Events tagged with "Birmingham City Council"
Birmingham City Council
Over the years Birmingham City Council has impacted on the lives of lesbians and gay men in Birmingham in a variety of ways, ranging from decisions about funding, through to support for various initiatives and most recently, aiming to ensure that les...
Birmingham City Council Women's Unit
Around 1981 Birmingham City Council set up a Women's Unit. This organised and funded various initiatives and women only events over the next decade.They organised a number of Women's Festivals and other events around International Women's Day.The Bir...
Birmingham LGBT Community Trust
Birmingham LGBT Community Trust was founded in 2002 to continue the work of the dormant Birmingham Pride Forum. Initial funding was a legacy from the Birmingham Pride festival. The trust consists of twelve trustees who have worked voluntarily to...
Birmingham localities and the gay population
Gays are everywhere. There is no doubt that, representing 6% of the population, at 2008 levels, some 60,000 gay people live within the Birmingham City Council boundaries alone. But there is evidence that, once lesbians and gay men can exert some elem...
Civil Partnerships introduced
The Civil Partnership Act 2004 came into force on 5 December 2005 in the UK, the first day couples could give notice of their intention to form a civil partnership. The Civil Partnership Act enables same-sex couples aged 16 and over to obtain legal r...
Lesbian and Gay Community Centre, Aston
The Lesbian and Gay Community Centre Aston opened in September 1984 at 291 Corporation St , opposite Aston University. The centre was 'a voluntary, non-profit making organisation run by homosexual women and men, whose aim it is to promote the welf...
Women's Centre, Balsall Heath, 1970s
A group of women established a Women's Centre at 76 Brighton Road, Balsall Heath Birmingham 12 in the mid 1970s. The House became a meeting place for a range of lesbian, feminist, and women's groups or meetings.It was eventually closed down by Birmin...
Memories tagged with "Birmingham City Council"
Being the out gay Councillor
“I am the Labour Party Councillor for Longbridge Ward, there are precious few lesbians and gay men in Longbridge, and my activity with the lesbian and gay community doesn’t win votes for me; I guess there’s an argument that it might lose votes, I’m n...
Birmingham Pride Community Trust’s origins
“Birmingham Pride Community Trust grew out of the Birmingham Pride festival as a number of us were frustrated that the festival was somewhat losing its political edge and becoming something of a three day beer festival. What we wanted to do was recog...
Council staff group met in the basement 1990
“I recall going to a couple of meetings of Birmingham City Council Lesbian and Gay Staff Support Group in the 80s or early 90s (pre 1995), in the basement of Louisa Ryland House. It felt a bit marginalised because it met after work and people were qu...
Council told us not to say the 'L' word!
Between 1988 and 1992 there was an annual Women's Festival in Birmingham, co-ordinated by Birmingham City Council, during which various events were held.Inge recalls: “They had groups for younger women, older women, black women, mothers etc. and a gr...
First out gay Councillor elected in Birmingham
Steve Bedser says “I was the only out gay councillor when elected (in 1997), I know there are other gay men, and always have been in Birmingham City Council, but only in the last two or three years are there ‘out’ gay men, and I am unaware of any les...
Gay Centre too noisy for the neighbours
G: “The neighbours complained that there was too much noise (at the Gay Community Centre), and I think Birmingham City Council eventually decided it could no longer be run in the way that it had been run in those premises. (I don’t even know if we h...
Homophobic response to County Council grant
“However there was again absolute outrage, this was depriving other worthy organisations such as the Boy Scouts, of funds. At that time we were just starting to get the hysteria about AIDS and it fed on the prejudices of people, so again the letters ...
Lack of disabled access c2007
Trevor, who is disabled and uses a wheelchair, talks about the lack of disabled access c.2007Trevor states, “Even now there are only three or four venues that are accessible to me. I can’t get into Angels, The Village or Partners. I can get into The ...
Lots happening for lesbians in the 1980s
Betty ‘Henrietta's Out’ (after Henrietta the Engine in Thomas the Tank Engine) had a logo with this train on it that somebody created. Catherine M was involved, the moving light in that was Liz Davidge.” Gill: “This was back around the same time as w...
Meetings at the Women's Centre, mid-70s
Gill: “We were also marginally involved in the Women’s Liberation Movement, who had rented a house on Brighton Road and it was used as a Women's Centre until Birmingham City Council got wind that this house was being used as something that it shouldn...
Misleading AIDS leaflets
The following article from 'In The Pink', April 1989 highlights the anti-gay prejudice and misinformation around HIV/AIDS in the late 1980s, even from statutory bodies such as Birmingham City Council.WARNING : These leaflets may damage your healthTwo...
Over my dead body
Bill Gavan discusses Digbeth Police Station's attitude to the first Birmingham Pride event, “So I was elected to approach Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Police, and went to the Chief Constable at the time and he said ‘There’s no problem wi...
Protest against abolishing the Women’s Committee
Steve recalls during the late 1980s, “There was an incredibly contentious decision, as a result of protest and picket of Birmingham City Council, where it was decided to abolish the Women's Committee of the Council and merge it into the Equalities Co...
The County Council grant was never paid 87/88
Following the media hysteria, there was a legal challenge to the West Midlands Residuary Body, the legal body charged with winding up the affairs of the County Council, and we got into the position where we were paying for the other running costs, we...
The Police Forum
"I then got very interested in the Police Liaison Group, depending on what shift was operating the level of support, or level of contempt we would have. The whole idea was to try to get rid of street crime, get us some street cred. A particular polic...