LGBT HISTORY MONTH FR CELEBRATION E QB E Nottinghamshire’s Queer Bulletin February/March 2014 Number 76 In this edition Forums Su Pollard Pringle shirts Elbow Booker Prize Ironing boards Mother Clap Egg boiling Memoirs Fairy Towers Camp classics Z Factor Hairspray Swans Nottinghamshire’s Rainbow Heritage will hold its 7th Annual Celebra- tion and Awards evening on Tuesday February 25th. It’s at 7-9pm in the ballroom at Nottingham Council House. and even more Three awards will be presented by the Chief Constable, Chris Eyre, to organisations and services which have benefited the local lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans community. This year’s awards will go to: Tagadere, the HIV support organisation Recreation, the Transgender group The E.on LGBT Network The presentation of awards will be followed by a performance from two of the E.on LGBT Network. If you have any information, news, Two recently opened LGBT friendly Nottingham shops - Five Leaves gossip or libel or wish to comment on anything in QB, please contact Bookshop and Fab Chocolat - will be showcasing themselves and some representatives from Stonewall will also be present. QB Lesbian and Gay Switchboard There will displays by Nottinghamshire’s Rainbow Heritage, by some of 7 Mansfield Road the groups receiving awards, Notts Healthcare NHS Trust, Lesbian and Nottingham NG1 3FB Gay Switchboard and others …. as well as the usual free food and drink. It’s free entrance - no tickets needed. or e-mail [email protected] Thanks should go to Notts NHS Healthcare Trust and Nottingham City Council for their support for Nottinghamshire’s Rainbow Heritage. The deadline for the next edition will be February 26th Please note that the Council House ballroom holds a maximum of 150 people and latecomers may have to be refused admittance. Switchboard is registered Switchboard is registered charity For more LGBT History Month activities, go to page 2. charityno. number 1114273 1114273 MORE FOR LGBT HISTORY MONTH QB’S BITS Nottinghamshire’s Rainbow Heritage has organised Same-sex couples will now be able to get LGBT history displays at the following places: married in a registry or approved religious Libraries premises from 29th March 2014. Arnold 25th Feb-7th Mar Derbyshire City Council will be cutting Clifton 1st Feb-28th Feb funding to Derbyshire Friend by 90% Hyson Green 31st Jan-18th Feb The Gender and Sexual Orientation Con- Meadows 1st Feb-28th Feb sortium hoped to get one third of the grant Radcliffe on Trent 1st Feb-22nd Feb which the City Council was providing to 3 Radford 31st Jan-18th Feb consortia. They have heard that they will be Sherwood 31st Jan-28th Feb getting the smallest of the three grants, Sneinton 1st Feb-28th Feb which means that they will not be able to fulfil West Bridgford 1st Feb-14th Feb things as planned. Other After 16 years, Breakout, the Nottingham West Bridgford Police Station 1st-28th Feb group for gay and bisexual men, is closing. Gedling Civic Centre 1st-14th Feb Many thanks go from Lesbian and Gay Switchboard to Eat Out Nottingham for an- Various activities will also be arranged by Nottingham- other generous donation. shire NHS Healthcare Trust, both Universities and Not- Yes, it’s in Derby, but it’s worth knowing tingham City Council. about. ELBOW (Every lesbian and bisexual older women’s group) meets on the 2nd and You can find out more about Nottinghamshire’s 4th Saturday of the month from 10 am to 3 LGBT history by going on one of Tony Bilton’s Gay pm. E-mail [email protected] for History Tours. more info. For details, contact [email protected] To see what is going on in other parts of the coun- WOMEN’S FIVE-A-SIDE FOOTIE try, go to the calendar on the National LGBT History Month website http://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk It’s every Tuesday at the Forest Recreation Ground Nottingham We need to get more women on board to play so we can keep running. Every- LGBT NETWORKS & FORUMS one welcome to come along and give it a try. We are always happy to take on new players More and more large organisations have set up and require no major commitment just attend when it suits you. their own LGBT support groups, networks and fo- rums for their employees. Here are some of the lo- Day-Tuesday 6-7pm Price-£3.00 cal support groups and their contact details: Venue-Forest Recreation Ground Nottingham (Goose Fair site) City Council LGBT network, e-mail Level-We play for fun and cater for all abilities and [email protected] fitness. Parking -Free The Nottingham City Homes LGBT Forum Tram stop-The Forest recreation ground [email protected] If you need anymore info just email me back or text. Cheers Joolz 07790998205 The County Council's LGBT staff network [email protected] TELLING MY STORY The University of Nottingham Staff LGBTQ network [email protected] An LGBTQ MEMOIR for LGBT History Month. Notts Healthcare NHS Trust staff LGBT Forum Do you have a story to tell? Then join us for a fabu- [email protected] lous series of writing workshops that will explore ways of crafting your personal experiences and E.on LGBT Network memories with professional editor and writer [email protected] Victoria Oldham. Over the six weeks you will learn to create and edit your stories, which will then be An addition, there are two further forums open to all. bought together in an anthology. This is a free These are organised by Nottinghamshire Police and event for those aged 50 or over. Nottingham City Council. They take place quarterly- ish and provide an opportunity for members of the Thursdays (6th February to 13th March 5.30pm– LGBT community to discuss issues over which the 7pm) at Nottingham Central Library. Police and the City Council have influence - for de- Booking Essential: Call 0115 915 2825 For Info tails, contact Lesbian and Gay Switchboard. contact: [email protected]. THE NOTTINGHAM MAP There’s a link to the map on the homepage of Nottinghamshire’s Rainbow Heritage’s website. Every red spot on the map links to a place with some LGBT connection. Here are some of those places. The Old Dog and Partridge was probably the most popular gay bar in the 1970s. Like many gay bars of its time, the bar at the Dog and Partridge was a separate bar (here it was the back bar) in a straight pub. Sometimes such bars had signs like "Private Party" to attempt to keep the straights out. It was one of the early manifestations of the Bradley family's involve- ment in gay Nottingham. Su Pollard says: I met my first gay man when I was fifteen. It was very much under wraps then as you can imagine. They all gathered in the Dog & Par- tridge pub - in the back room with their Pringle shirts. I loved their sense of humour, I to- tally clicked with it. I guess I just of- fered them empathy and totally ac- cepted them for who they are. I can- not stand bitchy queens though, they piss me off.” The Victoria Centre was built at the end of the 1960s and the multi storey flats above the cen- tre dominate the Nottingham skyline. The idea that they are heavily populated with Nottingham's LGB community has an element of truth to it, which may explain their nickname of "Fairy Towers". RECREATION Recreation is a locally run weekly support/social group run for Trans persons by Trans persons. The group is inclusive of all ages and incorporates all The E.ON LGBT Network started in 2006 with just a people under the spectrum of Transgender/Trans or handful of people multi-tasking many roles, we now Intersex. Including Transgender, Transsexual, Trans- have 14 Committee members and are seen as an vestite, Gender Queer, Gender Neutral, Gender Fluid, enormously important community within E.ON, having A-gendered and others. a place on our Diversity Leadership Group chaired by We aim to provide a safe and sociable environment for our HR Director. I have the privilege of being sponsor. those with gender identity issues to meet with peers My ‘day job’ is Head of Residential Servicing and I and have much-needed private space to express have 2,000 staff working across my 7 centres which themselves: be they living full-time in their chosen gives me the ideal platform to make sure that LGBT roles or not. topics get all the right attention. Formed from the realisation that many of the gender The LGBT network just seems to get stronger and clinics do not provide certain areas of support, Recrea- stronger and I know that it means that community tion aims to give its members the social environment members are a great support to each other and that all and peer interaction needed to gain happiness and E.ON colleagues are conscious of the great work done confidence in themselves. Half support network and and the need to respect and appreciate diversity. In half social group, the group is here to give advice, re- fact, the LGBT community is well loved by the straight sources and personal coaching to anyone that needs it E.ON community for all it has done and most im- in a happy, positive environment. You can email the portantly the way it goes about things – with a sense team directly at [email protected] of positivity and style! This is the very first award we’ve won and we’re very TIME TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE proud and grateful to Nottinghamshire’s Rainbow Her- itage.