IDAHOBIT 18th May 2022

Our community is under attack.

In the last year since the country has unlocked the number of reported LGBTQ+ hate crimes have increased.

In America many states are introducing laws banning the trans athletes competing in their chosen sports, laws are being introduced to ban support of young Trans people seeking medical support and help.

In this country its not clear that that clinics will be allowed to carry on supporting young Trans people.

Every day our community is being told we are too Woke, to much Woke in the UK today, Woke is making our kids gay, Woke is making our children change their sex. This Woke seems to have amazing powers. If the UK being Woke means that 17 year old professional footballers like Jake Daniels can speak openly about his sexuality, if it means that the UK becomes a better more open, more welcoming, more caring country then I’m all for that.

 

In 2022 we still have children in Schools in this City who are being bullied because of their sexuality, we still have Schools who won’t let pupils self-identify their gender.

In the UK we have Schools who still think it’s illegal to teach about same sex relationships.

The current Government’s policy for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers instead of sending a message that all citizens are to be treated fairly and equally, regardless of their sexual orientation, the message currently being sent is that it is acceptable to exclude people on the grounds that they cannot prove they are LGBTQ+ and therefore in danger from their own Governments. If LGBTQ+ people manage to get to the UK to seek asylum they are now faced with being deported to an openly hostile country.

Demonstrating, petitioning, arguing, lobbying does bring change and in the last 30 years the lives of LGBTQ+ people in the UK have changed hugely.

In our community we are standing on the shoulders of giants, countless thousands of LGBTQ+ people before us fought for the rights we have today but be in no doubt these freedoms are under attack.

Stonewall estimates that there are nearly 40 thousand LGBTQ+ people living in Sheffield, they also estimate that 1 in 5 LGBTQ+ people have suffered verbal bullying from colleagues or customers.

1 in 4 LGBTQ+ employees are not out in the work place.

1 in 8 LGBTQ+ employees would not be confident in reporting homophobic bullying in the workplace.

Do we stand by and do nothing or do we all stand up for our rights?

But there is hope.

When I was growing up there where no visible LGBTQ+ people in the media, on TV, in films, in my community, we all lived in the shadows, now we have brilliant TV series like Heartstopper, my favourite TV programme at the moment.

I think every School should be showing it. It’s a message of hope for every young LGBTQ+ young person.

I spoke to the son of a friend of mine at the weekend, he’s 12 years of age.

He was telling me about his friends, he said my best friend is Finn.

Finn and I like running around, playing football, climbing trees and going out on our bikes.

Then he said to me Finn used to be a girl but now he’s a boy but he’s still the same he’s still my friend Finn.

It struck me that if our young people can be so accepting then why cannot all of society, if children see nothing to fear or worry about why do people have a problem.

Ending homophobia and transphobia is a matter of personal security, dignity and even survival for countless individuals. It is also a long-term endeavour – one that I believe is critical to the future of the whole community.

Someone once said all it takes for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing.

Let us not be the people who stand by and do nothing, let us stand up and defend all members of our community, an attack on one is an attack on us all.

I thank you for your commitment to the cause of equality and fairness with the force of our conviction; let us continue fighting discrimination against our community and work for a city and a country of true freedom and equality for all.

Holocaust Memorial Day 2022

Holocaust Memorial Day 2022

 

 Throughout recorded history Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transexual non binary and non gender conforming people have been persecuted by religious groups, political groups and the community in general.

People fear what they don't understand, people fear what they don't like and that makes my community the LGBT+ community an easy target for persecution.

All through the centuries the LGBT+ like other minorities have been blamed, targeted and persecuted for not conforming to society's norms as laid down by the majorities.

There have been periods of history where LGBT+ people raised their heads and showed themselves in public, at certain times in the past it seemed that for a small window of time there was an acceptance of our lifestyle.

Every time my community had been crushed and forced back into the closet.

Yet statistics show that the number of LGBT+ people in any country anywhere in the world is consistently between 10-15% of the population, a higher % of the citizens than most other minority groups. No matter which country, no matter where in the world we are, we are in most families, most workplaces. The LGBT+ community is all around us, yet we continue to be oppressed, persecuted, jailed and murdered.

The theme of today's gathering is One Day.

The 28th June 1969 was one day.

In New York the Police raided the Stonewall Inn a popular meeting place for the LGBT+ community.

On the morning of the 28th of June, the New York Police raided the Stonewall Inn and arrested 13 patrons.

At one point the Police hit a Lesbian over the head with a baton while putting her into a van, the assaulted Lesbian shouted to the growing crowd to incite a riot, within minutes the onlookers began to throw bottles, cobble stones and other objects at the Police.

A full-scale riot soon ensued, the disruption, and protests carried on for 5 days in the area before eventually being brought under control.

The Stonewall uprising on one day didn't start the Gay Right movement, what it did was to galvanise my community into realising that we did have rights, we did have the right to live without fear, the right not to be persecuted for being ourselves, for wanting to live the lives we deserved.

One riot on one day didn't change anything but it did set in place the start of reform, it's taken a very long time to reach the situation today where in a number of countries. LGBT+ people are able to live their lives without fear of persecution, but that freedom is slipping away.

Reports of hate crimes against Transgender people in the UK in the last year alone have risen by 76%, intolerance to all members of the LGBT+ community is on the rise in Sheffield the reports of Hate Crime towards members of my community is on a steep increase since the lockdown restrictions were lifted.

Across the world today LGBT+ people are prosecuted, murdered, harassed, attacked by their Governments. there is no sign of this easing.

The Council of Europe released a statement this week condemning the 'extensive and often virulent attacks on the rights of LGBT+ people that have been occurring for several year in amongst other countries, Hungary, Poland, the Russian Federation, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

We must keep on fighting for the rights of all people to live their lives free from persecution to love whom they wish, to worship as they wish and to be free.

To quote William Wallace, the great Scottish Freedom Fighter.

'Fight and you may die, run and you'll live, at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they will never take our Freedom.

This day of all days let us remember all those people who have died because their fellow human beings didn't like their religion, race or their sexuality.

 

Tribute to a one off.

A tribute to James Mann 13th March 1946 to 8th April 2019

I wrote this for the funeral of my friend and ex partner James Mann, 9th May 2019

James Arthur Pass was born on the 13^th March 1946 into a difficult situation; his Mothers husband was in the army fighting in Italy. His birth Father name unknown was an American pilot who was stationed nearby. No one knows what happened but when he arrived in this world his Mother already had two sons. When she wrote to her Husband to tell him she was expecting and that the baby wasn’t his he made it clear he would only return to her if she gave up the baby.

It seems she didn’t do this immediately as papers from Barnardo’s show that when James was eventually taken into care he was under weight and apparently not cared for. The staff at the care home noted he was a cheerful baby and became a favourite, anyone who knew James will know this was something he was very good at, making friends and being popular.

He was eventually put up for adoption and was taken by Fred and Dorothy Mann who finally adopted him in 1949 when he was three years old. I remember his Mother telling me they wanted a girl but ended up with this strange boy. James told me he never felt at home with Fred and Dorothy he had a strict upbringing and wasn’t ever allowed to be free and open.  James loved to be able to on his own and to meditate in nature he was a free spirit but a restless one.

He always thought his depression was caused by the actions of his adoptive parents but when he finally made contact with Liz his half-sister after his birth Mother died it turned out that his Mother also suffered with poor mental health.

He left his adoptive parents when he was accepted into the Royal Ballet School in London 1964, James always said he thought he’d been born to do what he loved. Ballet and music were his passion and he loved the discipline and control of ballet. He adored being on stage and he mixed with all the stars of London arts scene in the 1960’s and 1970’s. He loved to ride his motor bike and unfortunately, he had a very bad accident when he was a the pinnacle of his career, he never danced again.

Using his contacts he moved in to the theatre and worked as a dresser to the stars, he told me Terrance Stamp used to send him a case of champagne on an opening night, and I’ve found letters, cards and notes addressed to him from all sorts of theatrical royalty, he seems to have been friends with everyone on the scene.

Unfortunately, his mental health deteriorated, and he stopped work for several years, during this time he met Philippa who was a close friend for many years until her early death. Together they worked for a jewellery company and the two of them used to ‘borrow materials’ and make and sell their own designs at Camden Market. They both had a passion for cats and James and his cats won many competitions.

I met James in the summer of 1990 at his spiritual home Lauriston Hall in Scotland. He and I where attending a maintenance week, though James’s idea of this involved spending a lot of time sitting in the walled garden getting stoned.

There was an instant link between us, and we stayed together for over twelve years. 

We bought a camper van in late 1990 and intended to travel around the UK picking up casual work where we could and spend a couple of years looking for a community to live in. I had a friend living in Sheffield and it seemed a good idea to over winter in the North, we arrived on Boxing Day 1990 and never left.

In the early days we ran a café in the Banners building in Attercliffe. It was a pretty rough area, but James loved mixing with people and just adored nothing better than a cigarette and a gossip with the locals. Especially the girls from the next-door massage parlour, as you all know he could get on with anyone and loved to chat.

We then took over a failing sandwich shop on Sharrowvale Road and turned it into a Deli and then opened Cafe Ceres. James’s health started to deteriorate, and he worked in the café and then the shop less and less.

He started to meet up with his friends he had met via the Edward Carpenter Community, he loved to go away with them to or three times a year to a retreat, he was particularly fond of his visits to the Laurieston community. It was around this time that he became Albion Fairy and adopted the spiritual name Clytemnestra, I’ve had lovely letters from members of this group who all remembered him fondly.

I remember a trip he and a disabled friend of his took to Australia, neither of them were in good health but when James set his mind to something, he wouldn’t let anything get in his way.

James and I like any couple we had our ups and downs, but James was the most loving, caring, warm hearted generous and adorable person I’ve ever known. I know from the messages I’ve received that his passing is mourned by many people whose lives he touched. James was a one off, he was someone you never forget.

I will miss him very much and I am so grateful for the chance I had to spend time in his life.

Goodbye James, I will always love you.

Climate Emergency

There is no doubt that there is a climate emergency, evidence from around the world shows it. Melting icecaps, more severe weather, flooding beyond an in recorded human history.

In 2011 about 1 million Syrian refugees were unleased on Europe, the potential flooding of Bangladesh will unleash 10 times as many, the refugees from Sub Saharan Africa, Latin America, and South Asia the World Bank estimate by 2050 will be in the region of 150 million all due to climate change.

In 1997 the Kyoto Protocol thought 2C was the threshold of catastrophe, Kyoto failed, since then we have produced more emissions than the 20 years before 1997.

The current prediction is that even with current actions the planet could still go to a 4-5c warmer this would make half the planet uninhabitable.

In Sheffield we are working to put right the ravages of the past but the most damage to the climate has been done in the last 25 years, not in the distant past. People ask us to set a date by which we can achieve a less than 1.5C rise in temperature or a zero carbon City.  We cannot set a date by which we can achieve this without solid robust evidence of what actions we all need to take to reach this target.

Sheffield City Council is committed to change, we will be bold and honest and forthright, this is an emergency and one that we are preparing to tackle.

The proposed clean air zone will save lives and will lower carbon output.

The UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change say we need to half our carbon emissions by 2030, to avoid catastrophe. We can do this if we are not too selfish, or lazy we can move towards this target. 

A recent report claimed that half the UK emissions came from discarded food, electronics and clothing. This means that in the UK our personal carbon footprint is 1/3 larger than they need to be.

Its up to us, each of us to recycle, reuse and repurpose, if we all undertake to take action, we can change the future to a brighter one.

So drive a cleaner car, us the bus or get an electric bike, only buy food you are going to use and shop locally think how you can reduce your personal carbon footprint.

BUSES FOR SHEFFIELD

From a speech given to Council November 2018

I’d like to thank the Green Party for bringing this motion to Council as it gives me the opportunity to speak about the excellent bus services we have in Sheffield.

I’d like to remind Council that the Greens in Sheffield did not support the devolution deal, they were prepared to turn down the franchising powers and yet today they are calling for them. Once again, a warning to the people of Sheffield, the Greens cannot be trusted on any issue to have the same policy from one year to the next.

There is no doubt that across the country bus usage is in decline, caused in part by increased car use and subsidy reduction on routes, Councils across the Country have been put in an impossible situation since the 2010 Government started the cuts in funding and we all remember who was at the heart of that Government.

Under a Labour Government we would lift the ban on Local Authorities forming their own bus companies.

Require all new buses to meet the low emission requirements.

Ensure all new buses are equipped with Wi-Fi and install Wi-Fi on all existing buses.

Require all drivers and staff to complete approved disability training and awareness.

Ensure that all buses will have priority space for wheelchairs, I’m happy to say that due to lobbying from one of my disabled constituents that I am working with Jack Scott to ensure that on all Sheffield buses wheel chair users are given priority over other users.

In Sheffield we have introduced 117 greener and low emission buses.

The cost of the day and weekly tickets is lower today than in 2015.

We are carrying out work on cross ticketing.

A new service has been introduced to carry workers to the Advanced Manufacturing Park from North Sheffield.

We are making progress on contactless payments on buses to speed up boarding.

We are planning a new express bus service to carry people quickly into and out of the City centre and we plan to link this service to existing and new park and ride car parks.

Our transport strategy sets out our vision for a City where we will no longer have a car first policy, we will have non-polluting vehicles offering people the right transport for the right journey.

Trees

Speech to Sheffield City Council given in February 2017

I agree with the petitioners none of us in Walkley want to see healthy mature trees removed and replaced with 15-year-old new ones.

I admire the tree protesters for their tenacity, their campaigning tactics, they way they are committed to their cause, some political parties in this Chamber could learn a lot from them. The tree protestors are focused on their goal, they are committed to that goal, and they use distractions when they are given the truth, they find an alternative truth. They pedal alternative truths when they feel people in the City believe the truth. When all else fails they resort personal attacks on Councillors and Officers, in the last couple of days I’ve been accused of being in the pay of Amey, having may hands in the public purse, of talking ….. well I can’t use the words in this chamber.

I have spent time on Rivelin Valley Road with my comrades looking at the trees under threat, it appears to us that there may be solutions that could be used on some of them. But its obvious that no engineering solutions will resolve the issues of tree roots disrupting the road and pavement.

Last month Mr Dilner announced that there where some undesirable elements who had become involved with STAG. I was reflecting on who he could be referring to and looking across this Chamber I wondered if he might be referring to some Politicians who have a bad habit of jumping on whatever bandwagon is passing them, they jump on a issue use it for their own selfish ends and then abandon their new friends.

When I was first elected, I had several briefings from Officers and Amey about what Street Ahead would be doing in Walkley and across the City. I haven’t read all 7 thousand pages of the contract but I did get a very detailed review of what was in the contract and what wouldn’t be done. It was quite clear that it was a huge amount of work needed to be done to bring the pavements and streets up to standard. It was also clear that the trees where responsible of causing a massive amount of damage to the infrastructure.

We need to bring some sanity to this issue, Sheffield is a City full of trees, at the end of the contract there will be 10s of thousands more trees than we have now, Experts estimate that 8 15 year trees will have the same air filtering ability as one mature street tree so given the number of trees being planted they will by far compensate for the trees lost.

There is a contract in place to renovate all the roads, pavements and street furniture in Sheffield, that contract has a value that has been agreed for 25 years, during that time Sheffield is guaranteed to have the best roads and pavements of any City, the problem we have is that there is no more funding outside of the contract, no more money for extra work, there is no money left for any work not covered by the contract.

Horrors in Chechnya

When I was about 16 years of age I read a book called The Men of the Pink Triangle by Heinz Heger. It described his treatment by the Nazis while detained in a concentration camp because he was Gay.

It was a horrific account of daily beatings, torture both physical and mental, in an effort to get him to ‘reform’ his delinquent ways.

The same thing is happening today in Chechnya, the press is full of reports of young men and it is always men being arrested by the Police and held in concentration camp conditions.

They are isolated and deprived of any contact with the outside world.

They are electrocuted daily and beaten regularly.

Their only crime is to live in a country that denies their existence.

There are horror stories of people being rejected by their families after visits by police, of young Gay men being thrown out of their homes with no support.

The leader of the Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov says that there are no Gay people in concentration camps as there are no Gay people in Chechnya.

He insists that there are no gay people in Chechnya to round up. “You cannot detain and persecute people who simply do not exist in the republic,”

Men who have escaped the camps are speaking to the world press in such numbers and such detail that it’s obvious that it’s the truth.

There is an unknown number of Gay men who have been murdered by vicious police thugs.

It appears that mop up exercises led by the security forces are happening all over Chechnya.

There is little doubt that we are dealing with crimes against humanity.

Meanwhile Putin looks on from the side lines saying and doing nothing, he turns a blind eye to the abuse of human rights.

Our foreign secretary Boris wrings his hands but offers no practical action.

There are groups in both Russia and Chechnya working to get survivors out of the country but they are being overwhelmed by the numbers of people wanting to leave this failing state.

So what can we do?

We can write to the Russian Ambassador in London.

You may have heard that the Ice Queen Teresa May is running scared of her back benchers and has called a general election.

You can ask all candidates for your vote from whichever party they belong to what they would do about Chechnyas clear abuse of human rights.

We must not let this issue that is effecting our Brothers and their rights to choose who they love to be buried and ignored.

Sheffield is a City of Sanctuary, let us send a message to the rest of the country.

Please tweet, Facebook, lobby politicians, keep this issue in front of people, we cannot let our Chechnyan brother suffer any longer.

Speech to Somaliland Drought fundraising event in Sheffield.

Speech to Somaliland drought fund raising event.

When I visited Somaliland two years ago I found a thriving, youthful, energetic, outward looking Country, one with a Government keen to make friends and connections around the world.

Somaliland is a country of farmers, they raise millions of goats and sheep every year that are exported to Saudi Arabia and other countries, and they are expert breeders of Camels and have been working to expand the production of the wonder food camel’s milk.

Now as a result of El Ninio there have been no rains for three years.

One and a half million people in Somaliland are facing drought

Over half the livestock are dead up to 10 million animals left in the fields to die.

Meningitis is becoming rife amongst children.

Thousands of people are suffering from cholera.

In Hargissa the capital City there are estimated to by 85 thousand refugees, most of whom are Women with families, and once again who are bearing the brunt of the drought and its consequences. Many of the Women living in the camp are at risk from rape, as the ground is too hard to dig latrines the Women will only go to the toilet at night in the dark as they have to go in the open. This leaves them vulnerable to gangs of Men roaming the camps at night who attack and rape them.

These Women scape a living collecting and selling stone for building, but this is physically hard work and leaves the Women who are undernourished anyway exhausted and unable to look after themselves.

Another problem they have to put up with is the owners of the land in the camp who demand rent for the land, failure to pay means having your shelter burned down, so far no International Aid Agencies have supplied any help.

Because of the lack of water and food the Women are suffering miscarriages and so their Husbands abandon them as they believe it’s the Woman’s fault she lost her child.

These Women used run their own farms and run their own businesses selling the milk and meat, now through no fault of theirs they have ended up as refugees in their own country reduced to looking to hand-outs in order to feed their families.

These people are not people who are remote from us here in Sheffield, they are not some starving Africans who while we might have sympathy for them are remote from us. 

People dying in Somaliland are the relatives of our friends and neighbours here in Sheffield, it’s the families of people we know that are suffering because of this drought.

What can we do?

Give money

£50 will feed a family for a month

£100 with provide essential medical and hygiene packs

£200 will provide families with a water supply.

SPEECH TO PEOPLE TAKING FOOD TO CALAIS REFUGEE CAMPS 17TH JUNE 2016

Can I start by saying thank you to everyone who has contributed to this convoy. You are setting an example to the world of generosity, humanity, resilience and solidarity. On behalf of the City Council I thank you. 

For the refugees in camps across the Middle East and in Europe the struggle to survive is exhausting, those that had savings are now penniless, many are separated from their loved ones, many where forced into fleeing with no forward planning.

Children living in refugee camps in northern France are being subjected to sexual exploitation, violence and forced labour on a daily basis.

UNICEF have reported cases of boys and girls being raped, and young women being subjected to sexual demands in the slums in exchange for a promise of passage to Britain.

Most camp traffickers charged an "entry fee" before children were allowed to stay. Those unable to pay were forced into laborious tasks, such as selling food at a night market in the so-called Calais Jungle.

Unicef estimates there were 500 unaccompanied children at camps in Calais and Dunkirk as of March. The average stay was estimated to be five months, but the charity said some children had stayed for nine months.

To honour its promise, Government must provide local authorities with the funding they need to care for refugee children properly and we must take in more unaccompanied children.

People become refugees not because they want to but because they are helpless to prevent it happening.

The number of refugees is now higher than the last time we had a World War. This is crisis not just for Europe but for all countries worldwide, the consequences of the refugee crisis seem to be outstripping our will and capacity to respond to it.
We have to focus on the absolute root causes, and that takes a certain amount of courage and leadership. And in my view, leadership in this situation is about doing more than simply protecting your borders or simply putting forward more aid, it means taking decisions to ensure we are not heading towards an even greater refugee crisis in the future. 

When we talk about refugees we are talking about people, when the right wing talk about immigrants, about the UK being flooded by Turkish immigration, about sealing our borders against the hordes of refugees on the French coast, they give the impression that these people are somehow different from us.

This rhetoric has consequences, if you spend days, weeks, months, years telling people they are under threat, that their country has been stolen from them, that they have been betrayed and sold down the river, that their birth right has been pilfered, that their problem is they’re too slow to realise any of this is happening, that their problem is they’re not sufficiently angry, then at some point, in some place, something or someone is going to snap. Then the outcome is what we witnessed yesterday in Birstall.

I think we can show today the spirit of solidarity that has come to represent Sheffield communities that demonstrates time and time again that no act can divide our desire to stand together at times of great turmoil. No one condones the taking of an innocent life and we stand with all our communities in Sheffield to say the act of one person does not define a whole country.

This horrific act will only strengthen our resolve to stand for justice, peace and equality for everyone.