‘THREAT TO THE POLISH STATE’ – ANTI LGBT SENTIMENTS ENSHRINED IN POLISH LAW

Posted on June 4, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged Białystok, family rights charter, featured, homosexuality, institutional homophobia, jaroslaw kaczynski, Krajowy Ośrodek Duszpasterstwa Rodzin, LGBTQIA+, network, Poland, polska sercem europy, prawo i sprawiedliwosc, pride, pride month, Przemysław Drąg, queer, racism, Radio Maryja, support, together, uea pride.

by Ewa Giera

CW: homophobia

As a ‘citizen of nowhere’ who spends far more time engaged with UK politics, I often get to turn a blind eye to the place I’ve left behind. But to many who follow the general flow of Polish politics, it won’t be a surprise that this year marks Poland’s drop to 42nd place out of 49 in ILGA Europe’s annual Rainbow Map ranking, making it the least LGBTQIA+ friendly country in the European Union. As we experience a rise in fascist politics across the majority of Europe, it’s worth to take a closer look at the way Poland has approached its place on the list and the way its government has enshrined its anti-LGBT sentiment in both culture and policy.Continue Reading

QUEER LONELINESS & THE IMPENDING MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS

Posted on May 30, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged #StayAlert, #StayHome, coronavirus, Covid-19, crisis, featured, health, healthcare, LGBTQIA+, lockdown, london, loneliness, medical, mental health, mental illness, network, NHS, public information, queer, race, racism, support, together, uea pride, uk.

by Kasper Hassett

CW: mental health

Long predating the lockdown, members of the LGBTQIA+ community have reported feelings of isolation and loneliness at alarmingly high levels. This reached a point where ‘queer loneliness’ was dubbed an epidemic, and the mental health of the community overall was recognised as dire. With many now separated from their support networks during lockdown, queer people are experiencing new lows in their mental health. Additionally, much of the previously mentally healthy population is also struggling, and NHS services are suffocating from cuts, meaning that many queer people will miss out on vital mental health services as a complacent wider world focuses on going ‘back to normal’. Continue Reading

YANGON PRIDE KICKS OFF WITH NEW #LOVEISNOTACRIME CAMPAIGN

Posted on January 26, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Arts, Inter|national, Perspectives and tagged &Proud, equality, featured, gay rights, human rights, lgbtQ+, LoveIsNotACrime, Myanmar, pride, queer community, sex workers, support, transgender, Yangon, Yangon Pride.

by Lotty Clare

Content warning: sexual violence, corrective rape, sexual abuse, suicide.

Last Friday was the beginning of Yangon Pride celebrations in a country where human rights abuses are rife, and homosexuality is criminalised. The rising profile of LGBTQ+ rights in Myanmar provides precious hope for queer people in the country. However, the road to equality is a long one.

Yangon’s 2020 Pride festival is organised by &PROUD and runs from January 18th to February 2nd. The opening day in Thakin Mya park attracted thousands of people. The city’s pride events include a boat parade, queer dance performances, drag shows, queer film screenings and panel discussions, and of course lots of rainbows. The films that will be shown include ‘A Simple Love Story’ a short documentary film that was given a distinction in the Wathann Film Festival but was not screened due to censorship, even though there was no nudity. The film centred around a trans couple and asked the question ‘does love have any gender?’. Continue Reading

TRANSPARENT REFORM

Posted on July 28, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged #VisitAPrison, Bob Neill, crime, ethics, family, FAMM, featured, felony, jail, Julie Stewart, justice, law, life sentence, Nelson Mandela, prison, prisoner, Prisoner Policy Network, PRT, reform, support, transparency, walls.

by David Breakspear

It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.
N. Mandela

A message I have carried whilst campaigning for reforms in our prison system has been one of making the walls of justice invisible. The walls that ensconce societies; mums, dads, sons, daughters, husbands, wives, other family members and loved ones and/or friends.

As someone that became, somewhat, institutionalised to the safety and comfort of prison, I saw those walls as keeping people out. I also saw this as a good thing. How ironic then, that here I am now, writing an article promoting transparency to those very same walls that were my protectors.Continue Reading

PLATONIC POLYAMORY: A 2018 VALENTINE’S CONCLUSION

Posted on February 26, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged affection, Ash Sarkar, cbt, Community, Elf Lyons, emotion, empathy, featured, february, humanity, individualism, intimacy, LGBTQIA+, loneliness, mental health, network, Novara Media, personal, platonic, politics, polyamory, relationship, romantic, sentimental, single, support, unity, valentines.

by Sunetra Senior

This Valentine’s Day was distinctive. In addition to the usual encouragement of self-love, and sending of gushing gifs amongst female friends, more people were sending greetings to family members and stressing the importance of acts of love within the community. Ash Sarkar, Senior Editor of Novara Media, said emphatically in a video message: ‘when you stop a charter flight from taking off and deporting asylum seekers, that’s love’. Perhaps an effect of delayed liberal mobilisation, after such angry right-wing resurgence, the concept of growing close to one another is being gradually – literally – redefined to be more liberal.Continue Reading

THIS IS MY LOVE STORY

Posted on January 19, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Perspectives and tagged anger, cbt, dating, discrimination, fear, featured, love, mental health, mental illness, personal, PTSD, relationship, sex, story, support, therapy, tree.

by Anonymous

cw: sexual assault, PTSD

There’s something weirdly intimate about being curled up in a corner of a bed, completely naked and sobbing uncontrollably, unable to catch your breath and being very conscious of the wet space between your legs where a warm body was just seconds ago. The face belonging to this body is now centimetres away from my face, asking too many questions, and panicking more than I am.Continue Reading

AN INDEPENDENT CATALONIA: A SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVIST ACCOUNT

Posted on October 29, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Inter|national and tagged authoritarianism, Brexit, Catalonia, EU, Generalitat, independence, Kosovo, nation, national sovereignity, politics, Puigdemont, Quebec, Rajoy, referendum, Scotland, social contructivism, solidarity, support, Wendt.

by Oliver Steward

September 27th 2017 will be remembered as a Day of Independence. A day of celebration, but also a day of possible mourning. I rejoice and also remain vigilant at the coming days since the Catalonian government’s decision to declare independence. Some would view this as a failure of democracy, and of politics more generally, to achieve a peaceful alternative that would recognise the cultural diversity of Catalonia within Spain. The compromise option would have seen Catalonia keep its devolved status, but within the context of Spain. The model that Quebec and Scotland have already taken.Continue Reading

“HI, HOW ARE YOU?”

Posted on September 12, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged alcohol, anxiety, clubbing, companion, compassion, conflict, creative writing, death, depression, dog, family, guardian, guilt, homeless, homelessness, Kev Walker, kitbag, maybe, mental health, night out, pain, poem, poetry, pride, PTSD, rough sleepers, saturday night out, solider, special brew, substance misuse, support, tramp, veteran, war, words, writing.

by Kev Walker

Content warning: mentions substance misuse, mental health, homelessness, conflict

It’s all bling and totter, down the lights of the highstreet, drunk by the train journey there
Cackles and shouts, tales of shagging and swearing, cosmetics squeeze out the air
Bravado and vanity, beer and wine, heading for the first open club
Boys strut with their chests out, showing a leg, only thoughts are of getting a rub.

He’s crouched in the corner, a-top a damp box, wrapped in a half soaking doss-bag
A dog by his side, as companion and protector, a mucker to share a sparse nose-bag
He shakes with the cold, but also the comedown the cider has long since left him
A blot-out, a release, from the pain in his mind and the mess he now finds himself in.Continue Reading

JOAN LEE: THE MARVELOUS MUSE

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Arts and tagged artist, arts, comic books, comics, creator, daughter, DC, death, family, husband, Jack Kirby, Joan Clayton Boocock, Marvel, marvel universe, memory, Newcastle, obituary, purple prose, relationship, RIP, Spider-Man, Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, superhero, support, Uatu the Watcher, wife.

by Richard Worth

The story goes that Stan Lee was dragging his feet on Marvel’s latest bid to catch up with the Distinguished Competition. He was becoming bored with the monster-matinée mags he made with Kirby and uninspired by the sci-fi parables he produced with Ditko and now his bosses had tasked him with making a book to rival DC’s newest hit, Justice League.

Stan wasn’t one for superheroes. They were too perfect, too unflawed, and too unfit for the hyper-dramatised, purple prose that was Stan’s hallmark. He moped and complained about his artistic integrity, as writers are wont to do, boring all around him until his perpetually patient wife finally told him to get on with it. Continue Reading

WILL UEA DO WHAT’S RIGHT FOR PHD ASSOCIATE TUTORS?

Posted on June 28, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged academia, academic staff, access, access to employment, application processes, complaints, contracts, disrespect, diversity, elitism, employee feedback, employment rights, equality and diversity monitoring, hierarchy, higher education, hours, HR, male dominance, marking, mental health, nepotism, pay, phD, PhD Associate Tutors, postgraduate, postgraduate community, postgraduate tutors, recruitment, report, rights, shift covering, student employment, student mental health, students, support, temporary contracts, trade unions, training, UEA, UEA School of Arts Media and American Studies, UEA School of Chemistry, UEA School of International Development, UEA School of Politics Philosophy and Language and Communication Studies, UEA Student Experience Committee, UEA SU, unconscious bias, undergraduate teaching, unpaid work, white dominance.

by Maddie Colledge, UEA SU Postgraduate Education Officer

Following a steady drip of complaints to the SU in recent years, the Postgraduate Committee have this year steered me to focus my efforts on launching research into the experience of our PhD Associate Tutors (ATs). We already knew some of the issues that our ATs face and had brought them to the University’s attention, but in light of little change since then, it seemed a full review was needed. Following the publication of that review, I’d like to share our findings with you as well as our plans for the future (the full report can be found here).

support

‘THREAT TO THE POLISH STATE’ – ANTI LGBT SENTIMENTS ENSHRINED IN POLISH LAW

QUEER LONELINESS & THE IMPENDING MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS

YANGON PRIDE KICKS OFF WITH NEW #LOVEISNOTACRIME CAMPAIGN

TRANSPARENT REFORM

PLATONIC POLYAMORY: A 2018 VALENTINE’S CONCLUSION

THIS IS MY LOVE STORY

“HI, HOW ARE YOU?”

JOAN LEE: THE MARVELOUS MUSE

WILL UEA DO WHAT’S RIGHT FOR PHD ASSOCIATE TUTORS?

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