Category Archives: LGBT

Gender, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month, LGBT

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – February 2019

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February is LGBT History Month and with that in mind we have chosen Nicola Adams as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

 Nicola is a British professional boxer. She fought (and won) her first bout at the age of 13, but it was four years before she found a second opponent.  In 2001, she became the first woman boxer ever to represent England, in 2003, she became English amateur champion for the first time, and she retained the title at the next 3 championships.

She was the first English female to win a medal in a major tournament taking silver in the bantamweight division at the European Championships, she also won silver at the World Championships in 2008 and in 2010 this time at flyweight.

However Nicola struggled to continue her boxing career due to lack of funds. She worked as an acting extra on soap operas such as Coronation Street, Emmerdale, and EastEnders, and worked as a builder before the International Olympic Committee backed funding for women’s boxing in 2009.

In November 2010, she was victorious in the first ever GB Amateur Boxing Championship and in 2011, she won Gold at the European Union Amateur Boxing Championships. In July 2011, the BBC included her in a feature on “6 Promising Britons to watch in the Olympics”.

At the 2012 Olympics Nicola claimed the first Olympic women’s boxing gold medal, she defended her title at Rio 2016 and became the first British boxer to defend an Olympic title in 92 years.

In 2017 she turned professional, having signed with promoter Frank Warren, winning her first professional fight.

In 2012, she became the first female boxer to receive an award from the Boxing Writers’ Club of Great Britain when she was awarded the Joe Bromley Award for outstanding services to boxing. She was also the first woman ever to be invited to the club’s awards ceremony.

In 2013 she was awarded an MBE and in 2017 an OBE 2017 for services to boxing.

In 2016 Nicola was named Number One in the DIVA Power List of the UK’s most eminent lesbian and bisexual women.  She is openly bisexual, and was named the most influential LGBT person in Britain by The Independent in 2012.

She also became the first openly LGBT person to win an Olympic boxing Gold medal, after her win at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

To find out more about LGBT History Month see here https://lgbthistorymonth.org.uk/

To find out more about Nicola see here https://nicola-adams.com/

Diversity, Equality, Inclusion, LGBT

Charlton v Homophobia Football Tournament

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Greenwich claimed a hat-trick of wins last night at the Charlton v Homophobia football tournament.

Finishing top of their pool put them in the final against the team from Fans for Diversity. The match finished in a draw so it was all to play for in the penalty shoot out. A heroic performance by the Greenwich goalkeeper meant that a successful penalty by Greenwich would win the tournament and the next taker duly obliged tucking the shot away very nicely.

Well done to all involved a very successful event yet again.

 

Diversity, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month, LGBT

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – February 2018

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February is LGBT History Month and with that in mind we have chosen Heather Peace as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

Heather is an actor and musician studying at Manchester Met University.  She has appeared in a number of well-known TV series including Emmerdale, London’s Burning, Ultimate Force, Waterloo Road and Prey.  She has been a classically trained pianist since the age of six and held a jazz residency at a club whilst at university.

Heather divides her time between acting and her music.  She has released numerous albums and tours regularly in the UK, Europe and currently in Australia.

Heather and her longtime partner Ellie Dickinson entered into a civil partnership in 2013, and subsequently converted it to marriage in 2014 and they have three daughters together.

Heather is a prominent supporter of LGBT equality causes. She is a patron of Manchester Pride and has recorded a video for Stonewall‘s “It Gets Better” campaign. She is involved in a number of related charities, including Diversity Role Models and The Albert Kennedy Trust.

She has hosted and curated her own “Heather Peace Presents” stage in several editions of Manchester Pride and in July 2016 Diva announced that Heather was its new columnist.

In 2010 she was number 40 on the Independent on Sunday‘s Pink List, and number 10 in 2011. She was also voted number 18 on US website afterellen.com’s 2011 Hot 100 list. She is also the only woman to have appeared twice on the cover of Diva Magazine in the space of six months.

To find out more about Heather’s music see here http://www.heatherpeace.com/ and for her acting see here http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0668698/

To find out more about Diversity Role Models see their website at https://www.diversityrolemodels.org/ and the Albert Kennedy Trust at https://www.akt.org.uk/

 

Diversity, Equality, LGBT

Glasgow Alphas: Why coach Adam ‘owes life’ to inclusive rugby

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Bullied for his weight and sexuality, Adam Harrison was spiralling into despair.

As a teenager, Adam loved rugby, but was unable to find a place within it. He didn’t think he’d ever fulfil his dream of playing in a team. Now he blazes a trail as a coach, player, inspiring a new generation of LGBTQ players.

He explains how rugby rescued him…

Rugby became the most important thing when it saved my life.

My depression had led me to have vivid images of self-harm. I began spiralling and flying through several dark emotions in spells that lasted minutes. More

Age, Disability, Diversity, Equality, Ethnicity, Gender, Inclusion, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month, LGBT, Mental Health, Race, Religion, Transgender

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – August 2017

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International Youth Day is on 12 August and as 2017 marks the 25th anniversary of the Charlton Athletic Community Trust (CACT) we have chosen them as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the month for their with the local community and programmes for young people.

The community programme was established in 1992 and became Charlton Athletic Community Trust in 2003. Known as CACT, it is famed for its work in its local communities and has scooped numerous prestigious industry awards over recent years.

The community initiative began when the football club returned to The Valley in 1992. It started with just one member of staff, a bag of footballs and a telephone and has now grown into an organisation that employs 100 permanent staff, has a pool of over 100 casual coaches and engages with thousands of people on a weekly basis.

CACT uses the power of football and sport to engage, empower and provide positive opportunities and activities for young people.

The trust delivers successful community programmes is the following areas:

  • Education
  • Social Action and Enterprise
  • Early Help And Prevention
  • Equality, Diversity And Inclusion
  • Football And Sports Development
  • Youth Services
  • Health Improvement

 As well as young people the trust has many other initiatives in the community, with their work on mental health in the over 65 age group, recently being nominated for a national award.

The university has strong connections with the football club and continue to be a patron following a three year period as the shirt sponsor.  Our LGBT+ staff network have continued links with Proud Valiants, Charlton’s LGBT+ fans’ group and the trust have often attended university events, particularly in relation to their stop smoking campaign.

To find out more about CACT and the excellent work that they do go to their website at http://www.cact.org.uk/

Follow them on twitter at https://twitter.com/CAFCTrust

Equality, Gender, Inclusion, LGBT, Transgender

Tube to change ‘ladies and gentlemen’ announcements

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The “ladies and gentlemen” greeting on Tube announcements is to be scrapped, Transport for London (TfL) has announced.

London Underground staff have been told to say “hello everyone” in an effort to become more gender-neutral.

TfL said the move was to ensure all passengers felt “welcome”.

LGBT campaign group Stonewall welcomed the decision, which was supported by London mayor Sadiq Khan at a session of Mayor’s Question Time last month.

The revised phrasing will be applied to all new pre-recorded announcements made across the capital’s transport network.  More

Disability, Diversity, Equality, Ethnicity, Gender, Inclusion, LGBT, Race, Religion, Transgender

Building Bridges – Chelsea FC

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Building Bridges is Chelsea FC’s campaign to promote equality, celebrate diversity and make everyone feel valued throughout our club, stadium and wider community.

Through Building Bridges, we work with everyone from children and young people in schools and grassroots football clubs through to community groups and our senior men’s and ladies’ teams, to create a club where everyone feels welcome, regardless of who they are and where they come from.

Since the campaign launched in 2010, Chelsea FC is proud to have been awarded the Advanced Level of the Premier League Equality Standard – one of only two professional clubs to do so – in recognition of our ongoing commitment to inclusion and to tackling all forms of prejudice and discrimination.  More

Equality, Inclusion, LGBT

United Partner with LGBT Inclusion Charity

Manchester United has become the UK’s first football club to partner with leading lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) charity, Stonewall.

The ground-breaking initiative will see the club work alongside Stonewall, helping to tackle LGBT issues in sport and society, while looking at best practice and ways in which inclusion and equality can be improved in football.

Through the partnership, United have become an official member of TeamPride, helping to form opinions, share best practice and influence behaviour by using the power of sport to harness the message of equality within the LGBT community and wider society.  More

Diversity, Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month, LGBT

Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month – March 2017

On 1 March it is World Book Day and on the 8 March it is International Women’s Day.  With this in mind we have chosen Jeanette Winterson as our inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.

Jeanette is an award-winning English writer, who became famous with her first book, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, a semi-autobiographical novel about a sensitive teenage girl rebelling against conventional values.  This book won the 1985 Whitbread Prize for a First Novel, and was adapted for television by Jeanette in 1990.  Some of her other novels have explored gender polarities and sexual identity.

Jeanette is a two-time winner of the Lambda Literary Award, which focuses on LGBT issues and she won the E. M. Forster Award in 1989.  In 2016, she was chosen as one of BBC’s 100 Women.

In 2012, she succeeded Colm Tóibín as professor of creative writing at the University of Manchester.

In 2006 Jeanette received and OBE for services to literature.

To find out more about Jeanette and her work please see her website

http://www.jeanettewinterson.com/