Annual Report 2015 1 Contents Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Co-Chairs Report ............................................................................................................................... 4 General Election Campaign: .............................................................................................................. 9 Campaign Days: ................................................................................................................................. 9 The Chris Smith List ........................................................................................................................... 9 LGBT Manifesto ............................................................................................................................... 11 Events and Fundraising .................................................................................................................... 12 Events listing for 2014-15 (excluding general election campaigning days and attendance at regional Prides): ............................................................................................................................................ 12 Communications ............................................................................................................................. 13 Membership .................................................................................................................................... 14 Patrons ............................................................................................................................................ 17 Trades Unions ................................................................................................................................. 18 Youth & Students ............................................................................................................................ 18 Trans Officer.................................................................................................................................... 18 Women’s Officer ............................................................................................................................. 18 BAME Officer ................................................................................................................................... 18 International Activities .................................................................................................................... 18 Labour Party NEC Equalities Committee .......................................................................................... 19 Socialist Societies Executive ............................................................................................................. 19 National Policy Forum ..................................................................................................................... 19 Regional & National Groups............................................................................................................. 20 London & South East Regional Group .............................................................................................. 20 North West Regional Group ............................................................................................................. 21 LGBT Labour Scotland ...................................................................................................................... 24 LGBT Labour in Wales ...................................................................................................................... 25 Yorkshire & Humber Regional Group ............................................................................................... 25 2 Introduction 2015 was a very busy year for the campaign. As a purely volunteer run and led initiative, the campaign worked hard to develop an £25,000 inclusive Labour Manifesto on LGBT rights, support LGBT Raised for the Chris candidates and of course work hard to fight for a Labour Smith List Government. Despite the defeat of Labour in May, LGBT Labour raised more money, had more out candidates, and ran more campaign days than ever before. Highlights included: th 36 Celebrating our 40 Anniversary with a series of events at Labour Party conference Out candidates Over £25,000 raised for the Chris Smith List to directly fund selected for 2015 LGBT Candidates including a very successful fundraising dinner General Election with former Prime Minister Tony Blair The largest numbers of out LGBT Parliamentary Candidates ever, including for the first time the openly trans disability activist Emily Brothers and slowly making progress on LGBT candidates getting selected in safe seats. 38 A comprehensive LGBT Manifesto produced by the Party and substantial inclusion of LGBT issues in the main Manifesto Prides attended or A separate Labour LGBT Manifesto Launch in Brighton supported Ownership of LGBT issues by various members of the Shadow Cabinet, not just Equalities Ministers A growing membership – the largest size of the campaign ever 21 Attending or supporting CLPs of Labour groups to attend a record number of Pride events and distributing tens of Campaigning Days in thousands of Stickers and leaflets key seats Jan- May Continuing to support Trans members to draft and publish their manifesto for Trans equality and law reform A significant growth in our reach through social media Receiving the Del Singh Best Practice Award at Labour conference recognising our efforts and success this year 16 Whilst noting these successes, we recognise that as a volunteer led Phone Bank campaign organisation there are future priorities for improvement. sessions Jan- May Now that the election has passed there are some practical and operational issues to develop in the coming years that the new committee will lead. Campaigning must of course continue as 2016 will see elections in Scotland, Wales, London and local authorities across the country. Many committee members, the Co-Chairs 23,500 included, are moving on after overseeing and excellent General Election campaign that despite the dismal national picture Twitter followers delivered many firsts for LGBT Labour. Tom Burke and Bev Craig, Co-Chairs On behalf of the LGBT Labour National Committee 3 Co-Chairs Report The Co-Chairs are the primary contact point for the organisation, maintain our relationship with the party, overseeing the work of the committee and steering the direction of the organisation. Day to day activities include communication via the LGBT Labour email and social media. Representation within the Party Bev Craig sits on the NEC Equality Committee, and Tom Burke sits on the National Policy Forum on behalf of LGBT Labour. Tom also sits on the Socialist Society Executive. There are more detailed reports further on in this document. Both Bev and Tom have had regular meetings with Party staff throughout the year and with Shadow Cabinet Ministers and their staff to ensure a coherent Policy offer. Raising the profile of LGBT Labour The Co-Chairs have been guest speakers, panellists and workshop leaders at a wide variety of conferences, events and discussions this year. For Example Tom has spoken at the UNISON LGBT Conference and at a Best Practice Event at Labour Annual Conference; similarly Bev has spoken at a number of events including UNISON LGBT Conference, Labour Students Political Weekend, Labour Councillors Conference and Northern Ireland events. We were honoured to collect the Best Practice Award at Conference recognising the work of LGBT Labour over the past year. The coveted award is given by the NEC on recognition of the efforts of affiliates in their effort for the Labour Party. Working with the Labour Party and the LGBT Manifesto Throughout our term we have ensured that we have worked with the Shadow Equalities team (previously Gloria De Piero and Sharon Hodgson and now Kate Green and Cat Smith) in addition to Shadow Cabinet Ministers in areas relevant to LGBT Policy. This work appears to have paid off, with individual Shadow Cabinet members taking the lead for LGBT policy issues within the portfolio, particularly Yvette Cooper and Tristram Hunt. In addition to this and through our work on the NPF and NEC we were able to ensure that there was a comprehensive list of policies adopted by the party that had been raised by members, the AGM and the committee. A campaigning organisation Working primarily with Ian, James and the regional groups we worked to ensure that all our primary focus and was focused towards the General Election Campaign. Regular campaign sessions across the country were organised and attended, in addition to phone banks and ad hoc support. Both of us attended many of these and supported additional campaigning events. Organising Events We delivered much of the work around our hugely successful Chris Smith List Dinner, with support from James Asser, Matthew Doyle, Richard Angell and committee members on the day such as Stephen Grainger and Matthew Day. Bev led on liaising with the party to organise the manifesto launch and also our conference programme with support from Stephen Grainger on the 40th Birthday celebration. 4 Membership and Banking We were able to flag the banking issues with the Co-operative quickly, and working with James and later Chris Wills were able to ensure that a contingency plan was quickly put in place so as to not jeopardise