Bristol LGB Forum

Conclusion of the EHRC-funded project to look at needs and experience of LGB people from Black and Minority Ethnic / Faith Communities in Bristol.

The Conference was a great milestone for all who have been involved or have followed this project.

Attendance was limited by an important Bristol City Council event, which hap...pened in parallel, at the Council House, but was no less momentous for that.

We all had a chance to thank Staff - Edson, Leiza, Sarah and Toni - and Volunteers - Laura Welti, Simon Nelson and the rest of the Steering Group. Out of respect for their privacy, their names will not be made public until we obtain their permission, but we offer our warmest, most heartfelt thanks to each and every one e of the members of the SG. They not only gave the Project their time, help and support, but also their indispensable testimony and insights.

You know who you are, and we sincerely hope you also know how grateful we are to you, for getting Under One Sky off the ground, for your resolve that the project will not fizzle and die, for your commitment to ensuring that in future all Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual people from Black and Minority Ethnic and/or Faith communities in Bristol will have a safe, protective and supportive community to embrace their sexuality, hold their fears and be their family, whether they finally grasp the nettle and choose to come out, or elect to remain private.

Our thanks therefore also to the wonderful, courageous, articulate and insightful participants to the Project's Focus Groups and 1:1 Interviews. Although the Survey was an important component of the research - for which we also thank all respondents - those BME LGB people who helped by their personal contribution to the face-to-face events took a degree of risk and may have had to overcome fears and misgivings abut the possible impacts on their lives. In spite of this they came, spoke with a depth of feeling and a dose of good humour about their experiences, some extremely painful, some in the past but some still current and ongoing today. Respect!

All who have been involved in the Project want you to know that your contributions are not ephemeral castles in the sand, destined to be obliterated by the passing of time, they will be the seeds of a renewed and strengthened BME LGBT community, with a sense of history, in which the value of your contribution will be given its rightful place of honour.

At Conference we heard from Linda Bellos OBE - author, black feminist, black civil rights campaigner and LGBT equality champion, former leader of Southwark Council. Linda spoke with passion and humour about the many hats she, like many in the wider community must wear, how at any time of her day she may have to challenge several strands of her multiple oppressions. She encouraged Black, Minority Ethnic, Faith and LGB people, whether women or men, transgender or cisgender, young or old, indigenous or immigrants, to see the value of unity, alliances and networking. Her encouragement to celebrate the wonderful diversity of our LGB community was accompanied by a closing request: that all BME people who make such contribution to Black History should please consider bequeathing the records of their struggle, experience, work and achievements to the Black Cultural Archive http://pages.bcaheritage.org.uk

Conference also heard from Dr T Hargey, Chairman of the Muslim Educational Centre Oxford (MECO), who spoke with warmth and compassion about the primacy of the Holy Q'ran's teachings of fellowship and tolerance, over later, spurious texts that have since overshadowed the Prophet's words. Dr Hargey spoke of the conspicuousness of the absence of prescribed punishments for homosexuality in the Q'ranic texts and his encouraging lecture, together with his contruibution to the discussion group that followed, on Faith and Sexuality, left many in the audience to consider the beauty of Islamic teachings and strengthened their resolve to forge links and establish good relations with their Muslim neighbours, colleagues, acquaintances, friends and relations.

Visit http://www.bristol-lgb-forum.org.uk/node/150 for an interim article.Read More