Paris: LGBT Newham Youth Crowdfunder

The Charity Aston-Mansfield is
seeking funding for its Newham LGBT Youth support group via a crowd funding campaign. They aim to raise £6,000 and have already donations from local football team Clapton Ultras after their Football vs Homophobia’ match. The crowd funding will last until the 11th April. See its press release.

"Paris: The only support for Newham’s LGBT young people. East London based charity Aston-Mansfield is launching a Crowdfunder campaign on 14th March to ensure the survival of ‘Paris’, its LGBTQ youth group which offers peer support and mentoring to vulnerable young people.

It is the only group of its kind in Newham. The campaign, which hopes to raise £6,000, will secure the future of this essential project helps young people as young as 13 to overcome harmful behaviour and make better decisions. Through our support, we equip them to be proud of who they are. Many have come from situations where they are isolated and confused, failing or not attending school, and engaging in a variety of damaging behaviours.

“Because it’s the only LGBT group in Newham, this really needs to survive. I know for a fact that if it weren’t for Paris, I’d be a bit lost, before I didn’t know anyone transgender, gay, lesbian at all…it was so isolating. Knowing that there are groups where people can be themselves, it’s amazing and it’s a privilege to be a part of “

Evidence from Stonewall suggests that 55% of LGBTQ young people experience homophobic bullying at school and 49% of gay pupils who do experience homophobic bullying have symptoms consistent with depression. There is a higher prevalence among LGBTQ young people of depression, damaging behaviours, and most worryingly of all of suicide, with NCSS estimating that 1 in 4 will attempt to take their own life. Over the last 2.5 years, ‘Paris’ (named by the attendees themselves) has worked with 35 LGBTQ young people, 14 of whom now attend our regular weekly session.

“Paris is important as it helps people accept themselves, and in times when they’re not necessarily at their best, like when I came I was in the mind-set that it’s so wrong to be gay but I just couldn’t change it. Two years on I’m now saying it’s okay to be gay, it’s great”

We have seen the project support these young people to grow in confidence, become more resilient to the world around them and learn to deal with conflict better. We have helped young people in crisis move away from harmful behaviours, to make better decisions and to equip themselves with knowledge and understanding both about their own sexuality and about safe sex and conduct. 4 of our young people have moved from being in damaging situations and struggling at school to being accepted to university where they will start the next stage of their journey later this year

“Currently Paris has very little funding and there is a real possibility that we will have to shut this service which provides vital support to extremely vulnerable young people. We don’t want this to happen, we know that Paris changes the lives of these LGBTQ young people, and we’re asking you to help us fight to protect this essential service.” – Claire Helman, Chief Executive – Aston-Mansfield

Please help us keep supporting Newham’s LGBT community and donate here: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/parisyouth"

"Equality" by Councillor Steve Brayshaw

Last Monday Evening at the Newham Full Council meeting, Councillor Steve Brayshaw made this powerful speech on "Equality".  As an out Gay man Steve paid homage to the murdered gay American civil rights activist Harvey Milk. He quoted Milk's famous speech called "Hope" and attacked bigotry, hatred and intolerance in all its forms. I think it is well worth listening. You can read the full speech here as well. 

The Newham homophobe and the real Gestapo

It seems that former Councillor and religious fundamentalist Alan Craig has got bored with stirring up religious hatred over so called “Megamosques” and has now started picking on Gays and Lesbians. In an article published on his blog (and to its shame The Church of England Newspaper) he has compared Gay and Lesbians activists to Nazi, storm-troopers and to the Gestapo (Hitler’s secret Police).  He even uses the term Gaystapo.

Now, it is a free country and he is perfectly entitled to hold such medieval views on homosexuality no matter how abhorrent all right minded people think of them. But to accuse them of being Nazi's and Gaystapo is not only an unforgivable insult to the memory of the tens of thousands of gays who were gassed and murdered in Concentration camps during World War 2 (see picture above) but in the lead up to Remembrance Sunday it is also in my view a slur on British war dead.

Such as Squadron Leader Roger Bushell (left) who was part of “The Great Escape” and one of the 50 unarmed allied airman shot in cold blood by the real Gestapo - or British Special Operation Executive heroine Violette Szabo (right) who was brutally tortured by the Gestapo and later murdered in a Nazi death camp.

Nazi's and the Gestapo in particular were quite simply utterly vile and utterly evil monsters. To compare Gay activists with such psychopaths in order to score cheap political points is just repugnant. To compare them with the animals who murdered war time British heroes and heroines is a disgrace to their memory.

Craig thinks that his sort of Christianity in this country has a hard time. I can agree that sometimes people of faith are seen as easy targets for unnecessary mockery and ridicule. But as pointed out in the comments on his blog, no-one in recent history has been kicked to death in Britain just for being a Christian. While time and time again we see that Gay people are targeted, beaten and murdered just because of their sexuality. Craig doesn’t appear to care that publically denigrating Gays in such a way may result in further bloodshed. Since he must know that expressing his views in such ways will be counterproductive to his "cause" I am forced to conclude that this is actually all about Craig. He is just a self seeking publicist who will do anything, no matter how revolting, just in order to draw attention to himself.

On lighter note here is a link to the video I took of Craig when he was soundly defeated as a Newham Councillor and Mayoral candidate last year. The ordinary people of Newham showed him what they thought of his extremism and bigotry.