Hello sailor!

This weekend's Europride in London will include for the first time a contingent of LGBT sailors in full uniform from the Royal Navy.

Britain's military does not exclude gays from serving openly but the decision to allow sailors to march in uniform, made by what is described as the highest level of the Navy, is considered a major advancement.

Vice-Adml Adrian Johns said that the decision will help more gay people to enlist.
But the sailors will be the only branch of the military allowed to march in uniform. Requests by gays in the Army and Royal Air Force were turned down.

In documents obtained by The Sunday Telegraph the heads of the RAF and the Army said that soldiers and airmen who wear their uniforms to Europride will "face punishment for bringing their service into disrepute."

The documents said that while the two branches support their gay enlistees they must wear civilian clothes at the event.

"This is line with the Army's 'Sexual Orientation Key Messages' which state that we regard sexual orientation as a private life matter," the Army directive said. "It also ensures that the dignity derived from wearing Army uniform is not in any way devalued by participation in a parade where fancy dress is likely to be prevalent."

British LGBT rights groups and Europride organizers said they were surprised by the decision by the Army and Air Force.

All three branches of the military will have recruiting booths at the event.

In the US gays open about their sexuality are barred from serving in the military under the so-called "don't ask, don't tell" rule. Legislation is currently pending in Congress to overturn the ban.

Taken from 365gay.com

London Mayor fulfilling ‘gay dream’

Gay campaigners praised the London Mayor’s record on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights last night as around 250 dignitaries gathered at City Hall for the annual pride reception. The event celebrated this weekend’s EuroPride parade in London and was addressed by gay campaigners, celebrities and sponsors.

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of gay charity Stonewall attributed the success of enacting civil partnerships legislation to Mr Livingstone’s London based partnership register, he said: “It’s been a quality year for LGBT people in this country, I didn’t think in my lifetime I would see couples signing up for civil partnerships, to secure exactly the same rights and entitlements as straight people derive from marriage.

“We would not have been able to persuade the government if we hadn’t been able to look at what Ken has done with his partnership register in London.

“Civil partnership has changed the lives of a single boy such as myself for whom no one as yet has popped the question.

“If Christmas came early for us it also came twice, with the support of campaigning organisations and trade unions we also secured changes to the Equality Act which will provide us at last with protection against discrimination in the provision of goods and services."

Read the full story on Pink News

Wanted: self-employed disabled people

The Association of Disabled Professionals (ADP) is writing a resource guide for disabled people who are thinking of going into business for themselves. They want to be able to include genuine examples from the experiences disabled entrepreneurs have faced when starting up their own businesses.

If you are disabled and:

• self-employed
• a direct seller
• have bought a franchise;
• have a licence to run a business

and want to pass on your own experiences and benefit from the free publicity which might come your way from your involvement in the guide, you can contact the ADP by email on adp.admin@ntlworld.com or by phone/fax on 01204 431638.

Also, if you're thinking of starting up your own business and would like a qualification in small business management, the ADP is offering twenty free places on a Consortium of Enterprise Outreach (CEO) pilot programme. They say,"Essentially the aim of the project is to enable disabled people to get a recognised diploma for managing a business to make it easier to raise funds from banks, etc.".

You can access a copy of the CEO brochure by clicking this link. The programme lasts for a year, and appears to be carried out entirely through distance learning in the form of email assignments and contact with what they are describing as "disability-aware business mentors".

This time contact is by email only tomailto:todevelop@disabled-entrepreneurs.net

Pride to launch gay TV channel backed with £15m

Pride Television Networks is to launch Pride TV, a new channel specifically for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, which will be backed by a £15m investment for the first year alone.

Pride TV, which will launch in November, will provide news, entertainment and hard-hitting documentaries alongside drama, lifestyle, music, film and late night erotic content.

Initially, more than a third of the programming will be produced in-house and the channel will air for 10 hours daily via subscription on satellite, cable and free-to-air on the new Pride Digital IDTV network.

The launch schedule will include a talent search for a Pride TV presenter and transsexual makeover show. Based in London, the channel will be run by and programmed exclusively for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexuals.

Of the £15m invested for the first year, £10m is in place through sponsorship with several diverse brands. However, Pride Television is not releasing the names of the brands it has signed until near its November launch.

Nicole Saganice, managing director of Pride Television Networks, said: "Pride TV aims to be the first and foremost LGBT channel in the UK -- a channel from the community to the community.
"Pride TV has its own studios, which allows it to produce its own material that no other channel can offer."

Media support will include a dedicated website and bi-monthly listings magazine with the same philosophy.

Marketing support for the launch will include advertising in gay magazines such as Diva and Boyz in London. There will also be some outdoor and taxi ads as well as activity at London Brighton Pride Festivals.
Taken from Brand Republic

Local authorities ignoring duties to promote equality

Legal requirements to eliminate discrimination and promote equality are being ignored by nine out of 10 local authorities, according to a report published this week. Information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the thinktank Committed2Equality (C2E), reveals that 88% of local authorities are unaware that most of their suppliers do not have equality practices in place. Of the 300,000 organisations which supply local authorities, 92% have no equality practices.

Local authorities spend £40bn with these organisations each year and would be in a strong position to see that the practices are enforced. The survey suggests that most councils do not bother to do so.

A series of acts of parliament has outlawed discrimination and made it a legal requirement of local and central government departments that they put into practice equality policies. The key pieces of legislation are the 1975 and 1986 Sex Discrimination acts, the 1976 Race Relations Act, the 2000 Race Relations Amendment Act and the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act. The aim of the legislation was to put the onus on authorities which had the power to push through equality measures.

Janet Lakhani, chief executive of C2E, said councils had the power to make a great difference but were failing to do so. "Currently employment levels are at 75%, but for ethnic minorities it is 59% and 49% for the disabled," she said. "These groups are among the most disadvantaged and are most discriminated against by employers."

CIPD's diversity adviser Dianah Worman awarded an OBE

Dianah Worman, diversity adviser for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), has been awarded an OBE for her work on equality issues in the workplace.
Worman, who has worked for the CIPD for more than 20 years, was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List.

She has led a number of national equal opportunities initiatives, including campaigns against age discrimination and bullying and research on diversity, race, disability and employment.
Geoff Armstrong, director general of the CIPD, said attitudes towards diversity in the workplace had changed over recent years.

"Over the time Dianah has spent with CIPD, attitudes have changed. Prejudices and practices that were commonplace 20 years ago are now unheard of in most workplaces," he said.

"Dianah's most recent research into age discrimination has highlighted the continuing challenge for employers in rooting out the kind of practice that can disadvantage them in the jobs market and leave them short of talent and experience."

This story was published in Personnel Today

Pentagon Lists Homosexuality As Disorder

A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental health experts abandoned that position. The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders.

Read the full story on the Guardian website

Paternity leave becoming more popular, says EOC

More and more new fathers are taking paternity, according to a report from the Equal Opportunities Commission. Dads and the Babies: a household analysis reveals that the vast majority of fathers are now taking at least two weeks leave around the birth of their child, especially in high income families, but some lower income men still face barriers.

According to the research, nearly four in five dads take at least two weeks leave in dual-earning professional families. In dual-earning low-skilled families, three in five dads take at least two weeks. And over four in five fathers from low-income groups would like to take up a proportion of paid maternity leave in the place of their partner, compared to three in five fathers from high-income groups.

“Our research suggests that we need to be vigilant in future to avoid creating an affordability gap for fathers in poorer families,” said Jenny Watson, Chair of the EOC. The government’s review of support for parents in next year’s comprehensive spending review, with its emphasis on fathers as well as mothers, offers the perfect opportunity to consider targeted support for lower income families, ensuring that all fathers have a chance to take leave and build strong relationships with their children.”

The Equal Opportunities website

Young Gays Still Face Discrimination and Exclusion in Europe

Young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people across Europe face discrimination and exclusion in their everyday life, a report published today says.

They experience estrangement from family, bullying and marginalisation at school, which can lead to such problems as underachievement and school drop-out, low self-esteem and mental ill-health.
These in turn, the report says, have a negative impact on the capacity of young LGBT people to manage the transition from school to work and to become confident and independent adults who can contribute to society.

This joint report, Social Exclusion of Young Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People (LGBT) in Europe, by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Youth and Student Organization (IGLYO) and ILGA-Europe is a response to the need to bring attention to the social exclusion of young LGBT people in Europe and to put the issue on the agenda of national and European policy-makers.

Its publication highlights the effect that discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation and gender identity has on young LGBT people’s capacity to be socially included and to become active citizens. It also raises awareness about the multiple forms of discrimination that interact to put young LGBT people at a particular disadvantage and risk of exclusion.

Over 700 young LGBT people from 37 countries responded to the survey and gave information about where they mostly experience discrimination. School (61% of respondents) and family environment (51%) are the places where most young people reported discrimination and exclusion.
In comparison, 29.8% of young people faced discrimination in their circle of friends.

The report highlights the lack of visibility of LGBT people at school and in society and shows how bullying and harassment continue to be major problems for LGBT youths. These can affect mental well-being, lead to lower achievements at school and to higher suicide rates.

Discrimination and prejudice thus influence the transition of young people into adulthood and are at the basis their social exclusion.

Download the full Social Exclusion of Young Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People (LGBT) in Europe report.

Positive discrimination needed to make police more diverse, says CRE head

Police forces need to use positive discrimination to recruit more black and ethnic officers, to help fight terrorism, says the Commission for Racial Equality.

CRE chairman Trevor Phillips said that police services had been trying hard to recruit more black and Asian people but could not make progress fast enough.

“They've been saying to me, we need to be exempted from some aspects of the race relations act so we can accelerate the integration of our forces,” Mr Phillips said.

He said the issue had become urgent but the fight against terrorism meant it was essential for the police to have a real understanding of Asian communities. The “blunders” at Forest Gate shows that “police services and security services are not fit for purpose”, he said.
Commission for Racial Equality website

Ethnic minority interviewees face prejudice

Employers often discriminate against job hunters from ethnic minority backgrounds at the interview stage, according to a government-commissioned report.

The Talk on Trial study, carried out by the Department for Work and Pensions and Kings College London (KCL), was based on 60 real interviews for basic roles.

It found that some interview practices were disadvantageous to ethnic minorities, including assessing foreign work experience.

Celia Roberts, senior research fellow at the Department of Education and Professional Studies and the Centre for Language, Discourse and Communication at KCL, said candidates were often expected to have unnecessarily advanced communication skills.

The report did not indicate any overt discrimination by interviewers, but showed that work experience from other countries was not rated as highly as UK experience.

The report recommended that employers reassess competency frameworks at the interview stage, work more flexibly to provide support for ethnic minorities and provide better training for interviewers.
This story was first published in Personnel Today

Multi-million pound legal claim brought by a transsexual is unlikely to prompt a flood of similar claims

Jessica Bussert, formerly known as Josh, is seeking £500,000 from Hitachi Data Systems under the Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999.

She is also suing Hitachi in the US for $3.6m (£1.93m) – said to be the biggest ever to be brought over a sex change - claiming the company demoted her from her high-level IT job after she had facial and breast surgery.

Hitachi has denied both of the claims. Since a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) 10 years ago, it has been unlawful to discriminate against transsexuals in the workplace.

The regulations now make it clear that the ruling applies to an employee who intends to undergo gender reassignment, is going through the process or has already done so.

Andrew Chamberlain, employment partner at law firm Addleshaw Goddard, said discrimination claims on the basis of gender identity were rare."To date, queries in this area have tended to be confined to practical questions such as which toilets transsexuals should use in the workplace," he said.

As a high earner, it is the size of Bussert's claim which makes it particularly noteworthy and potentially very damaging for Hitachi UK – both financially and in terms of company reputation, Chamberlain said.

"There is no cap on the damages that tribunals can award for discrimination cases," he said.
Last month, the ECJ ruled that the UK government's refusal to give a woman who had had a sex change a pension at the age of 60 was illegal under EU equality laws.

This story was published by Personnel Today

Explaining the sudden jump in transgender policies

Beginning in the 1960s, transgender people began seeking employment protections through lawsuits and legislative lobbying, largely unsuccessfully. The adoption of employer transgender workplace policies was non-existent prior to 1975, was infrequent from 1975 to 1996, began a slow but steady increase in 1997, and a rapid increase in 2001 which is continuing. What caused this trend? Is it a sudden increase in the 0.01% of employees that are visibly transgender? Is it altruism on the part of employers unaware until recently of the needs of transgender employees? Political liberalism? Political correctness? All of these social forces have their place, but none is a complete explanation. My 2003 dissertation research, involving 40 interviews with employers that had adopted transgender EEO policies, gives evidence for a different explanation.

This was taken from the Transgender Workplace Diversity blog. The rest of the post continues here..