The Pink Pound Profits

Ok, so we are in the mist of the pride festivities once more and this is meant to be a great time for everyone LGBT+ and it should be. But each year, we are constantly reminded that pride festivals are just money making machines that stopped caring about the real meanings behind what was created. 

Recently someone did a chart and blog post about their pride parade and found that over 50% of all the floats were businesses. Now I’m not saying that businesses shouldn’t be able to take part. Far from that. I’m saying that if businesses are paying to be at the party, why should queers? Why should spaces on parades be taken up with banks and politicians when smaller groups get nothing in return. 

The average price these days to go to a pride event is about £20. That’s just a ticket to get in. Pride float costs are about £100 so there is often no chance of smaller groups and poorer people to attend. Then include travel, food (because some pride events won’t let you bring your own food and drink) which is way over priced, and possibly getting a souvenir. That’s also not including if you want a stall there also. Which can range from free to about £100+. Basically the only groups who can afford to go are middle class white gays and businesses. 

Whilst some Pride events share a small proportion of their profits to LGBT charities and small groups, many do not and they are profiting from us. They are taking money from the community and not putting it back in. 

So what can we do to help. Firstly don’t go to a pride event that profits from queers and doesn’t give back. Its bad practice. Secondly why don’t you create your own pride events as groups and individuals. Pride was always about the community to begin with. Do little meet ups, maybe picnics. The recent queer picnic in London was aimed for trans and people of colour and was a huge hit. Thirdly, don’t give money to corporations that have no equality policy in place. They shouldn’t even be at prides if they don’t actually support queers. 

Finally if you do decide to go to prides, because let’s face it they are fun. Remember why they are around. Just because we got same sex marriage, doesn’t mean we got equality. Transphobia is still rife, even in the LG community, the spouse veto still exists in the UK, POC and queers are still getting murdered and homelessness is still fucking big. Try and find stalls and floats that support the people in need and see if you can help them, instead of your local bank. 

 

Golden Handbags Review

On Sunday I went to the Golden Handbag awards in Brighton. Thank you first off to Trans pride for giving me one of their tickets to go. Considering the price, I really appreciate it.
FTMB and Brighton Bothways didn’t pick up an award but they were nominated. Which is always amazing.
Trans Pride and Tramfrau both won awards which was also amazing.
There was a minutes noise as well for the victims of the Orlando shooting which was also very good of the Golden Handbags to do.

There were sadly many MANY problematic things that happened that evening. Cultural appropriation, a rape joke, unwanted touching. This was just some of the guests actions who were in the building.
As for the people running it, I’m going to be writing a complaint about how certain things were handled. IE – No warning on the use of strobe lighting on one of the acts. It was used for a very long time, and for photosensitive epileptics and others with sight and sensory issues, it was dangerous and could have potentially killed someone.

There were other issues, but I feel like I’m going to at least go up the channels before I write anymore on it. It was a good evening for some. And its a great evening for community groups and charities, there was a lot of stuff that needed to be dealt with though.

Quick Break

I have taken a week off blogging, mainly because I am still recovering from being ill and a shit ton of personal stuff happened recently, that I have promised that I would keep quiet until it gets resolved or people are happy.
I have a load of content pretty much sorted for Monday onwards, but until then I just need to finish having a small break after the April challenge and my infection.
PS. For each ten views of my blog during May and June 1p is going in a pot. I am essentially sponsoring myself to write. At the end of June it will be distributed between 3 groups. They are FTMBrighton, Trans Pride and NOTA. Hopefully this won’t be a total disaster and I’m not giving 3p to each of the groups. It might work to raise funds, it might not. We shall see.
If you want to donate to any of the groups or sponsor me, please feel free to contact me. If not that’s fine, you are already helping by being a viewer.

As I said normal writing will resume on Monday. Till then take no bullshit, eat cookies and snuggle cats!!!

T.C.Austen

❤

Bob’s Buddies

Who are we?

We are Bobs Buddies! We are a close, caring and family run business and we like to help anyone who needs it. We offer our kind owls for a therapeutic and delightful experience.

What can we do for you?

We are extremely flexible and can come to you when and where ever you need us. Whether your a business, a venue/event or just interested in seeing our owls, we can assist you!

What do we have to offer you, if your a business?

Our therapy owls we personally hand reared can visit you at your venue.
If you choose to hire us, we insure you that our presence will make your venue a breathtaking and unique experience for the general public to see our majestic birds of prey at their finest.

They will also get the exclusive opportunity to obtain a personalized photograph with or even holding one of our therapy owls themselves!

Where can we go?

We are available to go to places such as,
*Galas
*Corporate Events
*Party Appearances
*Clubs
*Schools
*Grand Openings
*Care Homes
*Hospitals
The list is endless, just ask us!

What else can we offer to you?

If you wish, we also can include a captivating educational talk about our therapy owls, what we do and interesting facts about owls!

We also sell a selection of other products featuring our very own owls. This merchandise will be available to you at your venue we would attend.

What if l am not a business, can l still see the owls by myself or with my family?

Sure you can! We understand that in life transportation and mobility can be a limitation, but here at Bobs Buddies, we are here to help and go the extra mile!
We can easily arrange together a personal appointment to meet you where ever is most comfortable, for example your house or at your favorite park.

Finally, why should you choose us?

We offer you a therapeutic opportunity to spend time with our owls and a kind ear to talk to.
We know that not every one is always happy and we have found that our owls help increase peoples moods after spending time with them. Owl Therapy is also known to assist anyone with additional support needs and we are knowledgeable around this area of work.

Thinking of contacting us?

Feel free to call or Facebook Message us for a friendly chat. Our Facebook page link is here .
You can also email us at mrboblet@outlook.com which we can give you much more information.
Finally you can follow us on instagram @bobsbuddiesuk

This post has been added to the Wonderful Wednesday Blog Link Up #1. To see more posts linked, click here.

An (un)welcome invitation

I spent ages debating whether I would write this post because I’m in a position where me talking about this may pose a problem. And in all honesty, I didn’t want to give Brighton Pride any more advertisement. But here I am. I turned round in the late hours of the night and said that I would rather pay for the costs to run a group out of my own money and spend every waking hour trying to find funding from other funders then from pride themselves.
If you do not know the reasons where all this is coming from, please click this post .
Two weeks ago Kai and I were sent an email to suggest that we turn up to the rainbow fund awards. Now considering what I had said previously , anything that is a connection to Brighton Pride doesn’t sit well with me, but because the rainbow fund had given us money the year before for our wonderful group, it was best to play the Brighton political game and show our faces. As it was they needed people to pick up an award for a different group we are in.
Now I’m not going to slate the whole concept. Many many wonderful groups (16 this year) get funding from them, and I fully support that you grab what you can. The idea behind that pride gives back to the community is also a fantastic idea. But do you know what isn’t a great idea. THE AMOUNT THEY SPEND ON THE NIGHT. It was at the Hilton hotel, in the large conference room, with food supplied and about 40 bottles of wine including several bottles of premium barefoot sparkling wine. Now I know from event hosting that many companies will give you free stuff. But I think there is limits to it. And I’m pretty sure the good, Hilton staff, the venue, stage equipment wasn’t free. Please do not complain that over a million pounds was spent on pride (which let’s be honest, I think the “acts” took a chunk of that too, however thank you fat boy slim for not being greedy at a charity function and doing it for free.) And a hundred thousand pounds plus on the weekend shutting down st James street. I’m pretty sure if money was a massive issue, you could skip the lavish event to “say thank you” to the community, and just post the checks, to the groups your meant to be supporting as opposed to making a fucking huge song and dance about it.
I could point out the things they did wrong in an entirely separate post so I’m going to bullet point the issues with the event.
*I know for certain that there were 2 at the VERY LEAST people who were deaf or hard of hearing. Thank you for providing no signer and the “text” on the videos were at such a speed it couldn’t be read. Considering the access team were there, they should have thought of that.
*It was opened with “ladies and gentleman” . Thank you for being so binary. There are people who do not identify as this. There are better gender neutral ways to speak to people. And since you are an LGBT charity, you should be shit hot on this. Or at the very least take up the training we keep offering up to you.
*There was a trans joke. I’m sorry Zoe, I love you but it was highly inappropriate to do it, you let the community down, and picking up the award just after was awkward as fuck. You are an amazing compare, please never lower yourself to that ever again
*THE VIDEO. I have never seen so many white, drink fueled , semi naked men shaking booty in such a short time. And I’ve seen (sorry mum) some serious hardcore porn from the dark recesses of the internet. Thank you for proving that once again pride is aimed for white 18-30 middle class men. There should have been a trigger warning at the start also. Showing assault, hospitals, people being hung, death needs a content warning at the start. Again this has been engrained in ALL of our teaching, to warn people before we shock them.
I could list of several other problems to, but the last time I posted something like this I was blocked from speaking to pride just after I posted my blog post, so I’m not willing to push it just yet.
I am also fully aware that several people were uncomfortable with me being there (one persons evils didn’t go unnoticed, and that I’m fully aware that they are not happy that I am putting in a personal complaint about their previous behaviour) . Kai and I were also fully aware that the beginning speach commenting about basically how people should be thankful for pride, and that we shouldn’t allow people to talk negatively, may have been aimed at the terrible trans people who were there. Heads up, we were not the only people complaining, and I’m pretty sure next year the groups willing to be involved in something so drug fueled and not fully inclusive of the whole community, will not keep quite so quiet. Or maybe they will, we live in an economy that’s suffering and the most vulnerable are getting neglected. As I said previously, people will do a lot to keep a group going, such as suck in all their feelings for two hours, just to get basic core costs covered for the next year.

I don’t think in all honestly I can spend much more talking about how this was, mainly because it drains me. It doesn’t affect me, well it does, but it affects other people more, the groups they pay for, the groups of people they treat like shit. I’m privileged that right now, I am able to talk about it. But I know as the months progress I need to focus more on what the group/s wants, what they needs and what we can do without. And I don’t know whether I’m honestly willing to sell there soul just yet.

Trans Pride 2015

By now you are probably thinking that I’m going to blog about the acts, my experiences and how the parties went…… Well you will be wrong. What I saw of trans pride was about 30 mins -1 hour of acts.

What I can tell you is the run up though. It was started a week ago with a photo shoot. It was hot, I was sweaty but I can tell you now that the photos were AMAZING.

These photo’s were to be displayed on Brighton town hall the day of trans pride.
The Friday before trans pride I was out, and ready to go to the resource centre. It chucked it down, so I had to have my hair protected for the day (not vain, had just dyed my hair). If you haven’t had the chance to go to Brighton’s resource centre , its like Santa’s grotto of the equipment and office supplies. FtmBrighton hired a giant genga. I also spent the afternoon making stickers and badges (pins for American readers). That day was also my testosterone shot day and that was my 2 year anniversary shot. Needless to say my arse still hurts.
In the evening I made a picnic for the Saturday and finished of making my order for the Brighton Brawlers Roller Derby team. I had managed to super glue my finger to the tube of super glue by the midnight.

The Saturday morning, we finally woke up and arrived at the park. We set up the FTMB stall and Kai’s lover Vince attended to help with set up. I sat at the stall whilst there was the march between the Marlborough and Dorset gardens. Photos here are from the wonderful Kai (HariboHeart here)

SO MANY PEOPLE ATTENDED OUR STALL AT FTMB. We ran out of badges pretty quickly because we didn’t think that many would be needed. So many of our members past and present turned up and a couple of people broke me during the day, one being Sabah, who is on the FTMB blog roll and you really should check them out. I was truly thankful for him speaking to me, and I will always remember his words. Although you made me cry you little puppy!!! A few other people turned up and thanked FtmB for all the hard work they had done, and a few kids came and drew some awesome pictures (and some adults too).
We had a picnic and I got to see some of my amazing friends and allies, and I thank you all for turning up to the event . I got some serious cuddles from the youngest FTMB ally Grace. I managed to squeeze in some time for a quick selfie with Kai

I managed to go round a few stalls, got my face painted and was interviewed. I had already signed the petition, but the English collective of prostitutes were there and that was amazing. What wasn’t amazing was that people complained that they were there. Seriously, if you know trans people, are trans or are a supporter, you should know that sex work links up with many trans people, and having a stall to help and to talk about the decriminalisation of sex work was a great idea. I honestly have zero time for people to think its OK to moan at a stall that’s helping the trans community and helping with safety.
The beautiful man was signing all day and I’m so proud of him, I managed to see him for a few minutes.
I also did an interview with Ed, about ftmb and what trans pride meant to us. It was so amazing. We packed up at about half 5 and managed to pick a fight with a gazebo and I lost. I ended up with a small lump on my head. I managed to get home at about 7 and had a little break before I met my other partner Steph (they had been busy running the whole event) for the photo projections. I also saw Ben again – I had seen him at the park , and it was also amazing to see someone else from last years projections and someone i truly look up too.
It took forever for it to get dark enough and there were quite a few difficulties but eventually they came up and it was amazing to see everyone’s beautiful faces. Eventually I left Brighton at about 11 and met up with Kai. He wasn’t there since he had a “family” dinner where his brother proposed to his gf. Turns out I’m family enough to exchange gifts and take care of their Kai for nearly 3 years, be engaged and deal with them, but not family enough to attend a family function. Turns out when you call out his brother for his bullshit (ie copy and pasted the shit he said to Kai), rather then being praised , you get ostracised. Also I don’t think I got the happy tears “oh my god your now really family” when we announced our engagement. We got moaned at. So thanks. Here is done photos of our faces being projected.

On the Sunday morning we had volunteering for doggy pride. We got up early and we got rained on. Doggy pride got cancelled and we went home till Vince and Lizzie picked Kai and I up to go to the trans pride picnic. I got to see the adorable Steph and lots and lots of other trans and queer peeps. A huge shout out to the Marlborough for allowing us all to be there for the picnic. It was an amazing afternoon.
We finally got home at about 7 and totally crashed out. It was a great weekend.
On a different note – several people were attacked during the weekend and I am so sorry that it happened. This event has been going on for 3 years and this is not what we are about. Transphobia in any form is not tolerated and I hope that the victims get justice.