Update: our journey; talk; film screenings; holiday

York St John University LGBT Staff Network: our journey

At the ‘All out: how can we be out at work?’ event co-organised for York LGBT History Month 2015 by York St John University, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the City of York Council, I contributed to a workshop on LGBT staff networks. The slideshow I created doesn’t make as much sense without explanation, but nonetheless provides a good overview of where we’ve come since our formation in 2013, so here it is!

Pride, politics and protest

Laura Miles recently authored the Socialist Workers Party pamphlet Pride, Politics and Protest – A Revolutionary Guide to LGBT Liberation, in which she argues that periods of progress for LGBT people have also been periods of struggle for the working class. She will discuss this in a talk hosted by York Socialist Workers Party on Wednesday 4 March, 19:30 at the Seahorse Hotel. After the talk, the meeting will be opened up to discussion. Laura touches on this theme and others in a recent Socialist Worker article.

Film screening: The Imitation Game (2014)

On Friday 6 March, York Student Cinema will be showing The Imitation Game, a film about Alan Turing, a famous World War II codebreaker who was prosecuted for homosexuality. York Student Cinema screenings are open to the public. Tickets are available on the door for £3 from 18:15, and the film starts at 19:00. For more information, see the synopsis below (recycled from when it was at City Screen!) or see the York Student Cinema website.

Benedict Cumberbatch masterfully portrays mathematical genius Alan Turing in his race against time to break Germany’s Enigma code during World War II.

Flashbacks following Turing’s arrest for homosexuality in 1952 chronicle his battles with the commander of the Bletchley Park codebreakers (Dance) before winning the trust of an MI6 boss (Mark Strong) and the funding to build a huge electro-mechanical computer which would help him decipher the code.

Directed by Morten Tyldum (JO NESBO’S HEADHUNTERS), Cumberbatch’s twitchy, savant-like Turing doesn’t suffer the fools he initially has to work with, but in Joan Clarke (Knightley), a woman who, like him, has an exceptional mathematical brain, he finds an intellectual equal and friend. The result is both gripping and profoundly moving.

Film screening: Mutantes: Punk Porn Feminism (2009)

FemFilm York are screening Mutantes: Punk Porn Feminism (2009) on Monday 9 March, which includes trans and queer themes. A synopsis taken from So So Gay’s review is below. FemFilm York’s monthly screenings are free, but you need to join their Facebook group or email them to find out the venue. For more information, see the FemFilm York blog.

Virginie Despentes’ debut documentary, the winner of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality’s ‘Derek Oyston Film Award’ 2011, focuses on the punk porn feminism movement. Mutantes examines its origins in 1980s America, its gathering momentum, evolution, and eventual transportation overseas to Europe. Unlike other feminist movements, which see pornography as exploitative and demeaning, punk porn feminism sees sex and porno as tools of liberation, where women choose and control how to express themselves sexually, believing that this embodies an epitome of feminism. It covers subjects such as the campaign to legalise prostitution in the USA, feminist S&M pornography, transgender erotica, and queer activism, to name only a few.

LGBT out for the weekend at UNISON’s Croyde Bay Holiday Resort

UNISON are celebrating the start of the pride season with Croyde’s LGBT weekend, offering three nights stay (Friday 1 May – Sunday 4 May inclusive) in their holiday resort for £162 per person (plus 17.65% for non-members), including breakfast and dinner. The resort has a pool, a jacuzzi, a steam room, a sauna, a gym and private access to Croyde beach. The weekend will include tribute acts, late discos and late bars. For more information, call 01271 890 890, email croyde@unison.co.uk or see the UNISON Croyde Bay website.