Leicester mayoral candidates (some of anyway) at the LGBT centre

It is a measure of social change in the UK that most of the candidates for the elected mayor of Leicester turned up last night for a hustings at the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender centre. It was generally a polite and well mannered meeting, but so boring, until the back row interrupted the orderly timed Q&As. It seemed at first if this was going to be yet another safe event with the experienced showing they were experienced and the less so etc.

It came more alive when the prescribed order of things was interrupted by "supplementaries" which allowed a much more raw set of feelings and grievances to emerge. The candidates seemed to think that it was a case of more resources - some would allocate more, some were more wary. The idea that a change of attitude on the part of elected councillors and senior officials was needed seemed somewhat novel to the candidates. The lack of adequate monitoring of LGBT populations was highlighted as one area which meant that there were no established statistical norms by which to see if the equality agenda is being met.

The view that there were unconscious or conscious forces at work in elected councillors and senior officers that meant the LGBT community was either made invisible or certainly less visible than other minority groups for fear of upsetting religious or ethnic sensitivities was firmly rejected by some candidates yet made sense to others. What seem to differentiate the two responses was how closely they had been to the seats of power in the council. Those who had held office seemed to reject the idea and those who had not held power were at least able to entertain it as a possible explantation of the absence of a LGBT presence on the ONE Leicester material. It will be interesting to see how, once the mayor arrives in office, how things change.

It was stressed to the candidates that it requires moral courage to take a stand and support a minority which is often seen in a negative light. However, there was surprise when they were told that, not withstanding major social changes in UK society, there are still unacceptable high levels of physical and mental illness among LGBT community members. This is not surprising given the amounts of negativity and sometimes hatred shown to us.

There was recognition that the mayor could give a lead on matters such as homophobic bullying in schools and LGBT hate crime and set a model of good practice. The question of faith schools' policies on homophobic bullying was not given the consideration it needs especially where particular faiths have views on LGBT issues that, in my view, fuel attacks on our community.

The government proposals for the NHS and the implications for the LGBT community only got a small amount of attention, at the end, when people were tired. It needs much more thought especially with the city council taking over responsibility for some aspects of health care. Given the likely representation of LGBT people running these services there could be some useful further discussions that would inform the new administration of what is needed.

There was a challenge to those present to get their act together and present to the new administration what was needed to make LGBT a more defined community. What was not discussed last night, and slept like the elephant in the room, was the fundamental question of the language we use to talk about ourselves. What is a community? Are we a community of communities? Why is the LGBT centre so under-used?* Who should speak to the city council on behalf of the community?

It was sad that so few women were present. When the meeting ended candidates and attendees went downstairs only to meet many women using the centre as a social space. Pity more of them had not been present at the meeting upstairs. I wonder why?

The youngest candidate for mayor who was present was Mu-Hamid Pathan who surely has a political career in front of him. I end with a picture of him talking to one of the attendees in the ice breaking first half hour.

It was sad that the one glaring absentee was the Conservative candidate for mayor. I assume he had been invited but there was no message from him. We were left wondering what was the meaning of his absence and seeming failure to send a message. One of the independent candidates said he was gay/bisexual but no other candidates choose to announce their sexual orientation. Many of them said they had visited the centre in the past.

Last word: many of the candidates said that they had been surprised at the strong feelings expressed in the meeting, some even saying that they had learned something they did not know (here good marks to Rick Moore, who impressed many present). But if the candidates thought that this meeting was somehow special in its intensity it does give pause for thought. As a gay man well used to arguing politics and religion and culture etc I thought it only an average night. Perhaps we are more lucky than we realise.
*access point: the centre really does need to do some work on helping those with mobility problems to be able to get into the building more easily.