committee Annual report 2013

In the regions

Eastern great effect to ensure members at grass roots level are aware of forthcoming events. LGBT members In the last year, LGBT members have been organising have worked hard to promote events within their throughout Eastern region. In addition to undertaking branches and the response was tremendous! Over leading roles in branches and regionally, they have the year we’ve supported 3 pride events, 5 IDAHO ensured UNISON’s profile in events across the region. Day events and 2 workplace lunchtime equality events. Thousands attended Essex Pride’s two days in June, with a high level of interest. Norwich Pride and North At Pride we had a minimum of 6 activists at every Norfolk prides also went off with aplomb. Having a event. Our stalls were creaking with regional and local member of the group on the steering committee information. We provided each and every volunteer ensures that UNISON’s values are fundamental to the with the ‘How to Recruit’ sheet and provided each events. The inaugural Herts Pride was also very volunteer with an opportunity to rehearse and ‘hone’ successful and its success would indicate a their engagement techniques, thus providing them continuing presence in future years. As part of with the support and confidence to be more effective UNISON’s 20th birthday celebrations, the SOG was in dealing directly with members of the public. highly visible at Cambridge’s Big Weekend. We have On IDAHO day, our group raised the LGBT flag over also had members representing the Committee at the town halls, had lunchtime lectures on LGBT issues, “Defend the NHS” rally at the Conservative Party published articles in branch newsletters and held conference on 29th September. In order to try and wide-scale recruitment drives, promotional stalls and reach more members, a Twitter account has now even held a pub quiz to raise funds for an LGBT been set up (@LGBTUNISONEast). We also had a charity. stall at the regional council’s AGM in order to provide information and support to senior lay activists from We have found that district councils often lack a clear across the region. sense of direction in developing LGBT agendas and themes. To assist in redressing this balance, we have Our AGM and policy weekend was 4th and 5th recently set up an LGBT forum, drawn from members October with a focus on training activists to feel of the community and supported by both UNISON confident in undertaking branch roles. We also looked and the council. The group held its first AGM in at how to reach out to the community beyond the September and is already helping to shape and established events such as regional Prides, to gain a inform that council’s LGBT agenda as well as to more representative committee. provide support for LGBT people locally. The Committee will be setting its dates for 2014 We supported Pride events at Nottingham, Leicester shortly and is proud to be fighting for LGBT members and Lincoln this year. Unfortunately, Derby Pride was across the region. cancelled 3 weeks before it was to take place. There had been issues among the organisers earlier in the East Midlands year, and while it had seemed to have been sorted, events proved otherwise. We will work towards 2013 has been a really exciting and active year for making sure that Derby Pride 2014 can go ahead. East Midlands LGBT. It has been marked by an influx Good weather at all the events drew large crowds. of new and committed members, fresh and innovative The stalls were well staffed with a large number of ideas and collaborative working practices. At the volunteers. The UNISON merchandising proved to be September AGM, Emma Procter was elected as attractive at these popular family events. We adopted co-convenor for a 2-year term to serve alongside Alex an ‘active stall’ approach, getting out from behind the Porter. stall to engage with participants, which proved to be very successful Attendance and support of LGBT events has improved with more members taking on We have worked hard since last year’s conference to responsibilities based on their geographical locations. reach out to and engage with new group members. Social media such as Facebook has been used to Of particular note, we have implemented LGBT 16 Champions embedded within each county. Branches Greater London have invited champions to attend their meetings and Although there have been some challenges for the to brief on current activity. The champions have been group this year, we continue to prioritise UNISON’s instrumental in providing a conduit of communication key campaigns in the region and to focus on between our region and grass roots membership, recruiting and organising our LGBT members. significantly raising the profile of LGBT issues at branch level. At our policy day in January we agreed our priorities for the year and held detailed planning sessions on Cymru/Wales ‘Reaching out – recruitment and strengthening the regional LGBT group’ and ‘Building the resistance – The group has been busy this past year with good mobilising LGBT people against the cuts and participation from across the Region with privatisation’. representation from many branches of all the service We continue to be actively involved in the work of the groups. Meetings have been well attended and a region. We sent representatives to regional number of new faces have been seen. The group is committees and our motion on ‘Defending our represented on many regional committees such as reproductive and sexual rights’ was passed at the equalities, education and training, regional committee, Regional Council AGM. We submitted a further local government service group, energy service group motion, ‘Stop the monstering of Trans people’, to the and regional council to whom the group reports and May Regional Council, and asked the Regional is always available for support and guidance. Committee to invite a speaker from Trans Media Snow and freezing weather didn’t hamper our efforts Watch to address the meeting. The committee agreed to attend and get the most from our Development to our request and supported the motion. The weekend in Cardiff in March when the changes to meeting was not quorate but the speaker from Trans welfare were considered amongst other issues. It was Media Watch, who is a UNISON member, gave a a weekend facilitated by a great team and saw powerful and well received speech about how the everyone attending really enjoying the time to network monstering of Lucy Meadows was not an isolated and develop their knowledge and skills. A highlight occurrence. was a very fun and informative game of Deal or No We have continued to work closely with the SERTUC Deal which helped the group explore the austerity LGBT Network. Two of our committee members are measures we are all experiencing currently. Feedback on the network’s Steering Group, one being co-chair. for the weekend was excellent and thanks go to everyone that attended and particularly to the two Members of the regional committee also continue to facilitators. be actively involved in QUAC (Queers United against the Cuts). Pride events supported this year were Cardiff Mardi Gras in the Millennium Stadium, Swansea Pride and Unfortunately there has been a hiatus in our regional Aber Pride in Aberystwyth with the theme this year of LGBT e-bulletin following the departure from the “Your Life, Your Health, Your Future” which was committee of the member who was producing it each determined at the Development Weekend month. We hope to get this going again soon. concentrating on Domestic Abuse, Homelessness We were unable to hold our annual Regional LGBT and Care Homes for the LGBT community. All events Organising and Training Day this year due to staff were popular and attracted many visitors to the shortages. However we are well on track towards stands which led to recruitment of new members and organising for next year’s event. education and increased visibility to existing members and to members of the public. We have continued to focus on recruitment and have targeted community events for under-represented The Action Plan of the group details the targets and groups, such as BiFete in Brixton in September where plan regionally to recruit and organise and encourage we had a successful recruitment stall. We distributed activism through campaigning at Pride events UNISON recruitment materials and spoke to existing throughout the year and continuing affiliations and and potential members. seeking new community organisations with which to potentially campaign. The region’s leaflet and The major recruitment opportunity in the region was handbook has been updated. London Pride. After last year’s significantly reduced Pride, the event, with a new board of trustees, was back in style this year. UK Black Pride took place on the same day, in partnership with London Pride. We reinstated our pre-Pride Breakfast in Regent’s Park and there was a good turn out from the region as we 17 UNISON national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members committee Annual report 2013

marched in our regional t-shirts behind our “Pride in record number of civic buildings in the region flying our Work” balloon. We also assisted with the national the rainbow flag. Newcastle City Council had an committee stalls in both Trafalgar Square and Golden IDAHO day celebration and a member of our group Square (for UK Black Pride). spoke at this event of her experience as a transgender woman. We continue to work with the regional Labour Link committee and have agreed to run a joint event to We have had lots of media coverage this year, due to mobilise LGBT members in advance of the 2014 our very own Phillippa Scrafton, through her radio and London local elections. television interviews. Phillippa has also spoken about her experience of hate crime, as a transgender In addition to sending a delegate to ILGA Europe woman, at a number of key events in the region, conference in Croatia, we have continued to be very which has raised both awareness and our group involved in supporting the ‘No To Pinkwashing’ group. profile. Two of our members are co-convenors of the group which organised a successful reception with Haneen In May we held our annual education weekend in Maikey from Al Qaws, the Palestinian LGBT group, in Durham, which is our policy and training event. It was July and a ‘Solidarity Evening for Palestine’ social attended by approximately 15 activists from branches event in October. The group has also produced new around the region, many of whom were new to the anti-pinkwashing ‘Gay Travel? Not to Israel’ postcards union and who we have managed to retain. It was a which the regional committee helped to distribute at fun and informative weekend where we all took part in London Pride and got a very positive response, with a video for this year’s recruitment awards: watch this lots of marchers taking cards to give to others. space! We also went back to basics in terms of how to recruit new members into UNISON. Northern During the summer months, we supported two regional pride events, Newcastle and Sunderland 2013 has been one of our most successful and Pride. Both events were a huge success and served productive years as a self-organised group. During to promote the trade union movement within the the year we have held four meetings supported by LGBT community. Sunderland Pride even made it the regional office. The meetings have attracted an onto Sky news! increasingly steady number of people and we are now at our largest in number ever with LGBT activists in Our own Phillippa Scrafton, from Darlington, has been branches and services groups throughout the region. appointed to the national LGBT committee as chair. However our target is to have at least one LGBT She has also been put forward for a prestigious activist in each branch and represented in all service Equalities Award for Equalities North East in groups. recognition of all the hard work she has put in over the last year. February was LGBT history month and many branches throughout the region held events in their Communication has also been a strong theme for this workplaces. 17th May saw IDAHO (International Day year and our page on the regional website has been Against Homophobia) and as well as circulating updated with information and resources for everyone information around branches about issues to use. We will also be supporting World AIDS Day on surrounding and fighting homophobia we had a 1st December. We know the year ahead will provide even more opportunities for LGBT members to be active and for our membership to keep growing.

Northern Ireland The Northern Ireland LGB&T Committee had a busy year, increasing the visibility of LGB&T issues within workplaces and within the wider community. We now have a members’ mailing list of 110 and sent out 9 e-bulletins throughout the year. The e-bulletin aims to inform members about news, social activities, conferences, research, health and wellbeing opportunities and interesting articles and connect people particularly in rural areas into what is going on. We also have an active LGB&T Facebook site and regularly post LGB&T information to the main UNISON NI Facebook site. Engagement with 18 branches continues to embed our core work and this Sean Morrin – he was a great champion for human year we held LGB&T stalls in eleven hospital sites and rights generally and his contribution to the individual one regional health organisation to promote both and collective lives of LGB&T people is without IDAHO and local Pride festivals, all of which were measure. supported by local branches. We launched our new banner at the May Day parade and our new posters and leaflets are being distributed by local activists and North West where they have been taken down, they are quickly being replaced. As in many regions this year has seen us attend events all over. We have campaigned tirelessly against Members have been particularly active in a range of the austerity measures and enforced cuts in services initiatives to promote best practice. and jobs for our members. We have talked to We continue to be the lead trade union in the Health hundreds of members and potential members & Social Care LGB&T staff forum and were involved in throughout the region this year. the development of a new E-Learning resource for We worked in partnership with Liverpool Pride to staff http://www.lgbtelearning.hscni.net which was deliver a LGBT film festival, mainly at Liverpool FACT launched earlier this year. We wrote an article on (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology). Our ‘Coming Out at Work’ in the digital magazine regional group held a stall at the venue for every ‘MyGayZineNI. Along with local regulatory bodies, the showing and we ran our recruitment video at every Public Health Agency, Age NI and LGB&T screening also. We had information available organisations, we carried out a survey of LGB&T throughout the three months at the venue. People on their experience and attitudes to residential and home care services in Northern Ireland. We are Blackpool, Oldham, Preston and Warrington Prides currently developing best practice guidelines which are more family orientated events. We found that the can be built into the regulatory framework for the less busy and informal atmosphere made it easier to provision of care here. talk to people about issues they have in their jobs and communities and to discuss how cuts were effecting Within the wider community UNISON members make them. an active contribution to local issues through our engagement with the LGB&T policing sub group, the Liverpool Pride had the theme of super heroes this statutory consultative forum and the Equality year and it was good to see that the city embraced Commission’s employment project steering group. the fun part of this with hundreds of people turning We sponsored a workshop on ‘Assessing LGB up suitably dressed for the occasion. Not forgetting Applicants for Fostering & Adoption’ at the Northern the current times we are in, we invited people to tell Ireland Social Care Council’s Practice Learning us their stories of their super heroes in the public conference which attracted over 100 social workers. services. We were overwhelmed as people told us Two UNISON members spoke at “Still here…always stories of nurses in wards looking after their relatives, have been” a seminar on equality issues for older of teaching assistants who go that extra bit to help LGB&T people in Derry and UNISON chaired the their kids overcome obstacles in their development, of seminar for health and social care professionals nursery nurses who always have a smile and a cuddle entitled “Better Services for Invisible Clients” for kids who are in need of them, of social workers organised by the Northern Health & Social Care Trust. who have helped families adopt kids and of local As part of Belfast Pride we ran an event highlighting government staff who have helped people through the issues facing LGB&T teenagers at school as they the minefield of benefits forms. become aware of their sexuality and the contribution At Manchester Pride we decided to go for bigger, of school libraries to that. We also held a workshop better and stronger than before with the group having ‘Mood Matters’ for LGB&T people to promote positive a float as well as a walking entry this year. We had mental health. banners made for our float and we were much more We participated in International Women’s Day parade, visible this year than ever before. We also trialled a May Day as well as Pride parades in Belfast, Derry & new approach this year at the stall itself. We opted to Newry and organised a very successful table quiz to have an open double stall this year with high tables raise funds for Belfast Pride. We also attended the and chairs which were more conducive to drawing protest at Belfast City Hall against Russia’s treatment people in to talk to us. We had iPads and secured of LGB&T people and the rally for Equal Marriage at portable Wi-Fi in order to encourage people to look at Stormont. the new website and sign up online on the day. We were encouraged by the enthusiasm of the general After such a hectic and successful year, it was a public regarding this approach and it is certainly one shock to lose one of our earliest LGB&T activists we will be using in future years. We were also able to 19 UNISON national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members committee Annual report 2013

use the iPads to look up unfolding events in Russia campaigning with other groups against the hated and we encouraged people to leave messages of bedroom tax. support to send “to Russia with love”. The feedback We have submitted several motions for our we had from our own members and from the public conference and will play an active part in the debates. about our new look, with all of us on the stall shamelessly wearing our new T-shirts, was very At our AGM in October, there will be a debate on positive and encouraging. LGBT equality in the independence referendum. Guest speakers from the Yes and the No campaigns Scotland will be attending. This year’s Glasgay! Festival celebrates its 20th Our Committee is made up of 4 male and 6 female birthday and we will again be sponsoring one of the members and again, all sectors are represented. We main events. are elected at our AGM which takes place in October. We meet four times a year. All of our members are UNISON Scotland is affiliated to ILGA and our active branch stewards and we ensure all equality members are supported to attend conferences at issues are mainstreamed in our branches and on the ILGA Europe and ILGA World. local, regional and national bodies we sit on. We fill all the reserved LGBT seats on regional committees South East such as International, Learning & Organising and Communications & Campaigns. The regional LGBT group has enjoyed another busy and successful year. Having set our action plan at a Recruitment is again a priority and contributes to very well attended AGM in January, the committee most of our work. The biggest event we attended this has ensured delivery of the priorities and objectives. year was Glasgow Pride on 10th August. The group elected representatives to the main The event was the most successful ever with police regional committees, making sure that LGBT issues estimates of over 7000 taking part. The event had are embedded in regional policy. Working closely with moved to Glasgow Green this year and the space the other regional self -organised groups and young was bigger, there were more stalls than in previous members forum continues to be an enjoyable and years and it was more of a community event than effective way to promote LGBT issues and ensure before. that all are fully involved in the campaigns and decisions of the region. We signed up some new members, promoted our group to existing members, encouraged them to The regional group supported events for IDAHO, come to our AGM and added their names to our including some branches running LGBT recruitment mailing list. We engaged lots of young people still at days. The group also encouraged our members to school, college or university of the benefits of being in vote for equality in the May County Council elections a trade union when they venture into the world of held in some parts of our region. work. We have continued to work with Broken Rainbow. It was an exhausting yet rewarding day. They were present with us at all the prides we attended. We continue to offer support financially and We are encouraged to hear of other branches that in other ways in what has been a difficult year for have set up LGBT groups. Broken Rainbow with threats to their funding. Our Several members of the Scottish LGBT Committee logo appears on their publicity. We also assisted attended the second Scottish TUC LGBT Workers Sussex Police with a survey into homophobia, Conference in Glasgow on 11th and 12th May 2013. bi-phobia and transphobia related hate-crime in the This was an enjoyable conference with almost 60 Brighton area. delegates in attendance from UNISON, Unite, UCU, Our presence was highly visible at all prides. We were USDAW, PCS, GMB, EIS, RMT, Prospect, CWU, proud to support the smaller prides as we have ASLEF and the Society of Radiographers. watched them grow with our support over the last Delegates debated a range of motions on few years. This year we sponsored Reading Pride and encouraging inclusive trade unions, education, health, Oxford Pride. Unfortunately, Milton Keynes did not sport, international issues and promoting equality in hold a Pride this year due to funding issues, but we Scottish Society. In addition, we attended workshops are hoping that next year they will be able to have on LGBT and the asylum system, the stigma of HIV one. We also supported Brighton and Hove Pride. and AIDS and organising LGBT workers. We marched with the LGBT banner and had UNISON The Committee members have continued to attend stalls with equality information and answered many anti far right rallies and have been involved in queries on redundancies and reorganisations. We 20 remain highly concerned with the amount of sent them out to all 96 branches to use at branch victimisation our members still face in public sector promotional days. We used the new bi and trans workplaces. UNISON posters and logos were all posters to advertise and promote the network days around the main pride events, at the community and are proud to say we have recruited in all our events in the run-up to pride events, and were under-represented communities. An important part of included in all publicity. our work was to continue being Out, Loud and Proud in all six counties of our region. We placed an advert Considerable work has been done to re-engage with in the ‘We are family’ magazine promoting pride in our LGBT members in the South East through regular public services. We have started working with Young e-communications which has resulted in several new members, LGBT Labour and the Local Labour LGBT self-organised groups being set up in branches constituency parties at pride events. A third of all in the region. The Group is passionate about monies donated at events went to local youth groups. continuing to build on this work in 2014. LGBT members have been visible in greater numbers South West at Regional Council this year and continue to actively participate in many committees. A number of LGBT The 2013 South West LGBT Committee is proud to activists hold branch officer posts and we now have report we have again increased LGBT participation in representatives from a variety of service groups. our branches, our region and on the national arena. The South West region remains affiliated to ILGA. The Our dedicated group of activists have tirelessly donations in exchange for lanyards and ILGA maps sustained our objectives around capacity building, raised nearly £400 for ILGA’s scholarship programme. ‘UNISON’ brand raising awareness and maintained This is a vital part of our work around solidarity with high visibility at the eight pride and two diversity other LGBT groups and keeps us in touch with the events around our geographically challenging region. reality of oppression for people who identify as LGBT We have an open committee with members taking on in less tolerant countries than the UK. We used the specific project roles. We meet six times a year, one various pride and equality events this year as a meeting being a dedicated LGBT training day funded platform to raise awareness of LGBT inequality via the regional education budget. around the world, including handing out the postcards highlighting ‘No Pride in Israeli Apartheid’. We designed new welcoming leaflets, improved our use and knowledge of existing publicity materials and The fight against the advance of the far right

21 UNISON national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members committee Annual report 2013

continues in the South West. LGBT activists repeat annually to focus us prior to our pride season contributed by door to door leaflet drops, starting. participating in standoffs in the high streets, staffing We continue to share information between the other the UAF and Searchlight stalls at events, and by SOGs in our region and each advertise events being encouraging our members to affiliate to Searchlight. organised by other SOGs. This allows us to reach a The regional self-organised group was alerted to a greater audience than our regional LGBT contact list grocery van handing out leaflets in the small villages would alone. around Somerset condemning marriage equality: we raised this with the local police forces. Our meetings have been well attended this year with lots of new activists joining us and getting involved in Without the support of the General Political Fund we the union’s work. We continue to try and improve our would not have been able to achieve high visibility at connection with retired members and have agreed to events, and subsequent successful recruitment hold an event during LGBT history month focussing figures. We have made some excellent contacts with on older LGBT people, in conjunction with our other self-organised groups and we look forward to national retired members committee. continuing our growth, visibility and recruitment of underrepresented groups in our self organisation. Another busy year with lots of activists lending a hand to enable us to achieve more. West Midlands Yorkshire and Humberside This year our main focus was to attend more events and also to increase our membership recruitment. This year has been a quiet one for the regional group but there have been some encouraging developments We attend L-Fest again this year (a national lesbian on which we hope to build next year. festival held in Uttoxeter , Staffordshire), but this year held a workshop on getting more involved in political Several members from the region attended the life including their trade union. This was well attended national training event for branch LGBT officers, and enabled us to recruit new members after this following which their good practice was featured in event both for our region and other regions across Out in UNISON. the country. As always, it has been a busy and In Sheffield, three branches have come together: challenging year for us, as we are sure it has for many Sheffield Hallam, University of Sheffield and Sheffield of us. We also attend Birmingham, Wolverhampton, City to form a Sheffield-wide UNISON LGBT self- Stoke, Walsall prides. This year we had a Prides organised group.This came about due to the fact that Officer to help co-ordinate this - a new role in the it was difficult for one single branch on its own to set- regional group. They are already working on more up a branch LGBT group. events we can attend next year. A member was co-opted into the role as equality We also attended a Transgender Ball to officer for Sheffield Hallam and then arranged a commemorate ten years of Gender Matters (formerly meeting with the equality officers across all the Trans Shropshire) and our sponsorship of this event branches in Sheffield to discuss the LGBT group, paid for a mini bus for disabled trans members to be agree a budget for the year ahead and draw up a able to participate. It also means that next year we plan of activism. should be in a position to participate in a trans conference which is being planned for 2014 within We hope that over next year the enthusiasm shown in our region. Sheffield spreads across the region. We continued to advertise the group and events at our regional council which enabled us to continue to reach new members and encourage them to be activists. We were able to nominate and fill positions in service groups and on regional finance committee and regional training panel, so we have great representation around the region. To assist us with our aim of recruiting new members, we held a workshop on recruiting and invited the region to send attendees. The workshop was very useful, getting people to challenge why people do and don’t join and to focus on how to get the best out of our pride events. It is an event we intend to 22 23 UNISON has more than a million members delivering essential services to the public. Services that protect, enrich and change lives.

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Printed and published by UNISON, UNISON Centre, Join online at Call us on Ask your UNISON rep 130 Euston Road, London NW1 2AY. joinunison.org 0800 171 2193 for an application form unison.org.uk CU/October 2013/21910. Printed by Inprint.