A
Out & AboutFor Lesbians, Gay Men, Bisexuals and Transgender people.
For Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People
LGBT in the South West
•Hello to two new Co-convenersconvenors!
Welcome to Moira and Tom.
Moira Macdonald works for Devon County Council and has been in UNISON
since day one. She became active so as to fight against pensions discrimination
and feels a bit old to be dealing with coming out. Where will it take her?
Tom
Milburn
started working for Exeter City Council last summer, and joined UNISON straight
away. Within six months of joining the union, he is now a member of a national
committee, a regional council, a regional forum, a regional committee, and
holds two positions on his Branch Exec! He must be crazy…
•Big welcome to a new LGBT Group in Dorset
The
Dorset Area L&G Group met for the first time at the UNISON Resource Centre
in Wareham on 8th March. The Group agreed aims and objectives and are
writing a one-page news-sheet to go to all Dorset Branches publicising the
Group. Email our Regional Facilitator Jill if you want to join them: j.pearson@unison.co.uk
•National Conference…
Eight hours travel is a long time on an overcrowded
train. Maybe that’s why there were fewer SW Region people at Blackpool in 2003
compared with Plymouth in 2002.
BUT – next year it’s in Cardiff. That’s just next door for lots of us.
Moira, Tom and the band of SW Region activists will be there, ready to welcome
anyone new or who hasn’t been to Conference in a while. The Regional L&G
Group is thinking of some way that delegates from our Region can recognise each
other and get together. We’d love SW Region to make a big impact in Cardiff
(and we don’t just mean in the Conference Hallon Conference floor!)
•Adding
B&T – June 2004 a date with destiny
The biggest debate at Conference was
whether to extend UNISON’s Lesbian & Gay Self-Organised Group to include
representation of bisexual and transgendered members. Should we become LGBT? You may
remember that SW Region was one of the (almost all) Regions recommending that
we should.
At the November Conference Tom, Moira and a Devon County Branch LGBT SOG
activist composed a supporting statement, which Moira read out as the first of
many delegates speaking in support of the motion. We were thrilled when, after
much intense debate, the motion was carried.
UNISON’s National L&G Committee is
now working with the Regions to come up with an interim structure for representation.
Why have an interim structure?
Because bisexual and transgendered members need a
chance to say how they want to be represented, and currently there is no means
for them to do this.
But first a big hurdle has to be
cleared. That hurdle is the UNISON National Delegate Conference in June where a
two two-thirds majority is
required to ratify the National L&G Committee’s rule change proposal for us
to begin working towards being LGBT.
If
you’re going to the June Conference or know of anyone who is – please help by
lobbying them. We need to make sure that the delegates understand this issue
and vote in favour of it.
Moira and Tom are nominated as
delegates by their Branches. They’ll be working hard at the Conference to help
people see the importance of this issue.
•Employer wake-up – Part One
The start of our Regional Workplace Rights
campaign
Do all
employers know about our new workplace rights? No, most still don’t. For many
of them, unfortunately, 1st December 2003, was just like
any other day.
For us it marked the start of
workplace protections that begin to put us on a par with our heterosexual
colleagues – shockingly basic stuff, like: – at last it’s
against the law to fire us just for being lesbian, gay or bisexual. But the
really good news is that if we believe we’ve been discriminated against then it
will be up to the employer to prove that discrimination hasn’t taken place; not
for us to prove that it
has. This gives us a lot of power (and a lot of responsibility) to change our
workplaces for the better. (Transgender people are already protected under the
Sex Discrimination Act 1976 as amended by the Sex Discrimination (Gender
Reassignment) Regulations 1999).
If you haven’t yet had a chance to read
up about the new WorkplaceEmployment Equality (Sexual
Orientation) Regulations then check the excellent coverage on UNISON’s national
LGBT pages: www.unison.org.uk/out.
You can also join the National mailing list by emailing your details to: out@unison.co.uk - we’ll get your details
that way too.
We can’t sit back and let our various employers carry
on being ignorant or unresponsive about our new rights. The logo at the top of
this newsletter is the Campaign symbol (Tom’s inspired creation) for our SW
Region: ‘Pride@Work’. Pride in who we are and the pride we take in our jobs.
What are the Campaign
objectives?
We want to contact all the UNISON Branches in the
South West and prompt them to take up the issue with their various Employers,
if they haven’t already done so. The first step is to send a letter and accompanying
news-sheetbriefing to each of Devon’s 26 Branches. A copy
will also be sent to each SW Region member so that you can see what’s been
said.
Why only Devon, you may wonder?
There’s are two reasons for
having an initial phase. : Oneone; - the SW Region SOG wants to see the Devon Branches’ reactions and make
any adjustments to the Campaign if necessary. ; And and two, - Tom and Moira’s names are onhave signed the letter
and they work in Devon.
They also don’t want to be overwhelmed with
follow-up correspondence (!!). Depending on the success of the phase 1 the
SW Region L&G SOG hopes that activists will come forward in other parts of
our Region to extend the Campaign.
•Employer
wake-up – Part Two
Local Government has been called
to account on regarding
provision of Cultural and
& Leisure Services for LGBT
service users
UNISON has worked
hard with the Employers’
Organisation, the Local Government AuthorityAssociation, the Association
of London Government and Stonewall to produce a Guide for Local Authorities on
how to ‘engage’ with LGBT communities.
On 9th February this year a
letter went out to every local Local authority Authority asking what
cultural and leisure services local authoritiesthey were currently providing
for usLGBT people. This
includes libraries, leisure and recreation facilities, the arts and any
provision for life-long learning.
“UNISON believes that – if organised on the basis of inclusiveness – local
administration of arts, sports and leisure can make an enormous difference in
breaking down barriers and building communities.”
From information
that UNISON gets back from the local authorities a guide to best practice can
be put together. Watch this space for more news on how UNISON is putting
pressure on our local authorities to provide these services for us.
•Website
revival
As more and more people have access to
PCs at work or at home, websites have become a far quicker and more economic
way to stay in touch. And a website combined with an email contact address does
afford anonymity for those who wish it.
In January the SW Regional L&G
Group Committee began looking at our Regional web pages, which are very out of
date. They will be revised and then kept up to date. Anyone who’s visited the
Regional web site and wants to suggest changes/additions/improvements, please
get in touch with Moira (see end of newsletter for contact details).
•How does
our geography look?
Did you know how huge the SW Region is? It’s something you quickly
discover when travelling to meetings.
Such distances could be seen as a
problem. Tom and Moira see it as an opportunity - a breakout opportunity. The great advantage for Self-Organised
Groups is - we can be as flexible as is needed to get things done.
What’s a breakout opportunity?
Here’s an example - the LGBT Group
started by Devon County Branch isn’t exclusive to LGBT people in that Branch.
Anyone in Devon who’s L, G, B or T and in UNISON can come along and take part
in the fun (yes, the business bits get done too).
There aren’t enough of us in the SW
Region (yet) and we aren’t sufficiently organised (yet) to stay in traditional
branch-based groups. We need to break out and link up with each other. We also
know that there are many more UNISON LGBT people who aren’t registered with
Regional Office. You can help the Region to flourish by encouraging them to
join. Get in touch with us!
Our Region is made up of six counties and a major
city: …
Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, Gloucester and Bristol. The
spread of individuals (as opposed to corporate groups) who are registered as
Regional members is as follows:
|
Cornwall: 5 |
Devon: 10 |
Dorset: 7 |
Wiltshire: 5 |
Somerset: 11 |
Gloucester: 5 |
Bristol: 29 |
So - Think LINK!! and be part of Operation Break-out.
Let
Moira or Tom know if you’d like to get in touch with others in your county/city
•Contact
information
|
UNISON South
West Region Lesbian & Gay SOG Co-Convenors: |
|
|
Moira Macdonald c/o Exmouth Community
College Gipsy Lane EXMOUTH
EX8 3AF |
Tom Milburn Civic Centre Phase 2 Paris Street EXETER EX1 1RQ |
|
UNISON SW Region L&G SOG Facilitator (member of staff who supports
us): |
|
|
Jill Pearson: j.pearson@unison.co.uk |
Based at the Taunton
Regional Office |
PLEASE
MARK ALL POSTAL CORRESPONDENCE
“PRIVATE
& CONFIDENTIAL”Tina Baker Moira
Macdonald Tom Milburn
Details
please Jill lgbt_devon@yahoo.co.uk Details please Tom
C/o Exmouth Community
College, Gipsy Lane,
EXMOUTH EX8
3AF
|
Devon County Branch’s LGBT webpages: |
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UNISON’s national LGBT webpages: |
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If you’re out, you’re better of in …
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