LGBT
This site displays the freedom flag as part of being seen, and as a sign of diversity and inclusiveness.
Special offer for LGBT organisations
Have a look at our LGBT training page
Part of the Picture - a confidential survey to find out the levels of drug and alcohol use among our diverse lesbian, gay and bisexual communities.
If you would like to take part in the survey please click here - Your answers will be used to advise drug and alcohol services in England on the needs of the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual community.
We are a LGBT organisation, and can offer a 50% reduction on most of our training courses to other LGBT organisations. This offer has been extended to include companies and organisations to design and deliver LGBT education and awareness training to improve accessibility for LGBT customers, employees and communities.
Our training can help put LGBT drug and alcohol issues onto the agenda. In general, there's a need to improve LGBT organisation's response to LGBT drug issues, and also a need to improve mainstream drug agency responses to LGBT service users.
We're also very familiar with HIV related issues, and can offer a comprehensive response to most HIV training needs.
We can help you arrange a specially branded local training event or programme.
Tiered charges
1 day trainer rate voluntary/charity: £500. LGBT price £250
1 day NHS/local authority etc: £600. LGBT price £300
1 day commercial (business) rate: £700. LGBT price £350
All plus travel, and subsistence as needed (50% reduction on course fee only). You need to mention this offer to get the reduction.
Why?
We want to specifically help LGBT organisations. This is one of the ways drugsandstuff.co.uk likes to recognise the valuable contribution of those who are in paid employment or give up their spare time to help our community. Please spread the word amongst your own organisation and in partnership meetings.
Please have a look at our range of courses. Please do contact us if you think we can help in any way.
We recommend LGBT computer geek for laptop/PC support, repairs, training and marketing.
Email answer
Question: Does drug and alcohol use affect some of your client group locally?
The short answer: Quite likely. As the gay scene tends to be predominantly pub and club based, this combined with the issues of homophobia, transphobia and discrimination can result in increased consumption of alcohol, tobacco and drugs by LGBT people.
The long answer:
Quite likely. The British Crime Survey (BCS) can be used to provide estimates of illicit drug use in the last year by self-reported sexual orientation. Unfortunately the sexual orientation question on the BCS does not ask respondents if they identify as transgender.
Gay/bisexual men's use of any drug in the last year is around three times higher compared with heterosexual men (38.2% and 13.3% respectively) Last year use of any drug among gay/bisexual women is around four times higher than for heterosexual women (26.9% and 6.8% respectively).
Other Home Office funded research reports that:
- Drug use among LGBT groups is higher than among their heterosexual counterparts, irrespective of gender
- Gay men report higher overall rates of use of drugs than lesbian women, largely due to higher rates of stimulant use, particularly amyl nitrite ('poppers')
- Cannabis is the most commonly used drug among lesbian women, with prevalence rates similar to those reported for gay men
- Recreational drug use is comparatively high among LGBT groups, which may lead to use of new drugs before they are widespread in the general population
- LGBT people, particularly gay men, may also be at risk of misusing other drugs, such as steroids and Viagra. Some types of drug use may be associated with risky sexual behaviour, including exposure to HIV infection.
drugsandstuff.co.uk consider tobacco use as another drug of harm. Quitting would lead to over 125,000 fewer deaths from tobacco-related diseases.
A quarter of lesbian and bisexual women currently smoke (Stonewall 2008). Tang et al. (2004) suggest that gay women are 50% plus more likely to smoke than the general population.
The adult gay smoking prevalence is up to twice that of adult heterosexuals (Harding et al 2004). For example, the Gay Men's Sex Survey found that 41% of gay men smoke compared to the national average of 25% and that 67.3% of gay male smokers would like to quit smoking (Stonewall 2007).
During training we explore some of the reasons why LGB & T drug and alcohol use is disproportionately high.
Transgender people have been particularly ignored in the available literature. Some studies include T but tend not to differentiate between the elements of LGB and T.
Link to download above report at http://www.drugsandstuff.co.uk/links_and_publications/publications.htm
Report hate crime
1 in 5 LGB people have reported being the victims of homophobic hate crime, but only 1 in 3 have reported it. All hate crimes and incidents should be reported. By reporting incidents, you will enable the police, local councils, housing associations etc to build up patterns of behaviour locally, and highlight areas of concern within your community. But more importantly, you can get the support you may need and help ensure that offenders are brought to justice and cannot to the same to other people.
Report a hate crime online (opens external link to external website)
News - LGBT History Month
"Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans History Month takes place every year in February. It celebrates the lives and achievements of the LGBT community. We are committed to celebrate its diversity and that of the society as a whole. We encourage everyone to see diversity and cultural pluralism as the positive forces that they are and endeavour to reflect this in all we do." For further information visit lgbthistorymonth.org.uk
I take pride in working in a range of culturally rich and diverse (varied) boroughs. I have a real commitment to creating an environment in which everyone I work with is valued, and is free to express themselves. As a gay man, probably the most visible sign of diversity is the freedom flag. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the freedom or rainbow flag:
A rainbow flag is a multicolored flag consisting of stripes in the colours of the rainbow. The actual colours used differ, but many of the designs are based on the traditional scheme of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, or some more modern division of the rainbow spectrum (often excluding indigo, and sometimes including cyan instead).
The use of rainbow flags has a long tradition; they are displayed in many cultures around the world as a sign of diversity and inclusiveness, of hope and of yearning.
There are several unrelated rainbow flags in use today. The most widely known is perhaps the pride flag representing gay pride. The peace flag is especially popular in Italy and the cooperative flag symbolizes international cooperation. It is also used by Andean people to represent the legacy of the Inca empire (Wiphala) and Andean movements.
LGBT flag
The rainbow flag, sometimes called the freedom flag, was popularised as a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pride and diversity by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker in 1978. The different colours symbolize diversity in the gay community, and the flag is used predominantly at gay pride events and in gay villages worldwide in various forms including banners, clothing and jewellery . For the 25th Anniversary of the Stonewall riots held in 1996 in New York city a mile-long rainbow flag was created and post-parade cut up in sections that have since been used around the world.
Originally created with eight colours, pink and turquoise were removed for production purposes and as of 2008, it consists of six coloured stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. It is most commonly flown with the red stripe on top, as the colours appear in a natural rainbow.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
If you feel uncomfortable with the freedom flag bring displayed on this website, you might which to ask yourself why?
This question brings to mind the Stonewall campaign "Some people are gay. Get over it!". It is designed as a clear message from young people about how they feel about homophobia and homophobic bullying in schools. Download their striking poster from the Stonewall link above.