Sefton Equality Week conference

Having limited paid work is giving me time to do a bit more in the way of community-based activity at the moment which is fun - today I was a one of the keynote speakers at a conference to mark Equality and Diversity Week in Sefton - giving a presentation on the history of the gay and lesbian movement, and facilitating two workshops on making one's organisation more LGB friendly.

It made me think of just how far we have come in such a short time. I recall a few years ago, few people feeling confident enough to attend such an event, and workshops such as mine struggling for participants. Not the case today!

We still have to continue to work for change. As I said today:

It is not the end of working for change, but the beginning....

The real challenge is to ensure that the legal and policy changes are put into practice, and that we ensure that our commitment to equality is enacted via our own organisation

The advantage we have is that those who still wish to pursue an agenda of prejudice, often justified by religion, are ever more shrill and represented by those who repel and who are clearly not comfortable with their own stance.