GALHA @ Prides 2011

Our Pride Stalls for the 2011 season

I still believe this is one of our most LGBT public activities and a great way to promote humanism.

Why have people come to the GALHA/ BHA LGBT Pride stalls?

·        There are those who just collect freebie items like pens and postcards and what nothing more

·        There are many who can’t look at you and just ‘sneek’ a leaflet off the stall for bedtime reading.

·        There have been many young teenagers with stories; One of how a young women's Jehovah's Witness believing parents threw them out of home, when they Came Out by bringing girlfriend home. A Catholic family who called the local Priest to come in and try and cure their son of their “sinfulness” and when this didn't work then their siblings beat them up. A story of how a teacher ridiculed and colluded with homophobic bullying in a religious school, they dropped out and failed all their exams.

·        Some parents come to the stall for information for their children about all forms of belief, philosophies and 'truths', including non religious ones.

·        Many people have been to a non-religious funeral and want to ensure they can have ensure they have one for themselves.

·        The ‘religious’ who see it as an opportunity to convert you back to their ‘Truth’.

·        Towards the end of the day at some Prides some people are so drunk they can hardly standup, but still want to tell their stories of how religious beliefs have ‘haunted’ their lives.

 The volunteer on the stalls give our GALHA, BHA and Local Humanist information and make many 1 to 1 quality contacts investing time to offer our Humanist, rationalist and secular perspectives. We have been conveying what our Humanism means to us and backing this view up with written information. Nottingham Secular Society members invited me up to support their stall at pride this year.

The number of times I have heard stall volunteers say what the humanist basics are across the stall and people said “……. I am one of them too”, what an irony, a Humanist in all but the ‘Label’ and some are not even one of our LGBT folk either.

LGBT young people growing up in a much more accepting, liberal society than even a decade ago, yet still have to struggle with internalised, homophobic and anti-lesbian indoctrination based on religious belief perpetrated within their family, in schools, many funded by the State.

Again we have shared the cost of the stalls with the generous support of the BHA.

Many thanks to the small band of volunteers this year, offering their time and energy to ‘show’ the face of GALHA,BHA and Local Humanist groups to our wider groups of LGBT communities.

Paul Allen

Pride Co-ordinator

We need volunteers for the stalls for a couple of hours, so please sign up by email to Paul Allen mail@peacenik.me.uk

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