UK Black Pride and LGBTQ charity Stonewall have announced a ground-breaking new partnership.
UK Black Pride – Europe’s largest celebration for African, Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American and Caribbean heritage LGBTQ people – have teamed up with Stonewall to transform how the organisations work with LGBTQ people from BAME communities.
The focus is to build strong relationships with BAME LGBTQ people and organisations and help support their development and campaigning efforts both locally and nationally, in an effort to better combat issues these groups face.
The work will be led by BAME activists to drive meaningful change and celebrate BAME LGBTQ people and culture across all of society.
Research conducted by Stonewall showed that over half (51%) of BAME LGBTQ people have faced discrimination from within the community, proving why a partnership like this is vital.
As part of their commitment to the partnership, Stonewall will recruit a new full-time member of staff to work closely with UK Black Pride and BAME community groups to drive this work forward.
“We are hugely excited and proud to announce this ground-breaking new partnership between UK Black Pride and Stonewall,” said Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, Executive Director of UK Black Pride, and Ruth Hunt, Chief Executive of Stonewall.
© Sarah Moore / Stonewall
“We have agreed on a joint programme of work that will transform how our organisations are able to reach and empower Britain’s diverse black, Asian and minority ethnic LGBT communities.
“The work will focus on building strong relationships and supporting the development of local and national campaigning. It will also support the organisation and running of UK Black Pride, Britain’s largest event for BAME LGBT people.
“We know that BAME LGBT people are disproportionately affected by homophobic, biphobic and transphobic discrimination. We also know that they experience racism and discrimination from within the wider LGBT community – in fact our research shows that half of BAME LGBT people (51 per cent) face discrimination from within the LGBT community.
“This is not acceptable. And it is why we hope that this announcement sends a strong, positive statement of our shared intent. We have not achieved equality until every LGBT person, of every colour and background, is able to enjoy equality within our community and outside it.
“We recognise the influence and privilege that organisations like Stonewall have and, working with the expertise of UK Black Pride, are committed to using that power to reach and empower more people in our beautiful, diverse communities through this joint work.
“UK Black Pride and Stonewall have been working together, in different ways, for the last eight years. We are thrilled to be starting this new chapter of deeper engagement and are recruiting a new post to drive this work forward.”
Stonewall and UK Black Pride are urging people from diverse communities to apply for the new role, with more information available here.
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