GM LGBTQ+ Community Network Newsletter Copy
Friday, 3rd March 2023Morning All:
Read the weekly newsletter from Canal St Manchester:
https://www.canal-st.co.uk/canal-st-online-newsletter
LGBTQ+ Weekly Bulletin from Reach (Manchester Evening News)
Consortium LGBT+ Funding News
https://mailchi.mp/59ee761b4f83/funding-news-may21-8051229?e=4ef77ba796
Proud 2B Parents: Monthly Newsletter
https://mailchi.mp/0bfcaf7a96ac/march-2023-monthly-email-15342409?e=c3332628fc
GM Equality Alliance Bulletin, Issue 60, March 2023
https://www.gmcvo.org.uk/civicrm/mailing/view?reset=1&id=9444
I Love Manchester – Events Not to Miss.
https://ilovemanchester.com/
The National LGB&T Partnership Newsletter:
LBT+ Women’s Health Week 2023 is coming!
Welcome to this special edition of our newsletter where they will be sharing all the exciting events that they have coming up as part of #LBTWomensHealthWeek2023!
This year, LBT+ Women’s Week is the 6th-10th March and is open to all women and femmes, and the healthcare professionals who work with them. All of their events are FREE and they have a great variety for you this year.
To read all about the amazing events they have coming up this year, read on!
https://mailchi.mp/e12686643ec5/the-national-lgbt-partnership-monthly-newsletter-15349348?e=05c29791c8
International Women’s Day Panel Event + resource launch
Online & LGBT Foundation, 72 Sackville St, Manchester
Wednesday 8th March, 5.30pm – 7pm
I want to draw your attention to one of Sugar & Spice’s events that is open to ALL. Please feel free to invite anyone and share with any networks that may be interested.
Celebrate International Women’s Day with them at this free panel event! They want to spotlight some of the incredible work done by LGBTQ+ women in Greater Manchester, as well as sharing some fantastic resources around including all women.
They’re also excited to be able show a trailer for their upcoming video ‘What Is A Woman?’ and to have copies of their newly revised popular resource ‘Including All Women’, as well as a brand new inclusion resource!
Hosted by Jax Effiong, Deputy Chair of LGBT Foundation’s board of Trustees and Diversity & Inclusion Manager at GMCA & GM Fire and Rescue Service. Panellists include: Meg Lightheart, senior Business Manager for Indigo Gender Service, leadership coach and author, and Freda Wallace, artist and writer who works for Northwest Ambulance Service and an LGBT Foundation volunteer, with more to be announced.
Free food and soft drinks available. Doors open at 5.30pm. Panel starts at 6pm.
Online streaming option available – please select ‘ONLINE’ ticket when signing up.
FIND OUT MORE DETAILS AND SIGN UP ON EVENTBRITE
Sugar & Spice – a free festival for LGBTQ+ women Monday 6th March – Sunday 12th March
Online & LGBT Foundation, 72 Sackville St, Manchester
Calling all LGBTQ+ women! Come join Sugar & Spice for its seventeenth year and a week of celebration, learning, and connection! This year, we’re bringing you a host of online events, and a whole weekend of in-person activities. We’re giving you a chance to learn something new, try something different, meet new people, and make new connections. All our workshops are FREE and centred around LGBTQ+ women.
Monday 6th March: Quiz Club ONLINE
A chance to get together with LGBTQ+ women to quiz and learn!
SIGN UP ON EVENTBRITE
Tuesday 7th March: Queer Life Drawing ONLINE
Special edition of Queer Life Drawing – get your pencils out and sketch, or contribute to the conversation around women’s sexual wellbeing. Open to all
SIGN UP HERE
Wednesday 8th March: IWD Panel ONLINE + IN-PERSON
Join us for a FREE panel event on International Women’s Day. We’ll be joined by some incredible influential LGBTQ+ women of Greater Manchester!
Thursday 9th March: In The Name of Radical Self Love ONLINE
A workshop that helps you reorient your life, get you comfortable in your own skin and dismantle the lies you’ve learned about who you are
Friday 10th March: Sapphic Showcase
A FREE night of talent from amazing LGBTQ+ women – including you! – and a great opportunity to socialise as part of Sugar & Spice!
We’re bringing together some fantastic headliners to entertain you and are inviting YOU to perform in one our open mic night slots. We’re so excited to see all the amazing Sapphic talent Greater Manchester has to offer from poetry, to comedy, and magic! After these amazing performances, stick around for some opportunities to socialise and meet some people.
Their last Sapphic Showcase SOLD OUT so SIGN UP HERE NOW!
Saturday 11th March:
Their workshops on Saturday are all taking place at LGBT Foundation in Manchester.
Alongside their sessions, they will also have a community café space running from 11-4, where you can grab a brew and a biscuit, and have a chat with people. You can go along to the café without signing up to an activity or hang out in between workshops!
11am: Laughter Yoga
Step outside your comfort zone and join us for this session in a supportive environment for LGBTQ+ women! With a focus on joy and playfulness, this session is a great start to your day at Sugar & Spice!
SIGN UP HERE
12pm: Planning a Confident Presentation
Learn how to prepare and deliver a presentation with confidence with Meg.
More details to come…
12:30pm: Zines As A Tool For Activism
Learn to make a one page zine and learn the history of zines and how they can help raise the voice of marginalised communities
SIGN UP HERE
1:30pm: Intro to BSL – Fingerspelling & Greetings
Learn some basic greetings and fingerspelling in British Sign Language in a relaxed, informal workshop
SIGN UP HERE
2.45pm: Cervical Screenings: Beyond the Barriers!
An exploration into what a cervical screening is, and what it isn’t. With practical tips for overcoming barriers to screening, we’ll also provide some myth-busting info and a sneak-peak at what alternative options to the smear test researchers hope will be available in the near future!
SIGN UP HERE
4pm: You’re F***in’ Amazing!
You are f***in’ amazing! A workshop all about celebrating YOU!
SIGN UP HERE
Sunday 12th March:
Their workshops on Sunday are all taking place at LGBT Foundation in Manchester.
11am: Joyful Yoga Flow
Start your Sunday with some joyful yoga from Tamsin – open to all abilities!
SIGN UP HERE
12:15pm: Acupressure Taster
Connect with your pressure points to unlock some amazing stress relieving benefits!
SIGN UP HERE
1:30pm: How To Get On Top of Things
An exploration into managing your time and priorities, and how to find what works best for you and how you work!
More details to come…
2.45pm: Box of Me
This workshop invites you to think more about the plans you could put in place for your future and beyond.
SIGN UP HERE
4.30pm: Rebel Dykes Screening
Our closing event for Sugar & Spice: a FREE screening of Rebel Dykes, the unheard story of a community of dykes in 1980s post-punk London
SIGN UP HERE
Any questions or access requirements, email: [email protected]
LGBT Foundation – The Community Café
Every Saturday in March, 10am – 2pm
Have a brew and a chat with other LGBTQ+ people at their sober space, located in the heart of Manchester’s Gay Village
Fairbairn House, 2nd Floor, 72 Sackville Street, Manchester M1 3NJ
www.lgbt.foundation
The Lowry Salford marks LGBTQ+ History Month with special installation in its Galleries. Run EXTENDED until Saturday 12th March due to popular demand.
A new installation in the Lowry’s Galleries created to mark LGBTQ+ History Month will help celebrate the contribution to Salford life by members of the LGBTQ+ community.
LGBTQ+ History Month celebrates and remembers the history of LGBTQ+ communities and individuals across the world, paying tribute to the achievements of those who have paved the way for LGBTQ+ rights today.
A large illustrated map has been installed in the Galleries, where people can submit their memories or stories of LGBTQ+ experiences or allyship, which can be placed on the map. People can also submit contributions online.
The area also features an illustrated timeline of Salford LGBTQ+ history – from the surprising tale of a 19th Century bricklayer to the birth of Salford PrideIt is hoped the installation will help bring the real lives of LGBTQ+ people and their allies, and their lived experiences, to the forefront. The installation visuals have been created by Salford based Illustrator and Graphic Designer Hannah McLennan-Jones. Using her signature pink colour palette, Hannah’s work draws on punk aesthetics, popular culture, and LGBTQ+ history to create vibrant art, often seen in queer spaces across the city. She draws on her own experience as a queer woman in order to create authentic visuals of modern and historic queer culture.
Members of the public, community groups, Lowry staff and volunteers and more are invited to visit, view and contribute to the map for the duration of the project, which runs until Friday 5th March. Emma Underwood, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Manager at The Lowry, said: “This event will truly showcase the vast range of experiences from Salford’s thriving LGBTQ+ communities, and its allies. History isn’t just dates – it’s the real life stories, memories, and experiences of those who live it.
“By the end of the display, we will have a tapestry of memories from those who call Salford their home (or those who just like to visit) demonstrating the depth and diversity of the lives lived here.” For more information, or to submit a contribution to the map, please visit: https://thelowry.com/whats-on/lgbtq-salford/
Hope Mill: Animal
They have £15 tickets available for their upcoming production of Animal for performances 9th – 12th March.
Hope Mill Theatre’s newest production Animal, centres around David: gay, disabled and profoundly horny. Written by Jon Bradfield and developed by disability activist and equality trainer Josh Hepple, Animal is an authentic, hilarious, and heart-breaking look at hook-up culture, navigating relationships and how they intersect with practical needs and social barriers for disabled people
Discount code ANIMAL15 for £15 tickets performances 9th-12th March.
www.hopemilltheatre.co.uk/event/animal
Deaf Awareness Training delivered by Manchester Deaf Centre
Tuesday 7th March, 1pm-4pm
This free 3 hr session will be delivered by the Manchester Deaf Centre at The Proud Place on Sidney Street. The session will explore BSL as well as ways to make your events, workplaces and spaces accessible for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
The afternoon will also explore common words and phrases that are used within and about the LGBT+ community, and the intersection of both the Deaf and LGBT+ communities.
For more information, and to book onto the course please register on Eventbrite here: Deaf Awareness Workshop
BSL Course (5 week introduction to BSL)
5 weeks, course starts Tuesday 14th March 4pm-5pm
Our free Introduction to British Sign Language will offer you a basic insight and understanding of this beautiful language. You will cover the following topics:
Introductions Names and Fingerspelling, Introduction to Numbers and Time, Introduction to Family, Introduction to Work, Introduction to LGBT+ terms and phrases.
For more information, and to book onto the course please register on the Eventbrite here.
Email [email protected] for further info.
THE LARAMIE PROJECT part of their LGBTQ+ Season.
By Moisés Kaufman and the members of the Tectonic Theater Project
Directed by Joseph Meighan
Tuesday 21st – Sunday 26th March
The Lauriston Studio – Altrincham Garrick Playhouse
“Laramie is a town defined by an accident, a crime. We’ve become Waco, we’ve become Jasper. We’re a noun, a definition, a sign.”
In October 1998 a twenty-one-year-old student at the University of Wyoming was kidnapped, severely beaten and left to die, tied to a fence in the middle of the prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming. His bloody, bruised and battered body was not discovered until the next day, and he died several days later in an area hospital. His name was Matthew Shepard, and he was the victim of this assault because he was gay.
The hate crime attracted vast attention worldwide, bringing sexual discrimination and violence to the forefront of public discourse. The Tectonic Theater Project, led by their founder Moisés Kaufman, traveled to Laramie in the aftermath of the murder with the intent of creating a theatrical portrait of a town coming to grips with horrible, hate-fuelled violence. Over the course of a year and a half, the group interviewed over 200 subjects, some directly related to the case and some regular citizens of Laramie. Out of these interviews, journal entries, and found texts, The Laramie Project was born. Hailed as one of the most captivating and encompassing pieces of contemporary theatre, the play shocks, challenges, and moves all who watch it as it reveals the lowest depths of hatred and greatest heights of compassion that lies within all human beings in any seemingly average community.
Tickets – https://www.altrinchamgarrick.co.uk/shows/the-laramie-project/
Warning: Contains strong language, homophobic language and graphic discussions of violence and hate crime and scenes which some may find upsetting. Age Guidance: 16+
Volunteering Opportunities:
LGBT Foundation are organising a community photoshoot next month on Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th March, 10am-5pm on both days. The purpose is to get a range of scenarios, emotions and to capture a good diverse range of humans for their photo bank, to be used on promoting our services, events and community spaces.
In order to get a broad representation of our community they are reaching out and are looking for people who are Greater Manchester based and are willing to volunteer their time to be in the photoshoot for one of the days. They will provide food on the day, but unfortunately they are not able to pay for your time or transport as they are a charity.
If you are Greater Manchester based and may be interested in modelling for them, No modelling experience is required, just positive energy and stunning vibes: https://forms.office.com/e/qNpfpQ5E2J
If you have any questions, please contact [email protected]
LGBT Foundation are looking for more people to support with the Village Angels Programme, the team are out around the Village every weekend from 9pm – 3am making sure that everyone in our community stays safe; providing everything from First Aid, to Mental Health support, or just a little bit of help getting home. If you’re passionate about helping people, and think you can be a friendly face on a night, then sign up here
Are YOU City of Trees next Trustee?
City of Trees, the Community Forest organisation for Greater Manchester, is growing and they’re on the look-out for passionate and committed trustees to join them on their journey. They’re seeking trustees across all areas but especially individuals within the legal and finance sector as well as those that bring something from Manchester’s diverse and rich cultural scene. What matters most at City of Trees is Greater Manchester. They’re here for a greener city region, planting more trees for a happier and healthier GM, so if you’re passionate about all
things Manchester, they would love to hear from you. For them, City of Trees is about the people who make up our movement. Trees are everything to them but as an urban Community Forest what’s so important to them is improving the quality of life for people through trees and woods, all in the face of the climate emergency. See attached for more details:
Canal St VIP Card:
Recently, several of their card holders expressed surprise about the savings available at their growing list of non-hospitality businesses and so they are kicking off 2023 with a reminder about the savings at retailers for Art, furniture, footwear, literature, specialist online services, photography, doggie goodies and so many more.
They also offer a number of more specialised services in their professional listing.
Take a moment to remind yourself of what/where you will benefit. CLICK HERE
* They are delighted to confirm that they have made their third donation to George House Trust in 2022, directly from increased sales of the card and phone covers. Need to buy or renew your card? To buy card and phone together
Gay Pride Shop & The LGBTQ+ Book Shop
The UK’s largest LGBTQ+ store in located in Afflecks in Manchester city centre and online at www.gayprideshop.co.uk. Over 7000 items in stock, with their profits shared with Manchester charities. They also cater for large corporate orders, for items such as lanyards, flags and badges, with corporate discounts available. For corporate/business orders, please contact [email protected]
If you feel that you no longer wish to receive these emails, PLEASE let me know, I would hate to think I am bombarding you with information that you don’t require and it is just blocking up your inbox. (I won’t be offended).
Remember, if you have events or information you wish to share across Greater Manchester then feel free to send that over to me to be included, I send this email out to over 2000 contacts which in turn gets sent out through their networks: [email protected]
Kind Regards
Carl Austin-Behan OBE DL
Pronouns: He / Him / His