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UK’s newest LGBT+ venue to open after friends bet life savings on desperately-needed space

The UK’s newest LGBT+ venue is a love letter to the local queer community in Margate.

In the mid-1990s, the British Beer and Pub Association estimated that there were around 600 LGBT+ venues in the UK. By 2015, this number had plummeted to 200.

Half of Britain’s LGBT+ spaces, many smaller community-led venues, have shuttered in the last decade alone. With many already struggling with rocketing rent and thin profit margins, the coronavirus pandemic only deepened this crisis.

But bucking the trend is CAMP, a queer venue set to open in Margate on Northdown Road in Cliftonville, just a short walk from the Old Town.

CAMP is the handiwork of five friends – Olivia Lloyd, siblings Derek du Preez and Jessica du Preez, and couple Sophie Brown and Jess Hall – who are transforming an old computer shop to inject some glitter into Margate’s chalky coastline.

They’re already roping in drag and cabaret artists, comedians and more to fill the entertainment-led space, which will serve drinks from Wednesday to Sunday each week when it opens in May.

“Let’s face it, LGBT+ venues are under attack,” Derek told PinkNews. “But these spaces aren’t just nice to have, they’re absolutely essential. They’re life-saving in many cases.”

Sophie added: “There are many spaces that tolerate us, but it’s an entirely different thing to have somewhere that celebrates you. I want my son, Holland, to grow up around other queer people and families, in a space that’s safe for us to explore that.”

Five queer pals wanted a space to simply be – then ‘everything stopped’ amid COVID

CAMP began life in 2019 when Sophie and Jess found a flat in Margate with a shop beneath it. They planned to open a queer space, but the sale fell through.

Undeterred, the group began throwing parties a the Margate Arts Club. Their first party was the a 2020 Valentine’s Day Ball – it made Jess realise immediately how powerful queer spaces can be.

“This gorgeous young gay kid turned up as the doors opened and told us that it was his first time at a queer night,” she said. “He’d gone to his gran’s house to get ready because she was more accepting than his parents.

“He was buzzing to be around other queer people in the town where he grew up. That made my heart so happy and really spurred us on to open the CAMP space in a permanent way.”

CAMP’s 2020 Valentine’s Day Ball. (Supplied)

“After the party, the search to find a space continued,” she added, “but then the pandemic turned the world upside down and everything stopped.”

Three lockdowns and many bottles of wine later, the five agreed over dinner to give CAMP another shot. It meant, however, using their collective savings of £25,000.

But as Derek says, it’s difficult to put a price tag on queer spaces. He’s invested the money he was saving to buy a house, but adds: “We aren’t really in it for the money.”

Landlords ‘were reluctant to take on a queer space’

Simply opening a new LGBT+ space is no small feat, and the group lost out on several properties after landlords said their “‘vision’ wasn’t in line with their preferences”, according to Derek.

“To be honest, it felt like landlords were reluctant to take on a queer space,” Derek added, explaining: “After rejections on properties that needed less work, we decided to throw everything at an empty unit that has a huge amount of potential and in need of a little love.”

The community has been a lifeline for the five, as tight budgets mean they are relying on free or second-hand equipment to set up for a May launch date.

“The LGBTQ+ community in Margate is really something special,” Derek added.

“Everyone knows each other and everyone has each other’s back.”

(Supplied)

The organisers have opened a crowdfunder to help cover the dizzying costs – they’ve already raised more than £4,000.

“We’re also running as a raffle,” Derek added, “so for every £1 you put in, you get an entry for the chance to win a £1,000 bar tab at CAMP when we open our doors.”

 

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Xbox Game Pass Ultimate launches free subscription that Marvel fans will love

Xbox is offering a free subscription that Marvel fans will love.

Microsoft has teamed up with Marvel to make the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate even bigger, with a free three-month pass for Marvel Unlimited.

This will give gamers access to more than 29,000 Marvel digital comics including Spider-Man, Avengers, X-Men, Iron Man and Daredevil to name a few.

So if you’re a new or existing member of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you can get Marvel Unlimited for free.

This article contains affiliate links, PinkNews may earn revenue if you click through and purchase products through the links.

The subscription usually costs $9.99/£9.00 per month, so this gives fans the chance to test out the service and see if they want to stick with it.

Marvel Unlimited adds new comics three months after its publication date, that can be read on a browser or via the mobile app, so you can read the latest editions ahead of their live-action adaptions.

This includes Moon Knight, which is heading to Disney Plus later this month with Oscar Isaac starring in the leading role of the six-part series.

The trailer for the pass features animated panels from comics, alongside gameplay clips from Marvel’s Avengers, which is also included in Xbox Game Pass.

Plus as you’re signing up to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, this will also give you access to more than 100 games.

This includes the likes of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as free games every month and savings of up to 50 percent in the Xbox store.

The Marvel Unlimited offer is available until 31 May and can be claimed via the Xbox Perks Gallery via an Xbox console or Xbox app on mobile or PC.

The Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is priced at $14.99/£10.99 per month and you can sign up to it at xbox.com.

Marvel’s Oscar Isaac speaks out against Disney

Isaac – who had a major role in the latest Star Wars trilogy and is set to make his Marvel debut with Moon Knight – is the latest star to speak out about Disney’s delay in condemning the legislation.

In an interview with Variety he openly criticised Disney’s response to the “absolutely ridiculous” bill.

“I guess my comment would be: gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gay gayyyyyy!” Isaac said, breaking into song.

He continued: “It’s insane. It’s insanity. And I hope that Disney as a company comes out as forcefully as possible against this idea.

“It’s astounding that it even exists in this country.”

Disney has faced fierce backlash for its response to the bill, which would ban the discussion of LGBT+ identities in Florida classrooms.

The entertainment giant initially refused to make a public statement on the legislation after being called out for its political donations to Republicans who pushed the bill through before apologising and pausing such funding.

 

 

 

 

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Trans comic feels ‘vindicated’ after video emerges of her being abused at LGB Alliance conference

Trans comedian Jen Ives feels “vindicated” after shocking and distressing footage emerged of her being subjected to transphobic abuse at the 2021 LGB Alliance conference.

The controversial conference was held in October at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London, and was attended by many LGB Alliance supporters and so called “gender critical” lobbyists, including Graham Linehan, Labour MP Rosie Duffield and Tory MP Jackie Doyle-Price.

Panels were held on “transgender ideology” and although the group’s hero, JK Rowling, was unable to attend, LGB Alliance paid for a cut-out of her to be brought to the conference centre so attendees could pose with it.

LGB Alliance has been branded an “anti-trans hate group” by high-profile LGBT+ figures, charities and organisations since its launch in October 2019, including Pride in London, gay SNP MP John Nicolson, journalist Owen Jones and gay Scottish actor David Paisley. Searing criticism has also come from the likes of It’s a Sin creator Russell T Davies and openly gay footballer Josh Cavallo.

Labour’s shadow minister for women and equalities, Taiwo Owatemi, said that the group “should be rejected by all those who believe in equality”. LGB Alliance continues to deny it is transphobic.

Ives, a bisexual trans woman and a comedian, decided to pay for a ticket and attend the conference.

While in attendance, she was subjected to severe transphobic abuse, which she publicly discussed at the time, but Ives has now told PinkNews she has spent the last five months being branded a liar by so-called gender critical campaigners.

This week, she said she feels “vindicated” after footage surfaced of her being confronted by LGB Alliance supporter Alexander Bramham and his now-boyfriend Brad – Bramham has confirmed they began dating after meeting at the LGB Alliance conference.

“Obviously, testimony is more difficult to believe than straight-up video posted by the person who did it,” she said. “An image is worth a thousand words.”

The voice behind the camera, widely identified as Brad including by Bramham himself, can be heard repeatedly abusing Ives, saying: “You are a man. You are a man… You are trying to use female spaces. You are not female you are male. You are a man. You are an adult, human male.”

He then compared being trans to a deadly psychiatric illness, adding: “Pro-anorexia websites are banned, but your crap is published everywhere, promoted everywhere.”

He said: “You are a mentally ill, autogynephilic pervert.”

A friend of Ives was “lurking in a gender critical forum” when they discovered the video, recorded by Brad, had been “passed around” gender critical “circles” for around four months.

During those months, Ives says she was repeatedly described as a “liar” by anti-trans campaigners.

Linehan accused Ives of lying in a blog post, and said she “hung around waiting for a chance to demand to be let into the women’s toilets”.

Ives said Rob Jessel, who was then LGB Alliance’s press officer, apologised to her at the conference.

“He was saying, ‘This isn’t appropriate, this shouldn’t have happened,'” said Ives.

“Very much giving the public face.”

But after she spoke out, Jessel took to Twitter and also accused her of lying. For unrelated tweets, Jessel was later permanently banned from Twitter for “abuse and harassment”.

 

Despite the video evidence of abuse, LGB Alliance supporters have sought to defend it.

Since posting the footage, Ives has been accused of filming women in the toilets at the conference, and of “bullying” and “entrapping” Brad, who is autistic.

Ives says she did not film anything at the event, nor did she record any audio inside the toilets.

She added: “As far as I’m concerned, [Brad] was there with an LGB Alliance t-shirt on, he’s an adult, he was there in a professional capacity, and I had no idea that he was autistic.”

“I worked with people with autism for five years and I resent that accusation.”

After the event, Ives submitted a complaint to the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, a government-owned building, over security’s alleged inaction.

She said: “They said that in their opinion security acted in a timely manner, and it was all done as it should be. They brushed me off a little bit.”

Ives said venue staff seemed to not want to take responsibility for the event.

“It seems like as far as the members of LGB Alliance were concerned, on that day, on that one floor, it was gender critical law,” she said.

PinkNews has contacted LGB Alliance and the Queen Elizabeth II Centre for comment.

 

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Texas AG says the quiet part loud and calls LGBT+ people ‘sexual propagandists and predators’

Texas attorney general Ken Paxton has declared a school’s Pride event “illegal” and referred to LGBT+ people as “predators”. 

Paxton wrote a letter to the Austin Independent School District superintendent Stephanie S Elizalde to speak out against the Texas school district’s week-long Pride celebration. 

He claimed the event violates state laws against teaching “human sexuality” without the explicit consent of parents. Paxton added the school district’s curriculum and lesson plans “deal head-on with sexual orientation and gender identity”, which he called “controversial and sensitive” topics. 

“By hosting ‘Pride Week’, your district has, at best, undertaken a week-long instructional effort in human sexuality without parental consent,” Paxton wrote. 

“Or, worse, your district is cynically pushing a week-long indoctrination of your students that not only fails to obtain parental consent, but subtly cuts parents out of the loop. Either way, you are breaking state law.”

Paxton advised Elizalde to end the event to “rectify this situation” and noted that state law allows parents to file complaints against the school district with the Texas Education Agency.

The attorney general shared pictures of the letter on Twitter and declared the “liberal” school district is “aggressively pushing LGBTQ+ views on Texas kids”. He called the inclusive event “immoral and illegal”.

Paxton then described LGBT+ people as “sexual propagandists and predators”, demanding they be held “accountable”. 

But the school district has steadfastly stood by the event and shared its support for the LGBT+ community. 

Elizalde fired back at Paxton’s letter on Twitter. The superintendent wrote: “I want all our LGBTQIA+ students to know that we are proud of them and that we will protect them against political attacks.”

Austin Independent School District spokesperson Jason Stanford told the Washington Post that the celebration will continue despite Paxton’s efforts to shut it down.

“We’re going to react to this by doubling down on making sure our kids feel safe and celebrating Pride,” Stanford said. 

He believed Paxton’s letter was not actually about parental rights. Instead, Stanford described it as a “Ken Paxton trying to score political points issue”.

Stanford explained there were confidentiality terms set in discussion circles to allow students to speak freely, but he said the school district would “never in a million years” tell students not to “tell things to their parents”. 

This isn’t the first time that Ken Paxton has targeted LGBT+ community. 

Paxton has faced immense backlash after he labelled gender-affirming medical care “child abuse” in a non-binding legal opinion in February. Afterwards, Republican governor Greg Abbott ordered the state’s child welfare agency to begin investigating families of trans kids involved in such practices. 

On Monday (21 March), the state’s Third Court of Appeal upheld an injunction temporarily blocking officials from enforcing the governor’s directive while the case goes through the legal system. 

Ken Paxton has since asked the Texas Supreme Court to overturn the ban and allow “child abuse” investigations into parents of trans kids to continue, the Texas Tribune reported. 

Last week, Paxton faced fierce outrage on social media after he intentionally misgendered US assistant health secretary Dr Rachel Levine on Twitter. His post was flagged by Twitter as “hateful conduct”, but the social media platform decided to leave the tweet up with only a cautionary warning about its content. 

 

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Italian court recognises non-binary person’s gender identity in historic first

The Court of Rome has recognised a non-binary person’s gender identity for the first time in Italian history.

The historic ruling came after a hearing on 10 February in which lawyer Giovanni Guercio asked the court to recognise the non-binary gender identity of an individual named Alex. 

Trans people in Italy must go before the court if they wish to legally change their gender and name as well as amend official identification documents. Under Law 164/1982, people must undergo a two-step process that requires judicial authorisation to legally change their gender and name on the registry office as well as undergo gender-affirming surgery when “necessary”, according to Stonewall.

Guercio, who has nearly three decades of experience in gender recognition law, told PinkNews that the 7 March ruling will pave the way for the rights of non-binary Italians in the future. 

“This win is a milestone in my country since the court has always claimed for the person to have been submitted to hormonal therapy before,” he said.

“This is the first time for a non-binary person to have their name and gender changed without any hormonal treatment.

Giovanni Guercio. (Supplied)

“Our case will be of very big impact for the future of non-binary Italians since it opens the door to future cases throughout Italian courts.”

Guercio added in an interview with Gay.it that his “greatest hope” is to update Law 164/1982 to better include a broad spectrum of gender identities. 

“Let’s not forget that these are judicial precedents and not law,” Guercio said. “So other judges can embrace them as they deviate.” 

The lawyer continued: “The law, on the other hand, is a law and a rule from which one cannot withdraw. 

“The precedent created has the purpose of putting on the foot to keep the door open for future sentences, but Law 164 is stopped at a hallucinating binary! 

“These are the points that must be scratched.”

Guercio hoped one day that Italian law would change to have the procedure for legal gender recognition be based on self-determination.

The lawyer believed that trans and non-binary people in Italy should be able to simply go to a “registry office with the chosen name and gender” “without going through the court”.

 

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