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LGBTQ people against the cuts

This Saturday lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer activists come together for a day of free thinking and self-expression through discussion and performance.

This Saturday lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer activists come together for a day of free thinking and self-expression through discussion and performance.

The day will be full of debate, arts and film, with opportunities for people to express their views about austerity and explore alternatives through the LGBTQ People's Assembly.

The event, which is supported by the TUC LGBT Committee, Sertuc LGBT Network and Queers Against the Cuts, will not follow the orthodox conference format but one which uses ingredients of free-flowing discussion coupled with performance that we hope will make the day exciting and facilitate ways to start looking at alternatives among grass-roots LGBTQ people.

A great deal is being done in the LGBTQ communities in response to the situation they find themselves in but many of us do not connect with the standard format of these kind of events.

The day will therefore allow for free interactions to hopefully generate suggestions and ideas about alternatives for LGBTQ people - however they live their lives and express their sexuality.

The event will showcase an exhibition of new work by the London LGBT photographer Manu Valcarce, sponsored by Unite LE/1148 branch.

This is a record of the daily life of a group of LGBTQ people living in an austerity-hit seaside town in the south-east.

Among a diverse range of discussion leaders is Jacob V Joyce, who is currently working on a community project called Survival Guides, which looks at alternatives to the way we are expected to live and engage in a commercial scene at a time of struggling to make ends meet.

Also leading discussions will be the assistant editor of the LGBTQ magazine QX, Patrick Cash, who runs the Spoken Word and Dark Fabrics cabaret at a venue in East London, LGBT committee chair Maria Exall, Sertuc LGBT network secretary David Sharkey, and Phyllis Opoku-Gyimah of UK Black Pride.

Other discussions will be led by groups including Queers Against the Cuts, Albion Fairies and Greece Solidarity Campaign, along with LGBTQ activists from around the country.

London Pride, still an important event for LGBTQ communities, has become a focus of concern that it is driven by the London commercial scene and does not reflect the diversity of people identifying as LGBTQ. On that topic, Zachariah Pankhurst from the London Queer Social Centre will be initiating a debate on London Pride and alternative expressions.

At the end of last year, individuals, unions and community activists produced a LGBTQ People's Assembly statement, and this event is a big step toward enabling LGBTQ people's voices to be heard speaking out against austerity.

The Con-Dem policies are impacting on LGBTQ communities in many ways. Valcarce's images capture this in photographic form. Meanwhile those involved in the London Queer Social Centre can articulate the poor housing options for LGBTQ people.

LGBTQ voices need to be heard and complement the efforts already ongoing in fighting austerity.

Trade unions are the self-organised bodies of the working class and it's so important that the LGBTQ community links up with them in working for an alternative. I encourage LGBTQ trade union activists to attend and engage.

 

n Anton Johnson is the chair of Unite London & Eastern Region LGBT committee and is involved in Left Front Art.

 

8 LGBTQ People's Assembly - Queer Free Thinking and Self-Expression is on Saturday 12 April at noon at Ron Todd House, 33-37 Moreland St, London EC1V 8BB. Nearest Tube: Angel.

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