LGB Alliance

[thatdamnwoman]

Wouldn't it be great if everyone who hasn't already dug deep could get out their spades and help the LGB Alliance reach their target this weekend? They're close.

Once they've raised enough for an office and a computer and a person to get things started they can begin the job of toppling the transgender / gender edifice for real. Simon Fanshawe and Allison Bailey have already made a great start.

They’ve got it! Well done LGB Alliance, the foundations have been dug, off to a great start. Now to the build, I will be giving brick by brick, sorry I can’t give a container load, but together we will get there.

HOORAY!

👏👏👏👏

Just went to donate again and it's been frozen

I'm guessing it's because they have amended the target after hitting the previous one?

The target is now £50,000 if anyone from LGB alliance is reading this increasing the target was the right thing to do, but you needed a different target and to update the copy on the website.

A stretch target of £35,000 would have been a more strategic next step.

Bugger I managed to get myself organised with a screen and a credit card and the bastards have frozen it again. Anyone know any more?

My gay neighbour has just moved. He felt 30 years on the London party scene was enough. We had lunch and as it was probably the last time we would probably see each other, both tiptoed towards a frank conversation.

He had always felt that Stonewall represented him. Stonewall had fought for his people through prejudice and HIV his whole adult life. A number of his friends had worked there. He was not political but had never questioned its raison d'etre. However:

• he was dismayed by the growing corporate feel. What the hell were Barclays doing with their rainbow logos. He no longer enjoyed Pride. He was still pro-Stonewall but was not sure how they now represented his interests.

• he had heard of a split. He thought Simon Fanshaw was a good bloke.

• He was confused by transgenderism. He had tried to understand it but could not. He knew three people who claimed to be transgender, but all had other (drug/MH) issues and he was worried they were looking for solutions to these problems, but in the wrong place.

• I said that I knew of three young people who claimed to be transgender, and felt much the same. My concern was that changing "sex" was almost certainly not going to solve existing adolescent issues, and a decision to take lifelong medication was huge and not to be rushed into. He agreed. These were decisions those under the age of 18 should not be making.

• He also felt that people with male physiques playing women's sport was silly. And that the increased money in women's football would act as an incentive.

In short, as a gay man he had probably has travelled less distance than many lesbians, but the doubts about Stonewall are there. And there is an openness to a new organisation, especially one which manages to attract some high profile well respected gay men, and which has a greater focus on homosexuality rather than trans.

My neighbour said that he regretted identifying so much as a gay man. He felt he would have been better off if he had thought of himself as a man who happened to be gay, and had built and maintained a wider range of friendships. I assume 30 years ago it was much harder to "just be" gay. He thought that it was wrong for any one group to try to claim rights at the expense of another, without at least an attempt at open debate. I think this is correct. Times and attitudes have changed. I hope the LGBA achieve as their USP a sense of being a constructive voice for LGB people within wider societal discussion.

And perhaps looking at the queering of the gay community. Boundaries had been stretched until they barely existed, making some parts of London gay scene a dangerous and lonely place. He reassured me when I confessed to moving closer to a form of social conservatism, that boundaries and maintaining social norms are important.

Seems to be unfrozen now. I was able to donate.

So pleased they met their target and I will donate again when I can.

They have updated their copy and say: We are at the very beginning of our history and your reaction suggests to us that we need to think big.

I'm proud to be a supporter.

Thanks for the reminder. I tried few times when the site was down. I'll try again now.

Yay I've been able to donate now. Keep it going people. PUUULLLLLLLL.