Archives for August 2015

Senegal: Seven men sent to jail for ‘being gay’

23/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Joe Williams
22^nd August 2015, 10:04 AM

Homosexuality is banned in Senegal and carries a sentence of up to five years (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

The men have been jailed for six months after being caught having gay sex by police.

Seven men have been sent to prison in Senegal after they were caught having sex during a raid, police informed a court in Dakar.
The raid came after the mother of one of the accused men told authorities that her son was gay – although she failed to show up as a prosecution witness at the trial, reports the BBC.
Being homosexual is classed as an “act against nature” in the west African country, and is punishable by up to five years in prison or a fine of up to $2,500 (£1,500).
Defence lawyer, Abdoul Daff – who is representing the accused men – said the mother’s failure to appear in court should have caused the case to collapse.
“There was neither material evidence nor testimony in order to corroborate the claims,” he said.
“So, we take note of this and we will see what to do next.”
In July, a journalist in Senegal was sentenced to six months in prison for ‘acts of homosexuality’.
Tamsir Jupiter Ndiaye – who has previously been convicted of homosexuality – was arrested in June, accused of attempted rape.
After being chased by an angry mob, the well known journalist took shelter in a Dakar police station.
In 2012, Ndiaye was sentenced to four years in prison for homosexual acts, illegal possession of arms and battery.
His sentence was reduced to two years, and he received parole in 2013

The army needs to gain trust from its gay soldiers

23/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

James Wharton says the army needs to gain trust from its new recruits (James Wharton)

22^nd August 2015, 10:52 AM

Gay former soldier James Wharton writes for PinkNews after is was revealed that the number of gay soldiers joining the army is too insignificant to count.
The knee jerk reaction as to why it appears no recruit has felt able to come out to the army since the organisation started asking the question about sexuality last October might be to throw an accusation at the military or to suggest they are doing something wrong in its efforts to make the organisation as diverse as possible; but from my ten years experience in the British Army, I know there are a few other reasons to consider here, too…
Something the army has never been very good at is disseminating information to its people effectively. It is very good at making sure soldiers can achieve a minimum number of press ups or run a certain distance in an allotted time, but some of the more clerical matters soldiers might need to grasp are slightly less important, I believe.
An example of this would be the lack of effort the army puts in to ensuring soldiers are registered to vote, or at least know exactly how to do so. Throughout the entire decade I served, only once did I see a poster or a notice telling me and my mates how to register to vote in either our home constituency or the area in which we were based. As a result, every election 1000s of soldiers don’t vote, and part of me feels the army is somewhat content with this.
Last October, when the decision was made to ask new soldiers to reveal their sexuality on their signup paperwork there was a fair bit of fuss in the media – indeed the Mail on Sunday ran a large editorial on the matter – but within the organisation there was barely an eyebrow raised. Soldiers got up the next day and went about their business, new recruits continued to sign up, the entire thing was a bit of a non-event within the ranks.
Since then, we now know 10,590 new recruits have signed up and interestingly only 60 people – for certain – answered the question: How do you define your sexuality? It appears that all 60 of those who felt able to answer ticked the box that they were heterosexual.
The MoD’s official response is that there are too few numbers to count, and therefore the answer is actually ‘less than five’; but knowing the organisation as I do, it is my opinion that the actual answer is zero, it being more convenient, perhaps more palatable, for the ministry to respond the way they have.
The majority of those 10,590 new recruits will be between the ages of 16-22; myself, I joined at the age of 16 and if I’m completely honest, if I were asked by my new employer on my first or second day in the job my sexuality, I would probably have said ‘heterosexual’. It wasn’t until I was a little older that I was happy to label myself ‘gay’. This has to be part of the picture we are looking at here – some of the younger soldiers might not yet be ready to define themselves as anything.
There is also a question of trust. How confidential is this information? Where are the records held? I will be fair to the army, they are pretty tip-top where information handling is concerned, but I know that with the benefit of hindsight and experience; would I know that on my first day in the organisation? Of course not, and again, this might stop me from wanting to answer the question altogether.
I think some thought should be given to the way the question is asked. A pollster will tell you you can get any answer you want from somebody if you word the question appropriately; maybe the Ministry of Defence should spend some time looking at this?
I also think – and this will be unpopular – but in all other areas of military life soldiers are ordered to do things, and if they don’t they are in serious trouble. You cannot refuse a lawful order in the army. I think some thought could be placed on making the question compulsory. You can still offer the answer ‘prefer not to say’, or ‘other’, but at least you would have statistics that actually stand up; right now the MoD has an embarrassing situation that only 0.6% of new recruits bothered to answer the question. It’s a bit of a waste of resources presently.
But I wouldn’t let the army off scot free. It needs to answer the question, if only to itself, why the figures are so low. Homosexuality aside, why out of the ten and half thousand new recruits have only 60 wanted to answer the question, period? Why do only 60 people feel able to trust the army with this information? A final factor for sure in this situation is that simply the army is not coming across to its new talent that it is a grown up organisation that will value the individual uniqueness of every single person it employs regardless of sexuality.
It would have been nice to have a few more figures to play with on this matter; but the facts are the facts, less than five people out of ten thousand, although I stand by my belief that the actual figure is zero, have felt able to tell the army they are gay in the last ten months. That’s pretty rubbish on the behalf of the army and it should spend some time now considering just why it’s people would rather keep their sexuality private.
James Wharton is the best selling author of Out in the Army: my life as a gay soldier and served ten years in then Household Cavalry from 2003-2013
James Wharton says the army needs to gain trust from its new recruits (James Wharton)

Footballers are wary of coming out, says NI boss

23/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

By Steven Beacom

PUBLISHED22/08/2015

Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill

Northern Ireland manager Michael O’Neill has revealed his views on why gay footballers in Britain do not come out, suggesting that there would be a fear amongst players of an ‘unforgiving’ reaction from rival supporters.

O’Neill added that he would be ‘very sensitive’ to the situation if one of his players told him he was gay.
Not his usual subject matter, the former Shamrock Rovers boss was talking about the issue as part of a sports panel on Radio Five Live yesterday.
The debate cropped up following the recent decision of Batley Bulldogs captain Keegan Hirst to announce that he was gay, becoming the first British rugby league player to do so.
Asked if such a revelation would happen soon in British football, O’Neill said: “I think we are still a bit away to be honest.
“I think the main thing in football for players isn’t their team-mates or the environment of the dressing room, I think it is the possibly the environment of the stadium which I still think for a footballer coming out would be pretty unforgiving.
“I don’t think opposition fans are going to be particularly sympathetic to that, particularly if it is someone very high profile.
“It is quite sad that we are talking about this, but footballers would be a lot more wary and I don’t see that changing in the short term.
“As a manager if a player came to me I would have to be very sensitive to how he wanted to go forward with it.”

School is In: LGBTQ representation in professional school library literature

22/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

GLBT News: By Elizabeth Gartley -August 16, 2015
A few months ago, I came across the 2011 article “The Silent Message: Professional Journals’ Failure to Address LGBTQ Issues” by Elizabeth Koehler, in The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults, the academic journal of YALSA. In her study, Koehler searched for LGBTQ-themed articles in nine professional journals commonly read by public and school librarians who serve young adults.
Around the same time, I had come across research which looked specifically at how well school libraries and school librarians are serving LGBTQ students. Articles such as “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ)-Themed Literature for Teens: Are School Libraries Providing Adequate Collections?” by Hughes-Hassell, Overberg, and Harris in School Library Research (2013) and “2.5 Million Teens” by Wendy Rickman in Knowledge Quest (2015), found that overall, school librarians are underprepared to serve LGBTQ students. I was interested in Koehler’s study to see what connections or correlations there might be.
Koehler looked at a span of five years (2006 to 2011), and searched each journal electronically for the terms gay*, lesbian*, homosexual*, transgender*, transsexual*, transvestite*, and queer* for articles with LGBTQ-themed content, including reviews and letters to the editor. She found a total of 83 articles across nine journals over the course of five years. School Library Journal accounts for nearly half of those, with 37 LGBTQ-themed articles found within the timeframe; Booklist was the next highest producer with 17 articles.
Koehler also found that the vast majority (70.2 percent) of these articles were reviews. However, she also points out that the number of reviews does not accurately reflect the number of high quality LGBTQ-themed fiction and nonfiction published for young adults between 2006 and 2011. She notes that the Rainbow Book List, compiled by GLBTRT offers “an annual bibliography of quality books with significant and authentic GLBTQ content.” She writes that since the first list was published in 2008, the project:

has included 137 quality fiction and nonfiction LGBTQ-themed titles for young adults. In that same time period, the nine journals examined in this study reviewed only thirty-four LGBTQ-themed books and five of those were professional titles. While professional journals cannot realistically review every book that is published, these numbers suggest that dozens of quality books that could benefit young adults and the librarians who serve them are being overlooked by the professional journals that many librarians read.

Intrigued by Koehler’s work, I decided to take my own (rather unscientific) look more specifically at journals and trade magazines focused on school libraries. I identified 12 school library journals which I could easily search electronically, and tweaked Koehler’s keywords: I searched gay*, lesbian*, bisexual*, transgender*, queer*, LGBT*. I was mostly interested in content, so I didn’t include reviews or letters to the editor, and I also limited my search to articles that presented LGBTQ topics in positive or neutral tone. I didn’t limit my time frame, but rather looked at whatever span of time was available by publication. Overall, my findings line up with Koehler’s, with School Library Journal having printed far more LGBTQ-themed articles than all other publications combined. School Library Journal published its first LGBTQ-themed article, “Gay Lib’s Guidelines For Children’s & YA Books,” in 1975, and has been including articles on such topics with relative regularity ever since.

	Name	Publication Type	Geographic Focus	Dates Surveyed	Articles
1	IASL Newsletter	Organization Publication	Global	2005 to Present	None
2	Knowledge Quest	Organization Publication	US	2003 to Present	3
3	Library Media Connection*	Trade Publication	US	2003 to 2015	None
4	Library Sparks	Trade Publication	US	2009 to Present	None
5	School Libraries in Canada	Organization Publication	Canada	2001 to Present	1
6	School Librarian’s Workshop	Trade Publication	US	2003 to 2015	1
7	School Libraries Worldwide	Academic Journal	Global	2003 to Present	2
8	School Library Journal	Trade Publication	US	1974 to Present	37
9	School Library Monthly*	Trade Publication	US	1995 to Present	1
10	School Library Research	Academic Journal	US	1993 to Present	1
11	Teacher Librarian	Trade Publication	US & Canada	1990 to Present	5
12	Teaching Librarian	Trade Publication	Canada	2006 to Present	3

*Merging to become School Library Connection this fall.
But maybe that’s not fair comparison, since all the other publications I surveyed begin much later. If I limit School Library Journal only to the last 10 years (2005 to 2015), I find 17 articles: the same as the total number of all other LGBTQ articles I found in the 11 other journals. The only other publication which featured an LGBTQ-themed article before the 2000s was Teacher Librarian, which published “Conflict and Compromise Over Homosexual Literature” in 1994.
Koehler also noted that:

It is particularly concerning that inclusion of LGBTQ issues in professional journals for young adults has not increased in relation to the number of current events related to issues of sex and gender.

I thought perhaps this was because Koehler looked at such a limited time frame, but as I started plotting the number of articles by year, I had to come to the same conclusion. I saw no pattern of growth from the early 2000s (when most of the journals surveyed began publication) to 2015.
Looking at individual publications made the situation seem even starker. School Library Monthly, popular with many of my colleagues, has only published one LGBTQ-themed article in 20 years of publication. Another popular trade magazine, Library Media Connection, hasn’t published any LGBTQ-related articles in 12 years of publication. The official publication of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) is only slightly better, with three articles in 12 years.
While Koehler stops short of drawing a causal relationship between a lack of LGBTQ-themed books in libraries and a lack of articles about LGBTQ topics in professional journals for librarians, I don’t think her findings can be coincidental when looking at research into how well school libraries are serving LGBTQ students. Hughes-Hassell, Overberg, and Harris (2013) found that LGBTQ-themed books made up only only 0.4% of school libraries’ collections. Rickman (2015) found a lack of resources available for LGBTQ students in school libraries in Arkansas. Both studies found a lack of nonfiction resources on LGBTQ topics in school libraries. The 2013 GLSEN National School Climate Survey found that less than half of LGBTQ students (44.2 percent) could find LGBTQ content in their school libraries (for comparison, the 2003 survey found that 45.2 percent of students surveyed could find LGBTQ-related content in their school libraries).
I believe very strongly in the role of the school library for the education of all students, but I’m disheartened by the lack of attention to LGBTQ students in my profession — particularly when contrasted with the increased visibility of LGBTQ lives and experiences in so many other areas:entertainment and media, government and current events, and cultural institutions. Despite this increased visibility, LGBTQ students still struggle, particularly at school, with having their voices silenced, being marginalized by their school community, and otherwise struggling with discrimination at school.
Pretending that potentially controversial topics don’t exist will not make them disappear, and school library professionals do a disservice to all students by ignoring LGBTQ lives and experiences. Koehler urges librarians to write letters to the editor, book reviews, or opinion pieces to those journals which print reader-generated content, and she highlights some resources that exist to aid librarians in LGBTQ book selection, including the Rainbow Book List, the Stonewall Book Awards, and the Lambda Literary Awards, and other resources such as Serving Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Teens: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians by Hillias Martin and James Murdock.
While there may not be a direct causal link between a lack of LGBTQ resources in libraries and the lack of articles addressing LGBTQ topics in professional journals, if more school librarians begin prioritizing LGBTQ resources and services, the journals will have to reflect that. And as the professional journals publish more LGBTQ content, more librarians are likely to be inspired to create more inclusive library services and collections.

Channel4: Dispatches :Hunted: Gay and Afraid

22/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Dispatches investigates the networks supporting a wave of anti-gay laws around the world

Dispatches takes another look at the rights of gay people around the world

In 2014 Channel 4’s Dispatches revealed the extent of vicious hate crime in Russia with their award-winning documentary Hunted.

Now they’re back with an investigation into the global networks that support all sorts of anti-gay laws around the world.
In this one hour programme, Liz MacKean’s team exposes the well-funded backlash against gay rights led by organisations that promote “family values”.
At a time when equality for gay communities across the globe may feel more within reach that ever before, Dispatches shines a light on a group called the World Congress of Families who have established links in over 80 countries. The documentary investigates the WCF’s involvement in anti-gay laws including the Russian legislation banning gay couples from adopting children.
The Dispatches documentary also interviewed Pastor Scott Lively, who had previously linked homosexuality with paedophilia and who also advised the Ugandan government on how they might take forward their anti-homosexuality legislation.
Hunted: Gay and Afraid was shown on Channel 4 Dispatches, 23 July at 11.05pm, however it is still available on Channel 4 at this time.

Ben Cohen releases book on bullying, 'Do You'

22/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Jason Kempin/Getty Images

Ben Cohen, the former professional rugby player, will release his first book to help young people deal with bullying and educate adults on the issue.

ATLANTA, July 23, 2015 – The Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation today announced the publication of DO YOU!, the first book from its founder and chairman, rugby World Cup champion Ben Cohen. The book aims to help young people deal with bullying, and to be a supportive guide for parents and educators alike.

Published by Penguin Random House under the Pam Krauss Books imprint, the book offers inspiration and encouragement for anyone who was ever bullied, left out or pushed aside. The book lifts the spirits and gives practical guidance to anyone struggling with bullying and rejection, doing so in 20 brief, memorable, visually rich sections. Real-world words of encouragement from fans and supporters of StandUp are also included in the book.

“It’s a small book with a big impact,” said Ben Cohen. “Much of it comes from my own experience dealing with the loss of my father, as well as the advice I would give my own daughters. I want readers to know they are not alone, that someone understands, and that they can make it through.”

DO YOU! encourages readers of all ages to embrace their authentic selves and to live the life that is best for them. “I am really trying to let people know that they are absolutely fine just as they are. My goal has been to connect with them as a friend and a supporter, as they have connected with me,” said Cohen.

The book was developed from Ben’s experiences, values, and vision for how to make the world kinder for all, and crafted by the team at StandUp with him. It is on-sale August 4, 2015, in time for back-to-school reading, and available wherever books are sold.

Injured veterans become male models

22/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

American Photographer Michael Stokes’ background is based in fitness photography and showcasing the masculine form. Last year he featured a chapter in his book Bare Strength of wounded and amputated Marines.
This year he wants to dedicate an entire book to the men who served in the Gulf and risked their lives in the US military.

While on tour in Afghanistan Alex’s right leg was blown off below the knee.
After the photos of Alex were well received, Michael decided to set up a Kickstarter to fund a coffee table book Always Loyal featuring around 14 former soldiers who had been injuring in the Gulf Wars.

It’s no surprise when looking at these pictures that Michael made his fundraising target in one hour and fifteen minutes.

“We think of them as veterans of war but really they’re guys in their 20s who are ready to start new lives and have a lot of energy and willpower to move forward. When they are in my studio I have to hold the energy back.” Michael toldi100.

“It’s the contrast that- I think moves people. You see all this perfect skin, you see that they are young and then all of a sudden you see their injury. That is emotionally provoking.”

Michael’s next aim is to head to the UK to photograph injured soldiers here.

The book will be available to buy on Amazon in mid November and you can see his Kickstarter campaign here, which also features a video for the campaign.
Images used with permission from: Michael Stokes – See more of Michael’s work here at michaelstokes.net
Words Rhys Mathews @rhysox

Ben Mitchell Gay Sex Scene On EastEnders Attracts 48 Complaints

22/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

By The Gay UK, Jul 21 2015 02:13PM

Belated as it may be, we are introducing the implied gay sex scene which could land the BBC in trouble with OfCom after 48 complaints were made to the regulatory body (however we now know that the BBC was not landed in trouble – see our previous entry)

BBC/YouTube

A scene between the characters Ben Mitchell (Harry Reid) and Paul Coker saw the pair getting topless and kissing in front of an open coffin in a funeral parlour.Speaking to Digital Spy, a spokesperson for the BBC said,
“The millions of regular ‘EastEnders’ fans who tune in each week know and expect dramatic storylines.
“We are always mindful of our time slot in which we are shown and the scenes in question were implied and not explicit.

James Dawson: 'Young Adult literature should celebrate being gay'

22/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

James Dawson and Cassandra Clare, who both appeared at London’s Young Adult Literature Convention last weekend, speak out about LGBT representation in books for teens

Cassandra Clare; James Dawson

By Rebecca Hawkes

5:48PM BST 23 Jul 2015

“I didn’t want to write a dreary melodrama about coming out, and about how awful it is to find out you like guys,” says author James Dawson, in reference to his forthcoming Young Adult (YA) novel All of the Above.

“When I found out I liked guys, it was a massive weight off my shoulders, because I finally understood myself.”

The author, whose most recent book, the dark teen horror-thriller Under My Skin, was published earlier this year, believes that LGBT representation in YA literature has become more positive in the past decade or so. Books now celebrate gay identity and relationships, rather than focusing exclusively on characters who suffer and struggle with their sexuality.

• The 26 best YA books of 2015

“There’s that image, that stereotype of the tragic gay person who has to survive being gay. But to actually celebrate that identity, in all its glorious forms – I think that’s where YA is at now,” he says.

The formerly-bearded writer – he says he recently opted for a clean shave, after getting fed up of people describing him as “bearded author James Dawson” – was speaking to the Telegraph at the Young Adult Literature Convention, which took place in London last weekend.
A three-day event, held as part of London’s Comic-Con, it drew a surprisingly mixed crowd – there were plenty of adults in attendance, as well as teens – and featured panels and book-signings from a number of popular YA authors, including Dawson, Judy Blume (the veritable high priestess of teen literature), Patrick Ness, Derek Landy, Malorie Blackman and Holly Smale.

^{A book stall at London’s 2015 Young Adult Literature Convention}
There was also a host of inventive costumes on display. The black-clad, rune-sporting “Shadowhunters” from Cassandra Clare’s bestselling The Mortal Instruments books were a popular fancy dress option, but Dawson himself arguably claimed the crown for the weekend’s best outfit, appearing as Daenerys from HBO’s Games of Thrones (specifically, as the naked, unburnt Daenerys seen at the end of season one).

During the panel, Dawson revealed that All of the Above will contain his first “proper sex scene”. The book, published this September, centres around a 16-year-old girl named Toria who relocates to a sleepy coastal town, and explores themes surrounding bisexuality, examining how it’s possible to be physically attracted to one gender, and emotionally attracted to another, all at the same time.
It was partly inspired, Dawson says, by the “coming out” of Olympic diver Tom Daley and model/actress Cara Delevingne.

^{YA fans relax next to a wall of books at YALC 2015}
“Young people are very reluctant to come out with a label,” he explains. “It’s like they don’t want to pigeonhole themselves. If you look at Tom Daley and Cara Delevingne, when they talk about their sexuality, they never use words like ‘bi’ or ‘gay’. Instead, they say ‘I’m in a relationship with a man’, or ‘I’m in a relationship with a woman’. That inspired me.”
“I wanted to write about characters who were just at that precipice of trying to understand desire and sexual attraction.”
Interestingly, All of the Above, which can be broadly categorised as a “real-life drama”, marks something of a break with tradition for Dawson. While his previous YA titles have featured gay and lesbian characters, the books themselves haven’t been “about” sexuality, per se. 2014’s Cruel Summer, for example, is an addictive mystery-thriller; 2012’s Hollow Pike and Under My Skin (2015) are dark horrors.
Cassandra “Cassie” Clare, the woman behind the phenomenally successful The Mortal Instruments series, and another guest speaker at YALC, agrees that it’s important to see LGBT representation across a range of different genres.
Her six Mortal Instruments fantasy novels are set in a Medieval-inspired world of demons and fallens angels: think Paradise Lost meets modern day New York, with a healthy dose of teen angst and cynicism thrown in for good measure (There’s also a prequel trilogy, set in Victorian London.)
They inspired a 2013 film, starring Lily Collins and Jaime Campbell Bowers, as well as an ABC television series, due to hit TV screens in 2016, and are exciting, pacy, fantastically inventive and wildly popular with young readers.

^{Cassandra Clare signs copies of her books at London’s YALC 2015}
They also feature a romantic relationship between two male characters: a young demon-fighting “Shadowhunter” named Alec, and a warlock named Magnus.
“I’ve talked to lots and lots of gay and lesbian teenagers and, for a lot of them, Alec is the first openly gay character they’ve read about,” Clare says.
“To find a character casually represented in something they might already be reading, in a world that they like, is very meaningful, and so I’ve tried to be mindful of including gay, lesbian and transgendered characters in all of the books that I write.”
Dawson – himself a fan of Clare’s series – thinks that the matter-of-fact way in which Magnus and Alec’s relationship is presented in the books is particularly important.
“People never think to talk about Cassie’s books as part of the [LGBT representation in YA] conversation. Those books have sold to millions and millions of readers, and yet the fact that Alec and Magnus are together is barely spoken about,” he says. “It’s just not an issue – they’re Shadowhunters/warlocks first, and gay/bisexual second.”
It seems that, when it comes to gay and lesbian characters in YA literature (and, to a slightly lesser extent, transgender characters), invisibility is no longer as big a problem as it once was. It has, after all, been 40 years since the publication of Judy Blume’s Forever, which featured a gay/questioning character named Artie.
Instead, perhaps the most important thing for YA authors writing today, is to get across the message that discovering your sexual identity, while always a bit scary, can also be an exciting, positive experience.
Being a young, gay teen (or a transgender teen, or simply a sexually confused teen) is rarely a walk in the park – but books, Dawson believes, can offer a source of hope.
“I’m always wary of saying ‘oh, we’ve come a long way and we’ve now got great representation,” he says. “It is a struggle, and it is a very individual struggle. If you are a 13-year-old [LGBT or questioning] guy or a 13-year-old girl, it’s still the scariest thing in the world to have to tell your parents, and I don’t want to undermine that struggle.”
“But I think that representing the light at the end of the tunnel is what YA is doing really well at the moment. “

^{YALC Video round-up (in collaboration with BookTube channel The Book Life)}
YALC is presented by Book Trust in partnership with Showmasters, with the support of headline sponsor Prudential plc. All of the Above, by James Dawson, is published on September 3 2015 by Hot Key Books.
In a long blonde wig and nude-coloured body suit, complete with toy dragons – including the strategically placed “Drogon the modesty dragon” – he cut a flamboyant figure on stage, discussing everything from asexuality to “the hottest characters in YA literature”, during Sunday’s Bringing Sexy Back panel, alongside authors Non Pratt, Louise O’Neill, Tom Ellen & Lucy Ivison.

How many UK doctors still think gays can be ‘cured’?

22/08/2015 By ACOMSDave Leave a Comment

Joseph Patrick McCormick
23^rd July 2015, 9:41 AM

A large proportion of health workers in the UK still believe being LGBT can be ‘cured’.
According to new research from LGBT charity Stonewall, 10 percent of NHS and private sector health workers have been in a situation where a colleague has expressed the belief that being LGBT is curable.
Shockingly, the percentage jumps to 22 in London.
Polling conducted by YouGov for PinkNews earlier this year revealed that Londoners are the least likely in Great Britain to support a gay or transgender child.
3,001 health and social care professionals were surveyed in the Unhealthy Attitudes study, which was released today.
Overall it found that LGBT people still face discrimination from healthcare professionals.
A quarter of staff working with patients had heard their colleagues make negative comments about lesbian, gay or bisexual people such as “poof” or “dyke”, in the past five years.
Words like “tranny” and “she-male” were also often heard by respondents with one in five saying they had heard such negative language.
Sixty percent of staff who have direct contact with patients said they had heard discriminatory remarks about lesbian, gay and bisexual people and had not reported it.
Bullying in the workplace was also still found to be a common occurrence, with over a quarter of lesbian, gay or bisexual staff saying they had experienced homophobic or biphobic bullying in the past five years.
Worryingly, training on how to deal with LGBT issues appeared to be missing for a lot of staff.
Many said they had little to no diversity training, and some questioned whether or not it was necessary.
Nearly three-quarters of staff with patient access said they had received specific training on the health needs of LGB patients.
Even those who had diversity training still lacked knowledge, with a quarter of those who had received it saying they were told about the legal rights of transgender patients.
Over a quarter, 28 percent, of doctors said they did not feel equipped to respond to the specific healthcare needs of trans patients, and 15 percent said the same for LGB people.
More than half said they did not think sexual orientation was relevant to healthcare needs.
Ruth Hunt, Stonewall chief executive, said: “Health and social care services have a duty to treat people fairly and equally. Yet, as this report shows, there are worrying gaps in knowledge and training relating to LGBT people.
“This is creating a healthcare system that treats both its LGBT patients and colleagues unfairly leading to inevitable on-going health inequalities.
“Unhealthy Attitudes also contains some truly shocking revelations, such as evidence that high numbers of patient-facing staff witness colleagues stating their belief in a gay ‘cure’. This is incredibly harmful and dangerous and should be publicly denounced immediately.”
Stonewall now calls on the Government to publicly condemn the controversial practice of gay ‘cure’ therapy, and for a visible anti-bullying campaign across the NHS