Tyron Woolfe & Abigail Gorman: Our new Deaf LGBTIQA website, one year on!

Do you remember our post in June 2018?

We wrote about launching the new Deaf LGBTIQA website, which was kindly funded by donations from deaf members of the LGBTQ community.

Watch this article in BSL below (or scroll down to continue in English!):

As a result of launching the website social media accounts, we are starting to make a name for ourselves within the LGBTIQA community, which we are pleased about.

A year has gone by and here we are in Pride season, 2019! Happy Pride everyone!

So, what has been achieved so far?

We became an unincorporated charity on June 3rd 2019. An unincorporated charity simply means that we are a group of volunteers running a charity that benefits the LGBTIQA deaf community.

See here for more information on what we have done.

What are we doing now?

We have submitted a grant application to the LGBT consortium to pay for the following:

• Sexual Health workshops x 3
• Membership development  

• • Unity is so important, and the LGBT sector can become confused when different groups and individuals contact them wanting to do something for deaf people. We need to develop a membership structure to allow affiliates and allies to operate and support the long-term vision.
• Research into audience needsWe cannot assume that we know what people want and need without real insight. We intend to train a group of volunteers in how to survey the deaf community. We will agree on 10 key questions that will be put forward to at least 150 deaf LGBTIQA people. That data will then shape our future work.
• Development of our ability to govern and run the charityWith all of us in the committee being volunteers and most of us working full time it is important to develop our ability to govern and grow our work.

We hope to find out very soon if we have been successful in our application.

What are some of the challenges ahead of us?

Rome was not built in a day, and we know very well that without resources we cannot do everything that people want us to do.

There is a famous saying, ‘Nothing about us, without us’. in order for a community to thrive, they need to be involved and have a say in important decisions about their future. This can come in various forms such as making requests for access, providing information and sharing your expertise.

Asexuals – We would like to engage in discussions with people who identify as asexual and find out what information they would like to receive.

Intersex – We know that a high number of people are intersex, but this hasn’t been discussed much in the deaf community. There is a lack of information on this subject, and we would like to create resources for this.

Making the wider LGBT sector accessible –  At the time of writing this blog we are aware of a number of events, e.g. Prides, that are giving access to deaf people in different ways.  We are also sadly aware of poor practice, e.g. volunteers who are not qualified in sign language, exclusion of deaf people’s involvement in having a say on how deaf people should be included.  

For now we have created a page to support/advise people how to make their events accessible, but we cannot dictate how this should be implemented because many events are simply run by volunteers with limited resources.  We can only celebrate and advocate good practice. If you know of other examples, please do let us know.

More diversity in the Deaf sector – We need to see more diversity.  A deaf film does not need to be about LGBTIQA to be diverse, it can easily be that one character has gay parents as a matter of fact. Media should reflect real life and therefore there should be more LGBTIQA exposure in the media.

We have found that the suggestion of inclusion of diversity in many projects/attempts can be met with some resistance thinking that the whole thing has to become totally LGBTIQA – this is not necessarily the case., LGBTIQA people do not have to be plot devices to move the story forward, they can just be incidental. They are a part of everyday life, and that needs to be shown.  

Events for people who are Deaf LGBTIQA – In today’s more inclusive society we know that many deaf LGBTIQA people still want events specifically for them, but it then gets hard to find a strong level of commitment to develop such.  Mainstream events with heterosexual people are valued, but when it comes to specific information or particular themes, it can be positive to be exclusive. But people are not as committed as they used to be in the olden days.

We do not think it is our remit to set up events across the UK but instead we will proactively share any events that are happening via our website/social media. The Brothers and Sisters club and the Deaf Riders (Yorks) are two examples of this. We encourage involvement from the community to ensure that this continues.

There is also too much pressure to drink alcohol at LGBT events and we must be very careful of how such events can be kept inclusive and do not assume people want to drink alcohol. We encourage people to be creative with organising events and ensure that there are various events that suit a variety of people.

Across the world, LGBTIQA people are suffering discrimination because of who they love, so we should never forget why Pride was set up in the first place. It can be all too easy to look at the beautiful rainbow flags and items for sale and forget that Pride was about protest, not just celebration.

Marks & Spencers for example have released a themed LGBT (Lettuce, Guacamole, Bacon, Tomato) sandwich to help raise money in the name of Pride, but we need to ask ourselves whether they are only our allies for the month of June, or are they committed to long term support. Is the intent to stand with us, or financially benefit from a high profile cause. If it is the former, then we should expect to see more initiatives from them in the future.

Computer algorithms can be tricky and we know that because of this, come people are missing out on our updates. We also know that not everyone engages with social media, for a variety of reasons, so feel free to sign up to our newsletter here – …

Allies – if you are not LGBTIQA or deaf, we still welcome your support.  We will include you in our membership development work ahead.

We applaud the many organisations and businesses in the Deaf Sector who have adopted a rainbow into their logos to demonstrate their support of Pride.  We would be interested to see what more they could do?

A temporary change to a logo to incorporate the rainbow flag is an excellent start, but what more can they do to be allies to the deaf LGBTIQA community? We always welcome financial support, which is invaluable in helping to get our project work off the ground.

In the meantime, Happy Pride once again and wish us luck in our grant application.

To sign up for more information from the Deaf LGBTIQA  website, click here.