LDPA Videos

A selection of videos showing LDPA activities in the community:

Peter Tachell speaks at Golders Green Unitarians

As part of the LGBT+ Unitarian Voices project, the veteran LGBT+ campaigner Peter Tatchell spoke at an event in September 2023 welcoming the exhibition to Golders Green, North London. Peter spoke movingly about his personal experience of the Unitarians’ role in the struggle for LGBT+ equality since the 1970s, including early same-sex blessings in the 1970s, the campaign for same-sex marriage, Dudley Cave, Integroup, the Lesbian and Gay Bereavement Project, and more.

Peter began by saying: “I would love to express my most sincere appreciation to Unitarians for all the great work you’ve done over the decades, not just for LGBT+ rights, but for the rights of women and other people who’ve suffered victimisation and oppression. You have been standards bearers of progressive thought and actions. So my huge admiration and appreciation to Unitarians… from the bottom of my heart a huge, huge thank you.”

The exhibition is the outcome of an exciting project exploring the brave, inspiring, and sometimes challenging experiences of LGBT+ people in the Unitarian and Free Christian denomination. The project celebrates their stories by recording, archiving, and sharing them. You can visit the LGBT+ Unitarian Voices online exhibition here.

What is a Unitarian?

A gentle introduction to Unitarianism, it’s values, it’s beliefs.

Rainbows Across Borders Chorus at the LDPA AGM

Following their successful performance at Kick it Out – 25th Anniversary Celebrations at Chelsea Football Club, the Chorus were pleased to be invited to perform at the LDPA AGM. The programme chosen were songs sung in the 1960’s as Black Communities organised and campaigned against the harm and persecution suffered since being shipped as slaves from Africa. Songs sadly that still need to be heard to remind us that Black Lives Still Matter. Likewise, when the Chorus sang Sailing this was to acknowledge that people fleeing wars, famine and persecution in their countries of origin are often forced to take perilous journeys across stormy seas seeking lands where they could hopefully be free.

History and purpose

A small group of like-minded friends seeking asylum in the UK because of the ill-treatment and persecution they had suffered in their countries because they were LGBT, decided to form a self help group. It is owned by its membership and develops and provides services exclusively for LGBT asylum seekers. Now known as Rainbows Across Borders its prime function is to collectively provide care, comfort & support for members in their application to the Home Office for asylum.
 
In June 2013 it was decided to create a Chorus. Primarily it was seen as being therapeutic, enjoyable and a nice way to welcome newcomers. The Chorus helps members to build self-esteem & confidence. In addition, the Chorus provides a means of presenting their stories to a wider audience and gain sympathetic support for what the group tries to achieve. That’s why they chose to be called a Chorus. Their purpose is not just to sing, but through singing to tell stories about their struggle, and the struggles of others who are being unjustly persecuted. The membership of the Chorus is constantly changing as members get Granted Leave to Remain in the UK: or who are relocated by the Home Office or just move on.
 
The singers have learned that as they struggle to be accepted by the Home Office as LGBT refugees they have been supported by the thoughtful care received from the Unitarians in Croydon. That’s why they were pleased to be invited to perform at the LDPA AGM knowing that as they sang they could be ‘proud to be who they were’ with Unitarian friends they could trust. www.rainbowsacrossborders.co.uk

Article by the Chorus’s founder Ray Harvey-Amer.

Colchester Unitarians Down on the Farm

Colchester Unitarians wanted to provide a weekend holiday for 6-7 families at a time, all from the same geographical area, so that lasting ‘community’ would be built between the families. A holiday where all activities were accessible to all the family members. A holiday where really fun activities – fire lighting, foraging, beach time, tomahawk throwing, feeding of the sheep and pigs and collecting hens’ eggs, campfires, tai chi, music, massage and more – would be available to all. You can read about it in the winter 2018 edition of Impulse.