Stonewall – an ongoing betrayal

Theresa May – Murdering Queers!

Fury as deportations department get top award.
Stonewall equality conference faces LGBT protest.

 

 

Gay Mafia Watch has been documenting this ongoing betrayal of the LGBT community for several years now. It looks as if “Stonewall’s Adversity Champions” are causing another storm…

Just when we thought they’d learned their lesson, our favourite pseudo-equality charity has gone and done it again. What is wrong with Stonewall?

London-based immigration rights group “No Borders” claim equality charity is “celebrating the managers of detention and deportation” after the Home Office was given the top spot in Stonewall’s annual index of “top 100 employers” in Britain.

Once a respected civil rights campaigning group, Stonewall has been consumed and transformed beyond recognition, motivated by power and greed.

Recipients of yet another meaningless Stonewall accolade this year, the Home Office is the lead government department with a number of subsidiaries including the UK Borders Agency which is directly responsible for forcibly removing failed asylum seekers (including LGBT people) fleeing persecution, rape, torture, and death such as Asylum Seeker from Uganda, Brenda Namigadde – who was at the high court fighting her deportation only last week.

Not only has this award been given to one of the most despicable elements of the government, Stonewall’s made a special effort to endorse Conservative MP Theresa May as some sort of hero behind this achievement. Neither have anything to be proud about.

The current Home Secretary who also has the controversial title “Equality Minister” recently faced a short-lived campaign calling for her dismissal on the grounds of her utterly despicable parliamentary record on LGBT equality which includes voting:

– Against abolishing Section 28.
– Against an equal Age of Consent.
– Against Gay Adoption Rights.
– Against Lesbian Fertility Rights.
– Abstained on Gender Recognition.

Even worse – she’s being touted as the Keynote Speaker for Stonewall’s forthcoming 2011 Workplace Conference, sponsored by Barclays Bank. The event generates a great deal of revenue for Stonewall, charging up to £450 a ticket.

As this news spreads across social networks, we can report the LGBT Community is NOT happy. Stonewall better brace itself for yet ANOTHER revolt from the very people they claim to represent.

PROTEST!…

Activist groups are planning a protest at Stonewall’s 2011 Workplace Conference on Friday 18^th March outside the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London.

Not only will Theresa May be attending, but she’ll be joined by an array of other nasties! – none of them deserving of any type of award relating to equality or human rights.

For more info on the protest email: stonewallprotest@yahoo.com

-we’ll update this page when we have any more details.

 

 

 

It’s time to….
Sack Theresa May!
Sack Ben Summerskill!

After her appointment in May 2010 as “Equalities Minister” the Prime Minister faced a barrage of calls for her to be sacked. One group of LGBT activists even set up a website www.sacktheresamay.co.uk arguing that her political history makes her unsuitable to hold the position as Equalities Minister, boasting a facebook group with over 75,000 members.

 

“We do not think she is at all qualified to be Minister for Equality, we do not consider her to be committed to the cause of equality and for this reason would question her ability to be effective in this position. Furthermore, her appointment is symbolically counter-productive as it suggests there is not a better person for the job who can be a real role model for the campaign for equal rights.” – (Campaign to Sack Theresa May Spokesperson)

 

Stonewall’s Chief Executive, Ben Summerskill doesn’t acknowledge any this, firmly believing the Tories now “need to be forgiven” believing the lie their ideology has changed, continuing it’s agenda of pimping out the gay community to big business through it’s rigged awards schemes. In reality Conservative values have merely evolved in order to appear more socially acceptable.

 

Giving a platform to the disgraceful human being that is Theresa May at such a high-profile conference, and dishing out awards to the Home Office reaffirms this reality.

Theresa May is Murdering Queers!

 

Stonewall should be on the side of the real grass roots campaigners, for whom gay rights is a matter of life or death, instead it prefers to share crates of champagne with police commissioners, the directors of Barclays Bank and Goldman Sachs, whilst offering scumbag politicians a standing ovation.

 

Nine months after the initial campaign for her to resign as Equalities Minister, Theresa May is STILL under pressure from others not to deport LGBT asylum seekers, such as Brenda Namigadde – who had to take her battle to the High Court only last week to obtain a temporary injunction against Stonewall’s “number one employer” – the Home Office.

 

Brenda is a Lesbian from Uganda, a country which regularly tortures, rapes and kills LGBT people. Government ministers must take responsibility or prepare to be held to account, charged with the same guilt as their international collegues.

 

On the exact same say Brenda was in court, news broke of the brutal murder of prominent Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato. As the Home Office maintains it’s silence, and refuses amnesty to Brenda and countless others in a similar position action must now be taken.

 

Considering her failure to save Brenda and others, Theresa May’s pale apologies for her past voting record in response to the short-lived “Sack Theresa May” furore must now be dismissed, along with her – and all who sail with her.

Stonewall’s praising of the government at this time is unacceptable, once again colluding with the very people who want to harm the LGBT people. It’s also time for Ben Summerskill to go too.

Now you’ve read it, please SHARE this page.

 

 

 

Manchester Pride – The Truth About Where Your Wristband Money Really Went…

The shocking truth is that LESS THAN 0.8% of the total £803,000 Manchester Pride generated in 2007 went to the LGBT community groups that the public have been mislead into believing is the main reason for it’s existence.

After Manchester Pride 2007, the organisers claimed out of the £803,000 income in 2007, £95,000 apparently went to good causes. THE TRUTH is over £70,000 of that went to either the LGF or GHT despite both charities being two of the biggest and already well funded. This leaves less than £25,000 for LGBT groups other than the LGF and GHT… but that’s not quite true either!

Considering the maximum grant groups could apply for was £1,500 the sums do add up when you see the published list of 17 groups shared around £1,470 each. HOWEVER many of these groups are actually LGF CORE SERVICES you no doubt will have heard of. THIS IS FRAUD. They are denying other groups and organisations access to funding YOU have been kind enough to pay for. They are undoubtedly STEALING from the LGBT COMMUNITY plus anyone who has gone to the trouble of purchasing a Big Weekend Wristband, and leaving other worthwhile causes with an insulting 6% (less than 0.8% of Pride’s overall income) of what’s actually left once they’ve taken their cut.

This “Ghost Ship” of “Good Causes” listed as “Our Groups and Services” on the LGF website and in the majority of their corporate literature or are in actual fact run by or at least in very close partnership with the Lesbian and Gay Foundation (LGF) Icebreakers, 40+ Men’s Group, Gay Married Men’s Group, Stepping Stones, Black LGBT Group, Northern Wave, Rainbow Families, Carousel, Keshet, Pride Sports and “The Art Class”. Literature outlining the LGF’s core services states “The LGF provides and develops services and activities which work towards improvements in health and quality of life for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people. Our group work -Stepping Stones and Icebreakers (coming out groups for women and men respectively); Married Men’s Group, for men who are or have been in heterosexual relationships and feel attracted to other men; the 40+ Gay Men’s Group; Carousel, a black LGBT group.” If these groups and services the LGF obviously do run, and have run for many years don’t cover the above remit what part of it’s work does? Further to that, few, if any of these groups, either by name or direct involvement proactively include the Transgendered community. Despite this claim, the LGF’s own literature including it’s monthly publication “OutNorthWest” is regularly inconsistent in their use of the term “Transgender” – or lack of it.

Age Concern and Queer Up North also received an as yet undisclosed sum of funding from the pride bucket in 2007. These two organisations are very well funded and already have many existing sources of income. It’s is a positive step to see Age Concern are at last making a concious attempt to support some of society’s most isolated and at risks groups of people, so why does their work around older LGBT’s have to rely on applying for relatively tiny pots of funding from Manchester Pride to sustain this important area of their work? What fraction of Age Concern’s £14 Million annual turnover goes towards running services for older LGBT people?

Queer Up North is run by the North West Tourist board and Manchester City Council. It just received a grant (most was to pay it’s director and support staff) of over £100,000 this year – which dwarfs the combined incomes of pretty much all the other groups funded by Manchester Pride (other than the LGF and GHT) listed above. Youth Groups promised they would benefit from events and activities run by Queer Up North and their new found £100k+ arts funding have failed to be contacted by the organisation. Local artists who should have been supported by Queer Up North have been snubbed by Queer Up North in favour of paying for performers from all over the world to fly in to Manchester.

“Women’s Space” is listed as a being a part of Manchester Pride’s Big Weekend within the ticketed gay village compound. It aims to provide “a day of events to amuse, inform and entertain. There will be a wide range of entertainment to reflect the diversity of the lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered women’s communities including bands, cabaret acts, dance, performance, poets, book readings, DJs and comediennes” and runs on Sunday between midday til 11pm. Members of the Lesbian Community Project fought for many years for Women’s Space to become a reality and it is a testament to their determination and perseverance that it still takes place each year.

Considering the mammoth budget provided for the “Big Weekend” to take place and the entry fee of over £20 (not including the extra booking fee) festival-goers are asked to pay to get in to the gay village to enter Women’s Space in the first place the question should be, why isn’t funding set aside for Women’s Space just like all the over Big Weekend events? Why does Women’s Space have to apply each year in this manner so they can have the privilege of running their own event that charges people to enter but then. Women’s Space should automatically be funded fully by the Manchester Pride piggy-bank. It is not.

The only other local LGBT groups that got any funding from Manchester Pride 2007 (and there are many more who remain unfunded as far as we know) were four relatively small, independent, self-governing groups without a direct connection to the Lesbian and Gay Foundation, who are the most genuine and needy of all the groups funded by Manchester Pride. These four groups were Biphoria, Manchester Parents Group, Lesbian Community Project, Young Women’s Peer Health Project (LIK:T). It’s also startling to know these groups have been charged to run stalls in the Lifestyle Expo which used to be free of charge to small groups. Groups not listed have been turned away yet again this year.

How has a situation occurred whereby the LGF are allowed to apply for MULTIPLE sums of Manchester Pride’s funding under different names whilst other legitimate local groups and organisations are only permitted to apply once? Many of these smaller groups face the constant treat of closure, have few if any actual paid staff but still engage with as many people if not more than the LGF do?

JUST WHO THE HELL DO THEY THINK THEY ARE?

Taken from Gay Mafia Watch – Blowing the Whistle on corporate exploitation of the LGBT Community in Britain today. https://gaymafiawatch.wordpress.com

Youth Workers slam “Puffta”

As a result of last years GayMafiaWatch expose and a backlash to it’s badly-handled outreach into the community, Youth Workers from around the country have slammed Millivres Prowler’s “Puffta” website. Numerous professionals who run services and groups for LGBT young people have decided to remove links on their websites of the tabloid-style magazine aimed at young gay men which sells discounted poppers and explicit DVDs, advocates steroid use and promotes ‘the body beautiful’ stereotype which has been blamed as being the source of spiralling rates of poor mental wellbeing and high-risk behaviour.

Schools Out! The Lesbian and Gay Teachers group, known more recently for it’s launch of LGBT History Month and tackling homophobic bullying in schools has removed the link from it’s interactive Student Toolkit which was recently launched at a high profile event at the House of Commons. Posting in the National Youth Workers News Group, “Huw” – a youth worker in Peterborough and a member of Schools out said the link to Puffta was removed because it distracted from the good work being done by other, genuine, credible organisations. Positive Nation Magazine also featured Puffta last year and was faced with a barrage of letters from readers complaining about Puffta’s graphic imagery.

The lead youth worker at Gay and Lesbian Youth In Calderdale said “I only recently came upon Puffta because it was included in a link on Schools Out and had a look at it. I certainly would not put a link to it on any of the websites I am involved in (and have told Schools Out). There are many excellent websites for LGBT young people set up by LGBT youth groups around the country.”

Jean Wright who has set up a number of LGBT Youth projects across London over a period of 20 years and now works as a sexual health nurse in Lewisham also came across our article and had this to say “I am outraged at the style Puffta has chosen to imitate in it’s attempts to produce a resource aimed at young gay men”. “I have written to Millivres Prowler Group explaining the damage they are doing by targeting young gay men with these types of messages and the consequences individual face as a result”. “Marketing Puffta to an impressionable audience alongside mail-order sites that sell poppers and material that seems to promote steroids, bareback sex and reckless behaviour is extremely irresponsible”.

GayMafiaWatch view this response from the community as a positive result. The next step is one for the Millivres Prowler Group to take. It seems the way forward is for Millivres Prowler to divert it’s immense resources back into the community as opposed to it’s current tactic of simply stomping all over the existing support and groups out there that it could instead be publicising and working in partnership with.

In it’s own words (“Our Values” – on their website)  the comapny says it aimes to “behave ethically by being professional, honest and fair and to act with integrity at all times in building close, secure and lasting relationships.”

As it stands right now this is simply not true.

* Millivres Prowler Group (MPG) is the largest gay and lesbian business own Puffta along with the Pink Paper, AXM, the Gay Times, DIVA, a national chain of adult stores and a worlwide distribution network of various porn publications, magazines and books.