Category
COMMUNITY
“…you can catch a shrimp in a certain finely laced fishing net; try to catch a whale in this same net, and one of two things happens: the net breaks, or the whale is shredded into small bits that lose its whole configuration. … If we insist everything must be like a shrimp to fit our net, then the bigger and deeper realities elude us.” (Swanson, 2008: 91)
This programme offers non-academic activists working around issues of gender and/or sexuality and disability a funded residency (1-2 months with flexibility) at the University of Brighton. The aim is to foster connections and intellectual and political exchange between academics and non-academic activists. Applicants don’t need any academic background or training, just a desire to develop and share activist knowledges around gender, sexuality and disability.
Brighton has a long history of association with sex and sexualities, and from the mid 20th century it became known as ‘gay and lesbian’ (and now LGBTQ) hotspot. As more LGBTQ people came to the city they made use of existing spaces for socialising, sex, activism, and community-building – and started to create their own spaces too.
This 90 minute guided walk around central Brighton will introduce you to the oldest and the newest LGBTQ spaces in the city. You’ll visit sites of
early discreet gay bars,
‘cottages’ used for public sex,
women’s and lesbian activism,
clubbing and partying,
and remembering those lost to HIV/AIDS.
Along the way you’ll learn about the differences in Brighton’s LGBTQ spaces over the past century, recent changes in their use, and the real concerns over their future.
As CTSG Visiting Professor, Prof Katherine Johnson (RMIT) has in collaboration with King’s College London, and community partners LGBT HERO, Consortium, and LGBT Foundation, produced a new LGBT+ Inclusive Communication Guide for health and social care professionals. This ABC guide, centring the voices of LGBT+ service users, aims to support the delivery of inclusive care by offering practical guidance for professionals to enable them to communicate in a way that is inclusive of LGBT+ people.
The final report ‘Pathways between LGBTQ migration, social isolation and distress: Liberation, care and loneliness’ was published on 28th September 2022. THis can be accessed via this post along with a summary.
This research entitled ‘Pathways between LGBTQ migration, social isolation & distress: liberation, care and loneliness’ was a collaboration between academics at the University of Brighton’s Centre for Transforming Gender and Sexuality, and MindOut LGBTQ mental health charity. It involved in-depth interviews with MindOut service-users who had relocated to Brighton internationally and from within the UK.
The project aimed to understand how LGBTQ people’s migratory journeys and experiences of loneliness and isolation, as well as belonging, contributed to their mental health in Brighton. We used creative methods, like map-making and drawing, to help people capture their journeys and experiences.
The COVID-19 pandemic put many LGBTQ+ young people at risk in the UK, with many living in hostile or unsafe environments, experiencing isolation, mental health pressures and homelessness. In the UK young LGBTQ+ people’s experience was compounded by an increasingly hostile public climate around trans and gender-diverse young people’s rights. The demand on organisations providing support increased significantly, with the LGBTQ+ helpline Switchboard reporting 20% more calls and LGBTQ+ homelessness charities saw a substantial rise in referrals. Community organisations supporting LGBTQ+ young people took a lead by rapidly developing digitally delivered services to continue supporting young people.
Working together with community partners Allsorts Youth Project, AKT, Comics Youth and Mosaic, a University of Brighton research team, investigated the transformations in digital youth work that organisations embarked on, centring both young people’s experience and the youth workers’ perspectives.
We are pleased to invite you to the Men’s Unwanted Sexual Experiences (MUSE) project event with the research team Dr Carl-Bonner Thompson, Dr Kirsty McGregor and Dr Jason Preston, and the project partners 1in6.uk, ManKindUK and Jon Ralphs. Events in Newcastle and Brighton.
Switchboard, in partnership with University of Brighton Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender (CTSG), Clarion Futures, are hosting a solution focused, community led conference to provide a springboard for provision of safe LGBTQ+ affirmative housing.
Throughout Queer History Month, the Queer Lit Podcast and the CTSG will be releasing a special collaboration: Through these podcast episodes you will get to meet some of the remarkable members of the CTSG and learn about their research and reading interests.
