The membership remains buoyant since lapses are minimal and there is a steady inflow of new members, many joining via the website. This gives the subscription rates and a membership application form which can be printed out and used to join online. An increasing number are also making use of Internet payment via PayPal which is proving particularly convenient for overseas members, who previously had to negotiate the problems of currency exchange. PayPal payments can be made by credit card.
Our monthly public meetings at Conway Hall in London over the past year have been very successful with varied topics, good speakers and high attendances. The programme started in October 2003 with a talk by Film Studies lecturer José Arroyo on the highly acclaimed gay Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar. This was followed in December by a talk on another famous gay Spaniard, the poet Federico Lorca, given by GALHA member (and former chairperson) Peter Lee. In January 2004, Mark Dowd, a television broadcaster, member of the gay Catholic group Quest and former Dominican friar, did his best to defend his faith against the predictably hostile questioning. In February, to mark Darwin Day (the anniversary of the birth of the great scientist) the audience were treated to a dramatisation of the famous debate between Thomas Henry Huxley (“Darwin’s bulldog”) and the Bishop of Oxford, Rt Rev. Samuel Wilberforce (“Soapy Sam”) which was held at Oxford University in 1860. At the March meeting Neil McKenna talked about his newly published book The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde, and in April we arranged another of our popular forum meetings at which a panel of representatives from the four main political parties – Green, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative – battled it out on their parties’ stances on issues of gay concern. The highlight of the year was our 25th anniversary celebration at which some well-known members of the lesbian and gay community presented a history of London’s gay life and were afterwards treated – along with the audience – to a quantity of food and drink. In June, film critic Mansel Stimpson gave another of his thoroughly researched and highly stimulating talks on gays in the cinema – this time on Alec Guinness – and the programme was rounded off with great aplomb in July when Fire and Brimstone Productions presented a dramatisation of the life and times of the Victorian atheist firebrand Annie Besant.
Thanks to our chair Derek Lennard for organising and chairing the meetings as well as scripting and playing a leading role in the dramatisations. Thanks also to Mike Savage for his help in publicising the meetings with posters and flyers, and to Terry Murphy for dispensing the drinks afterwards. We are very grateful to the General Committee of South Place Ethical Society (the owners of Conway Hall) for agreeing to keep the hire charge of our meeting room low, thereby continuing to make the meetings viable.
Our annual weekend gathering was held from Friday 12 to Monday 15 September 2003 at the Prince Rupert Hotel in Shrewsbury and it included the AGM. As the town is Charles Darwin’s birthplace, it seemed appropriate to have a rerun of the debate held at our February meeting in London and a photo-call at the Darwin statue outside the town library. Judging from the feedback, this was probably our best ever weekend to date, helped no doubt by the attraction of the town’s splendid medieval architecture, the high quality of food and service at the historic hotel, and the splendid weather.
This was held on Saturday 15 November 2003 at the gay-run Freedom Bar in London’s Soho. In contrast to the weekend event, it has to be said that this was something of a disappointment with poor quality food and slow service. However, our guest speaker Ben Summerskill, Chief Executive of Stonewall, gave a good talk and was very understanding about the shortcomings of the venue.
In September 2003, we responded to the Government’s consultation document Civil Partnership: A framework for the legal recognition of same-sex couples. Our response welcomed the Government’s broad commitment to the principle of equal treatment without discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, but maintained that true equality can only be achieved by opening up marriage to all.
Following the committee’s decision to urge the Government to provide UK same-sex couples with full marriage equality on a par with legislation in Belgium and the Netherlands, we co-founded (with OutRage! and the Queer Youth Alliance) the Coalition for Marriage Equality. Among other organisations which have supported the coalition are the British Humanist Association and the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement.
Eighteen news releases were issued during the period covered by this report, most of them devised by our media officer Terry Sanderson. These resulted in publicity in various gay publications including Gay Times, the Pink Paper, AXM and Bent, in UK and US websites, Rex Wockner’s International News, The Times, and a number of radio stations. Letters from the secretary and other members were published in the gay press.
Members took part in a demonstration on 12 July 2004 outside the GLA City Hall in protest at London mayor Ken Livingstone’s warm welcome for the homophobic Muslim cleric Yusuf Al-Qaradawi at a conference held at the Hall. GALHA sent a letter to Ken Livingstone, protesting about the proposed rally on 25 July 2004 in Trafalgar Square by the ultra-homophobic Islamic group Al-Muhajiroun and asking him to intervene to prevent it.
We continued our affiliations to Amnesty International and the International Humanist and Ethical Union.
Birmingham, Cardiff, Lewisham, North-East and Sutton Humanist groups have renewed their affiliations. Thanks to these for their continued support.
We are listed in Gay Times, Diva, ScotsGay, the BHA’s Humanist News, The Freethinker, the GaytoZ Directory, the NCVO Voluntary Agencies Directory, a MIND Mental Health Factsheet aimed at lesbians and gays, Same Sex Support Services Directory in Wales and the UK, CAB directories, Ask Hollis (the Directory of UK associations), The Guide (Norfolk), the UK AIDS Directory, the Spartacus International Gay Guide, the Yearbook of International Organizations, the IHEU Humanist Directory, and the Freethinker’s Directory.
Dean Braithwaite continues to represent us on the board of Consortium, the umbrella organisation for lesbian and gay community groups nationwide. We continue to be represented at the LGBT organisations meetings sponsored by the Greater London Authority. Our chairperson, Derek Lennard, represented us and spoke on our behalf, at South Place Ethical Society’s Annual Re-Union of Kindred Societies in September 2003. At the invitation of London’s mayor, we were represented by Keith Wood at a meeting to discuss the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 which was held at the GLA City Hall on 13 May 2004.
The rate of visits to our website continued to rise. The web counter on the home page recorded 10,900 during the year (an average of 210 a week, and 36% up on the previous year). In February 2004 we added a new directory section providing links to documents and debates on UK legislation relating to sexuality and gender. Not surprisingly, the page on the Civil Partnership Bill has proved particularly popular. Membership of the electronic mailing list levelled off, but there was a dramatic increase in the number of messages posted (from 254 last year to 899 this year), largely thanks to the practice of a number of very active members of reposting items of interest from the press.
This continues to be published quarterly, edited by Andy Armitage and Dean Braithwaite with help from Mike Foxwell. It is issued free to GALHA members and complimentary copies are sent (many on a reciprocal basis) to other LGBT and humanist organisations/publications worldwide. The publishers and editors are very grateful to all those who have made gratis contributions to the past year’s issues. They are also very grateful to Tom Flynn, editor of the US magazine Free Inquiry, for repeating a free display ad for G&LH which has resulted in a fresh influx of US subscribers.
Members of the committee serving during the period covered by this report are Malcolm Barnes, Cherry Bennet, Dean Braithwaite (resigned January 2004), George Broadhead, Brett Humphreys, Derek Lennard, Brett Lock (co-opted June 2004), Roy Saich, Terry Sanderson and Lee Stacy. Malcolm Barnes has acted as treasurer, George Broadhead as secretary, and Derek Lennard as chairperson.
Barry Jackson, who did not stand for re-election to the committee at the AGM in 2003, deserves much praise for his work as treasurer over the previous few years. Although Dean Braithwaite has resigned from the committee, he has continued to help by representing us on the Consortium board, with fund-raising and this year’s weekend gathering.
George Broadhead
Secretary
September 2004