Florist gives away tens of thousands of flowers, which otherwise would have had to be burned as the country goes into lockdown
A luxury florist in London has delivered some 500 posy bouquets to NHS staff at six hospitals, including St. Thomas’s, Chelsea and Westminster, and Lambeth Hospital, as a thank you for all the hard work during the Coronavirus outbreak.
Wildabout’s team have created these signature posies to bring a moment of joy to our invaluable NHS employees, it has also meant that they have been able to prevent tonnes of flowers being burnt at local farms across Holland.
The managing director, Leanne Roberts-Hewitt said,
“As our industry comes to a standstill for the foreseeable future and we close our doors, we wanted to make sure we spread some joy through these difficult times to our amazing NHS workers … And nothing does that better than flowers!!
“It has been heartbreaking watching the huge amount of flowers in Holland being burnt due to the quick reduction in supply; so we have been working with our Dutch supplier and the growers to put these flowers to good use.
“We have a huge selection of flowers including 50,000 stems of Roses, 20,000 Tulips and 5,000 hydrangeas, that we are proud to have saved to be used for such an incredible cause. We hope they shine some light during the most incredibly difficult circumstances.”
Opening Doors charity calls for support to help isolated older people from LGBT+ communities during COVID-19 outbreak
Opening Doors launches crowdfunding page to help to keep essential telefriending service running to support those most in need
Telefriending provides a critical lifeline to those who feel most vulnerable by providing reducing isolation, signposting to urgent services and providing valuable information
£15,000 is needed to help train volunteers to reach older LGBTQ+ communities during this crisis.
Opening Doors London, the biggest UK charity providing support services for the over 50’s LGBT+ communities, has launched an urgent crowdfunding campaign in a bid to secure £15,000 of funding to help train volunteers use their telefriending service to reach those who need care the most and support telephone services.
The recent COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in the charity having to halt hundreds of face-to-face services to prevent any risk to their older members and volunteer supporters, so there’s a real issue with reaching lonely and socially isolated members of LGBTQ communities, many having no access to digital services.
As a result, they are asking for donations so that they can train current volunteers in telephone befriending and increase staff capacity to support more of the community, so as many LGBTQ+ people over 50 who are at risk of isolation have someone to speak to if needed.
One such member of the community benefitting from this is Mike, a retired doctor, who says: “I don’t have anyone else to talk to. I am self-isolating and so I won’t even get to talk to the shopkeeper. It is a great relief to know that I will actually have someone to speak to.”
Meghan Herring, Befriending Coordinator at Opening Doors London says, “As the COVID-19 outbreak affects all members of society we are working hard to protect those most a risk of being overlooked – the elderly, lonely and most isolated groups. We urgently need support crowdfunding so we can help train our volunteers in telefriending so they can continue to provide those small services, which make a big difference.
Telefriending is a lifeline. Our volunteers check in with clients at least once a week, identifying if they have enough food, determine any possible concerns that need to be escalated but most importantly talk to them about how they are feeling. It is an essential service to help address truly urgent needs during this crisis. Therefore, any donations will be appreciated and will make a huge impact as Opening Doors work to support those who are most isolated.”
Age play is all about guys who like to age up or age down – outside of their biological ages. This isn’t about daddies or twinks. It’s all to do with creating a fantasy where a couple (or more) roleplay another age group altogether.
That means that certain guys might be into wearing diapers and nappies and being changed.
Others might be into older age play, which means they’re likely to want to get kinky with equipment most commonly used with older people, like Zimmer frames and commodes.
The BFI Flare film festival, the annual LGBT+ BFI film festival in London has released lots of free archive content from the BFI National Archive, giving viewers an unprecedented view into the history of LGBT+ life in Britain from the early 20th century onwards. It will be available to watch until the 30th March 2020.
The line up of over 40 films includes news coverage of the AIDS epidemic, the politics surrounding gay and lesbian people as well as documentaries of celebrities such as Larry Grayson and Quentin Crisp.
BFI Flare at Homewill sit alongside great short work from BFI Flare Five Films For Freedom short films, made available in partnership with the British Council to roll out over 10 days from Friday 20th March. The BFI’s existing collection of favourites from previous BFI Flare Festivals, much loved queer film classics, and the free BFI National Archive curated LGBT Britain on Film Collection, will also be available, giving access to over 230 films in total.
The new BFI Flare at Home programme will be available to be enjoyed in the safety of homes around the UK via BFI Player, the BFI’s VOD service. A special offer for BFI Player’s subscription service will be offered to audiences who had booked for BFI Flare, with general audiences invited to sign up for a free two week trial of BFI Player as well as existing BFI Player subscribers to take advantage of the enhanced BFI Flare collection. Most content will be available as part of the SVOD collection, with some additional titles available for rental/TVOD.
A petition has gone live asking for occupations, like adult entertainment to be added to protected characteristics, like sexuality, race and gender identity.
The petition which has been created by the ManyVids platform which aims to provide “an oasis for sex workers to thrive independently” has been launched to ask the government to make changes to the Equality Act 2010.
The organisation has said it would like to “challenge the UK government to protect and safeguard the rights of adult entertainers, who make a legal income just like other workers in many industries across the UK”.
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A worker, Epiphany Jones (link NSFW), uses the platform, and said that she is “repulsed by how much hate and discrimination there still is against sex workers, especially in this day in age”.
Explaining some of the issues she faced working within the adult industry, she wrote,
“When I first started camming on a few different sites, I offered PayPal as another way for my customers to safely and securely buy content from me. Unfortunately, a customer reported me to PayPal for using their service for sex work and my account was banned, deleted and the money was given back to the purchaser.
“As I had already delivered the video in question (which was delivered on time and without any issues), I can only assume the customer did this vindictively, knowing they would get a free video out of it. As you can imagine I was furious that this had been allowed to happen, and that I wasn’t given any chance to explain my situation
She continued, “What upset me most is the fact that prejudices surrounding my occupation stopped a thorough investigation from taking place. If I was selling craft videos on how to make daisy chains and a customer had complained, PayPal would have fairly investigated both sides of the argument and helped to resolve the situation, as opposed to banning the account out of hand and penalizing the creator”.
Jones says the incident has left her feeling “ostracized and alone”.
“No right-minded person would ever “lend a stripper money to do better shows.”
Speaking about her experience of getting a bank loan is even more depressing, she said,
“A couple of years ago I wanted to improve my business by upgrading my software and equipment. As I’m a registered business I decided to do what anyone else would do and met with the bank to discuss business loans. When I explained to the manager what my business was and why I needed the money I was practically laughed out of the office and told that no right-minded person would ever “lend a stripper money to do better shows.”
“Putting aside the fact that I earn consistently more via camming than I did in my previous job, this completely demoralized me and belittled my worth. The fact that a bank manager felt justified in demeaning me, just because of my occupation was sickening. All the money I’d earned and the profile I’d worked hard to build up meant nothing, he couldn’t see past my job title.
Just because I’m in the adult industry doesn’t mean I’m any less of a human being.
“Just because I’m in the adult industry doesn’t mean I’m any less of a human being. Having my hard-earned money taken from me being banished from sites is so demoralizing, especially since it’s nothing to do with me as a person – it’s just because of the prejudice surrounding my job.
People say the world will never change, but it can happen, and since I’ve been a ManyVids member I’ve seen such a positive improvement, especially within the LGBTQ community. I’d encourage all sex workers to keep being resilient and to have the courage to speak up and stand for what is right”.
Not everyone can work from home and for those who are on the frontline of the current public health crisis; you have my thanks and my respect. But for those who have to work from home, whether they are social distancing, self-isolating here are a few things which can help to make it a little easier. Here are THEGAYUK’s top 5 tips for getting through the working week.
Give Your Day Structure.
It’s great to roll out of bed at one minute to nine and pick up the computer to log on and start work, but don’t be tempted to fall into that trap, otherwise, work-life and home life will simply merge into one. Get some structure in your day. Get up at your usual time, undertake your usual morning routine, have a shower and, most importantly, get dressed. As tempting as it is to slouch on your sofa all day in your PJ’s or underpants if you get dressed, it adds structure to your day and helps you to differentiate between your work life and home life.
