From celeb heaven to Russian reality

I attended two gay rights-themed events last week, and needless to say they could not have been more different if they tried.

On Thursday evening, Tanya (my colleague in the Islington Council LGBT Staff Forum) and I went along to the extravagant Stonewall Awards, in the sumptuous surroundings of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). I have been twice before and it is always a joy, with gallons of free champers and a mix of well-dressed supporters, minor celebs and political heavyweights, all there to applaud the winners of the annual accolades from the UK's premier LGB lobbyists.




Antony Cotton, Jonathan Harvey and assorted chums I didn't recognise

It was certainly an impressive "do". We really enjoyed ourselves as we meandered through the crowd, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Skin from Skunk Anansie, Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, TV stylist Gok Wan, TV chef Allegra McEvedy, Dan Gillespie-Sells of The Feeling, the ebullient Jonathan Harvey, Commander Bernard Hogan-Howe (chief of the London Metropolitan Police), playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell (of The Pride, currently playing in the West End), dear Neil McKenna, Jodie Harsh, James Wharton, various politicians and TV (especially soap) stars, and...



...the gorgeous Layton Williams (from house fave TV series Beautiful People), who was somewhat more conservatively dressed on this occasion (dammit!).


Stonewall CEO Ben Summerskill and co-host Susan Calman

And, so, to the awards themselves...

Nearly 500 people, including celebrities, sports stars, politicians and writers, joined host Susan Calman at the ceremony to honour those who’ve made a positive contribution to the lives of Britain’s 3.7 million gay people.

Thousands of Stonewall supporters voted to name Lord Alli and the Russian LGBT Network as joint Hero of the Year, supported by Gender Gap. Lord Alli has been a tireless advocate for equality since he became the first openly gay member of the House of Lords 15 years ago. He was instrumental in successfully navigating equal marriage through the House of Lords this year.

The Russian LGBT Network was recognised for its courageous work to support gay people in Russia despite gay ‘propaganda’ bans and ever increasing hostility. In a statement the Russian LGBT Network said that Britain’s "journey from Section 28 to marriage equality inspires us as we campaign against those who seek to deny us our fundamental human rights".

Waheed Alli


Quakers

The Quaker LGBT Fellowship was named Community Group of the Year by Stonewall supporters for their long-standing commitment to equality. The group was presented with a cheque for £5,000 – kindly provided by The Inclusive Foundation and supported by Square Peg Media – to continue their work to promote equality and religious freedom.

Stonewall supporters overwhelmingly voted US TV evangelist Pat Robertson as 2013’s Bigot of the Year – the award reserved for an individual who has gratuitously caused hurt and offence to gay people around the world. Robertson – a long standing and vocal opponent of equality – hit headlines in August by saying that gay men viciously spread HIV when shaking hands by using ‘special rings’.

Metro was named Publication of the Year for its frequent and incidental coverage of gay issues. Judges praised the newspaper, a must-read for millions of commuters across Britain, for its balanced and extensive coverage of important issues such as equal marriage and homophobia in football.

CBBC’s Marrying Mum & Dad became the first children’s show to be named Broadcast of the Year in recognition of the shows sensitive and moving portrayal of children planning the civil partnership of their proud parents.

Baroness Stowell


Antony Cotton

In a landmark year for equality Baroness Stowell was named as Stonewall’s Politician of the Year for her unstinting work to secure marriage for same-sex couples. The Conservative Peer was applauded for her deft handling of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill in the House of Lords.

Coronation Street’s Antony Cotton was voted Entertainer of the Year. The soap favourite was commended for his decade of walking the nation’s favourite cobbled street as a proud gay role model.

Scottish writer Damian Barr took home the prize for Writer of the Year for his biography Maggie and Me which was praised for its honest and compelling narrative of growing up gay.

Wales’ only gay-friendly rugby club, the Cardiff Lions, beat tough competition to take home the Stonewall Sports Award of the Year, supported by Paddy Power, in recognition of their grass-roots work supporting gay people in sport and defying stereotypes.

The Independent’s Grace Dent was named Journalist of the Year for her unflinching support of equal marriage in the mainstream media. The columnist, author, TV critic and restaurant reviewer was applauded for her humorous and honest coverage of gay issues throughout the year.

Mamas & Papas scooped the first ever Stonewall Award for Advert of the Year for its campaign featuring same-sex parents. The brand proudly declared ‘This is how we roll’ with its commitment to support different families.

Grace Dent and Damien Barr

It was a very good selection of winners - and the entire thing was uncontroversial, for a change this year. Even the "Bigot of the Year" was a fairly unequivocal choice - for who could disagree with labelling Pat Robertson, the man who still calls for gay people to be stoned to death, and blames us for the terrorist atrocity of "9/11", a bigot?

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Stonewall itself is largely perceived these days, however, as a bit of an "establishment" institution, probably more so for its hosting of glittering events like this than its "in-yer-face" campaigns such as "Some People Are Gay - Get Over It!". And some of its antagonists and critics do have a point...



Such a critic is the tireless human rights and gay rights activist Peter Tatchell, whose "annual address" LGBT Rights at Home and Abroad Alex Hopkins and I went to on Friday evening (hosted by those lovely people of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) at the twee Conway Hall in Holborn).

Mr Tatchell tackled head-on the dreadful situation in Russia, and explained how much hard work and support is needed if the Russian LGBT Network are going to win back the briefly-held rights and tolerance for gay people in Russia that they received between the fall of Communism and the rise of Putin's fascist regime, which has condoned the current wave of oppression.

He laid into the Commonwealth, an organisation whose membership includes of a quarter of the countries in the world in which varying degrees of homophobic oppressive legislation are still in place - notably Malawi, Uganda, Nigeria, Cameroon, Malaysia and Jamaica, and whose next conference will be hosted by the murderous regime in Sri Lanka.

He of course highlighted the problems that still remain with religious intolerance towards LGBT people - here at home, in the USA, in the Islamic world and in the evangelist-influenced countries of the third world including in Africa and South America.

And he tackled Stonewall's own intransigence when it comes to its support for the flawed "Equal Marriage Bill", which Peter pointed out was not even close to "equal" in five discrete ways:

• The Church of England and the Church in Wales are explicitly banned from performing religious same-sex marriages, even if they decide they want to.
• The special requirements and costs of registering premises for the conduct of religious same-sex marriages are much harsher than for opposite-sex marriages in religious premises. In the case of shared premises, all other sharing faith organisations have to give their permission for the conduct of marriages involving LGBT people. In effect, they have a veto.
• Pension inheritance rights are fewer on death of a same-sex marriage spouse. The surviving partner is not entitled to inherit the full value of their pension if it was begun prior to 1988 (only the value of contributions since 1988 can be inherited). There is no such sweeping limitation on pension inheritance in the case of opposite-sex marriages.
• There is no restoration of the marriages of trans people that were annulled as a precondition for them securing a gender recognition certificate. The spouse of a transgender person must consent to the marriage continuing after the issue of a gender recognition certificate.
• The legislation does not repeal the ban on opposite-sex civil partnerships. Straight couples continue to be banned from having a civil partnership, even though the government’s own public consultation on equal marriage found that 61% of respondents supported the right of heterosexual couples to have a civil partnership if they desire one. Only 24% disagreed.

Mr Tatchell is a one-man battalion in his long and hard-fought campaigns for our rights, and likely one who will never be seen sucking-up to the politicians, the "great and the good" of the establishment - and, as he gives them such a constant drubbing, would never be seen dead at the V&A Stonewall bash.

More power to his elbow, I'd say!

In all, a good - if contrasting - pair of events in the LGBT rights calendar.

Stonewall

Peter Tatchell Foundation

Canapes, bigots, champers and Holly!

“Going so soon? I wouldn't hear of it. Why, my little party's just beginning." - The Wicked Witch of the West

Amazingly, no Christopher Biggins, Louie Spence or Graham Norton in attendance this year, but the heavenly surroundings of the Victoria and Albert Museum once more played host to a massive horde of celebs from the "A"-list (Dame Joan Bakewell), "B"-list (Sue Perkins, Charlie Condou, Amy Lamé, Scottee, Johnny Woo, Jodie Harsh), and "Z"-list (TV talent show contestants), plus a smattering of politicians (Ben Bradshaw, Iain Stewart, Lynne Featherstone), sportspeople (Carl Hester, Matt Cook), musicians (Holly Johnson [above], Dan Gillespie-Sells, Beverley Knight), literary legends (Paul Burston, VG Lee), meeja'n'marketing-types, and people "whose face you know but you're not sure where from". Mostly gorgeous; the majority of them gay.



The occasion was (of course) the glittering Stonewall Awards ceremony, the annual back-slapping-fest "celebration of the outstanding contribution of individuals and groups towards lesbian, gay and bisexual equality, in the past year". I attended last year's (I am co-chair of Islington's LGBT forum), and was overjoyed once again to be able to attend this one. With lashings of free champagne, the most ludicrously OTT canapés (that you needed a microscope to see, and an insider knowledge of macrobiotic trendy cuisine to understand - one looked like a tray of grass and ferns) and a backdrop of some of the most sumptuous pieces of artwork in the world, it is a wonderful evening out.



Hosted by the very entertaining Gok Wan and Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill (with their constant flirting repartee, these two made a perfect double-act), the awards this year were the usual mixture of the inevitable (Jeanette Winterson won the Writer of the Year - commiserations Val Lee, your time will come! - and Rev Giles Fraser, who was in the news a lot around the "Occupy" campagn at St Paul's and happens to be gay, won Hero of the Year), the popular (Sue Perkins won Entertainer of the Year; columnists Hugo Rifkind of The Times and Owen Jones of The Independent were jointly awarded Journalist of the Year), the worthy (newbies in the online news world Gay Star News won Publication of the Year; the Rugby Football League in its entirety won Sports Award of the Year; the tiny local group East London Out Project won Community Group of the Year and received a cheque for £5,000) and the downright bizarre ("Britain's Got Talent" won Broadcast of the Year, for fuck's sake).


Jeanette Winterson


Sue Perkins with the boys from Gay Star News


Rev Giles Fraser

The champagne flowed, we cheered, we clapped.

What of the "controversy"? It was over the Bigot of the Year award, of course. Ruth Davidson, the first openly-gay leader of a major political party in Britain (the Scottish Conservatives), was cheered when she was named Politician of the Year. But the audience began booing when she stood there, award in hand, and rounded on Stonewall for having a "bigot" award, saying the organisation should "respect people who have a different view".

[Here we go again, I thought... Read my last blog on the subject of the word "bigot".]

The intensely unlovely Cardinal Keith O’Brien was this year's deserved recipient of Bigot of the Year - a tough choice, up against Christian Peoples Alliance leader Alan Craig, who compared gay rights campaigners to Nazi stormtroopers and called them the “Gaystapo”; Ulster Unionist Ken Maginnis, who referred to equal marriage as "unnatural and deviant behaviour"; Archbishop of Glasgow Philip Tartaglia, who said of the death of the MP David Cairns that it was directly due to him being gay; and the murderous Simon Lokodo, Uganda's "ethics and integrity minister" [sic], whose anti-gay witch-hunt could lead to the death penalty for homosexuality being applied in that benighted country.

Is this the same Cardinal O'Brien, the leader of the unelected and undemocratic Catholic Church in Scotland, who publicly declared "war" on plans for same-sex marriage equality, who described equal marriage as "a grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right" and said that campaigners for equal rights operated "the tyranny of tolerance"? The same Cardinal O'Brien who, in the context of the debate made this most insulting reference - "Imagine for a moment that the government had decided to legalise slavery but assured us that 'no one will be forced to keep a slave"? Of course he's not a bigot. That much is clear.

Anyway, in my view Miss Davidson was stupid to say what she did, knowing she was addressing a room packed with luvvies brimming with Dom Perignon. Even more stupid is the news that sponsors Barclays have threatened to pull out. As Stuart Smith, in his blog The Politics of Marketing, says:

Mark McLane, managing director and head of Global Diversity and Inclusion at Barclays told The Telegraph: “I have recently been made aware of the inclusion of a ‘Bigot of the Year’ category in the awards. Let me be absolutely clear that Barclays does not support that award category either financially, or in principle and have (sic) informed Stonewall that should they decide to continue with this category we will not support this event in the future. To label any individual so subjectively and pejoratively runs contrary to our view on fair treatment, and detracts from what should be a wholly positively focused event.”

So, righteous fulmination at the underhand introduction of a new category, eh, Mark? Well not quite. Some swift desk research, which even someone as grand as a managing director and head of Global Diversity and Inclusion might deign to do before opening his mouth, would reveal that Bigot of the Year has been a staple of the Stonewall awards since 2006. And, even more interestingly, Barclays itself seems to have supported the self-same awards since 2009. Now I know that there has been a lot of staff churn at Barclays recently and corporate memory tends to be – at the best of times – short. Even so, wakey, wakey, Mark. Or is Stonewall so low down the list of sponsorable causes that you simply haven’t noticed it before?

Either way, Stonewall should sack Barclays before Barclays sacks Stonewall. With friends like that… Surely corporate bullying is just the sort of thing Stonewall is trying to stamp out?

Mr Summerskill was equally scathing and defiant about the whole thing. As he said, "Disagree with us all the time, and as much as you like, and Stonewall will always respond to you respectfully and courteously, but deride us as paedophiles or bestialists and the word 'bigot' seems an appropriate description."

Nothing dampened the evening's pleasures and schmoozing, however. I worked the room (of course), celeb-spotting, and got chatting to Dan Gillespie-Sells (who was a supporter of the charity I used to work for), who kindly took that photo of me with the lovely and chatty Holly Johnson.



Amy Lamé gave me a hug and an air-kiss (I have no idea who she mistook me for, but I hope it was Rupert Everett!), and Johnny Woo took photos of us together.



I chatted with the very lovely Allegra McEvedy (whose Turkish Delights cookery programme is a fave at Dolores Delargo Towers).



And Vanessa Feltz and her gorgeous hubbie Ben Ofoedu both liked my purple velvet jacket, so all's right with the world...

A fantabulosa night! (Unspoiled by any nastiness.)

Stonewall Awards

Heroes, villains, champers and the best of the C-list

What do Vanessa Feltz, Christopher Biggins, Russell Tovey, Dan Gillespie Sells, John Partridge (from EastEnders), Harry Derbridge (from The Only Way is Essex, apparently), Gok Wan and Louis Spence have in common? They were all larger-than-life attendees at the glittering Stonewall Awards last night at the V&A.

And what do Lady GaGa, Jessie J, Christopher Plummer, Ben Cohen and Matt Smith all have in common? They were among the list of nominees for an award, but (unsurprisingly) did not grace us with their presence. So it was a bit of a "C-list celebrity" affair, but a worthy one nonetheless.

I was very happy to receive my invitation as the recently-elected co-chair of Islington Council staff LGBT forum, and - my word! - the Stonewallers know how to throw a party. There was a positive tsunami of champagne (all served by some very cute waiters indeed), and the most microscopic canapés to accompany them (I didn't partake - at least one of them looked like two grains of rice carefully wrapped in a smoked salmon fish scale, and that would not even touch the sides).



The V&A entrance hall and the gorgeous Raphael Room in which the award presentations took place were illuminated in shocking pink, and the stage was sited under the enormous Renaissance altarpiece - all very dramatic.

Sidenote:

This room houses the surviving designs painted by Raphael, one of the greatest of all Italian Renaissance artists, for tapestries commissioned in Rome in 1515 by Pope Leo X . These were to hang in the Sistine chapel on the walls beneath the ceiling by his contemporary Michelangelo. Although originally only designs (known as "cartoons") to guide the weavers, they are now among the greatest artistic treasures in Britain. Owned by the British Royal Family since 1623, they have been on loan to the Museum since 1865.

Hosted by the remarkably uncharismatic "comedian" Stephen K. Amos and Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill (who actually had the more entertaining repartee), the nominees this year were an amazingly mixed bag - nominated by the organisation's supporters, who must themselves (as is the nature of any gay organisation) hail from a wide social, cultural and generational range. Our audience, too - smartly dressed as most of them were, the dress code being "cocktail" - was quite a mixture. Many of them appeared never to have seen champagne before...

And so to the awards themselves [from Pink News]:

Writer of the Year went to novelist Alan Hollinghurst, whose critically-acclaimed works have probed many aspects of gay life. He said he saw it as a “marvellous stroke of luck to be gay and have such a subject to explore”.

Chris Bryant MP won the award for Politician of the Year. His civil partner Jared Cranney picked up the award on his behalf, and described it as a “great honour”. The couple made history last year by being the first to enter into a civil partnership in the Palace of Westminster.

The Guardian Weekend won Publication of the Year, praised for portraying the “normality” of gay life.

Scott Mills’ BBC3 documentary The World’s Worst Place To Be Gay was named the Broadcast of the Year. The film examined the dangers of homosexuality in Uganda. He dedicated the award to Ugandan rights activist David Kato, who was murdered outside his home in Kampala earlier this year.

Jane Hazlegrove was awarded Entertainer of the Year for her five-year role as Kathleen “Dixie” Dixon on Casualty. She said the award “means the world to me”, affectionately thanked her “missus” and told the audience: “It’s great to be gay”.

The group UK Black Pride was voted Community Group of the Year and presented with a cheque for £5,000.

Vanessa Feltz, Ben Summerskill, Alan Hollinghurst

I particularly enjoyed the acceptance speech of the effervescent Vanessa Feltz (accepting a joint award for Journalist of the Year), who bemoaned the fact that although she remains committed to providing a platform in support of gay issues on her radio show and in her newspaper columns, had "never even had a lesbian fumble. Never even an offer!". Attitude magazine’s Matthew Todd, accepting his award jointly with Miss F, consoled her, saying he “had never had one either”.

Winner of the coveted "Bigot of the Year" (a close-run thing, up against such bastards as Section 28 backer Brian Souter and Stephen Green of "Christian" Voice) was the incredibly unlovely Melanie Phillips of Mein Kampf - sorry! - the Daily Mail. As the Stonewall nomination itself said: "Long infamous for her bigoted views on just about everything from the NHS to Barack Obama to gay rights, this year Phillips really outdid herself by comparing gay people to animals, writing that Britain is in the grip of a ‘Government-backed drive to promote the gay agenda’ and claiming that gay people ‘risk becoming the new McCarthyites’ simply because they want to stay at a bed and breakfast." Well-deserved! She didn't turn up to collect it...

The most important moment of the evening, however was the award for "Hero of the Year", which (quite rightly) did not go to a bandwagon-jumping celeb (GaGa or Jessie J) nor even to the lovely Joan Armatrading (who should never have been in the category in the first place, her only vaguely "heroic" action this year being her public coming-out by marrying her partner). It went to a man whose bravery and compassion shone through, Roger Crouch.

In 2010, 15-year-old Dominic Crouch took his own life. He had allegedly been the victim of homophobic bullying at his school following a game in which he accepted a dare to kiss another boy. Since Dominic’s death, his father has dedicated himself to raising awareness of homophobic bullying in schools.

Roger's acceptance speech moved several in the audience to tears. He spoke of the “gap in our lives” left by his son’s suicide, the strengthening of the bond between him and his wife Paola as they sought an understanding of what drove their son to his death, and their determination to raise awareness of the issues. Homophobia, he said, was "a word associated with illness. I prefer the term 'bigotry'. [It] demeans us all”. The dedicated the award to his son and to all the people whose lives had “been cut short by bullying”. We gave him a standing ovation.

Finally, a late arrival due to the vagaries of EasyJet flights was the gorgeous Swede Anton Hysen - the world’s only openly gay professional footballer - to accept his award for Sportsperson of the Year. His speech was fab, he looked great - all would have been hunky dory, had I not been informed later by Paul Burston and others that while waiting in the wings the cocky sod performed a theatrical yawn (as if indicating that the speaker should wind up) in full view of the mid-speech Roger Crouch. Disrespect of the first order, and I hope he gets reprimanded for such behaviour!

All in all, this was a good evening, and I enjoyed it immensely. It is not very often one gets to wander past the magnificent exhibits at the V&A with a glass of champers in one's hand, nor mingle with the great and the good of the gay world in such architectural surroundings as this cultural gem!

Stonewall Awards