THEGAYUK

Tag: Nottingham News

Get the latest LGBT+ Nottingham news from THEGAYUK. Breaking news, features and interviews from the gay community in Nottingham, England, UK

  • Mother argues boys need protection against “male genital mutilation”

    ‘He has been mutilated and suffered permanent damage.’

    Mother argues boys need protection against "male genital mutilation"
    Mother argues boys need protection against “male genital mutilation”

    A mother is suing a doctor after her baby son was circumcised, allegedly without her permission. The 26-year-old mother is planning to sue the doctor after her son, was left in pain, bleeding and unable to wear a nappy.

    The boy was reportedly taken to the doctor, by his paternal grandmother.

    The baby’s parents are separated and the father is not named on the boy’s birth certificate, but was allowed visitations to his son. In 2013 the Nottinghamshire mother left her baby with its father during the Eid festival, and allegedly his mother took the boy to be circumcised, according to The Sunday Times.

    Male genital mutilation “an unnecessary assault”

    If the boy’s mother is successful, campaigners say that it could open the floodgates to other victims of “male genital mutilation”, who claim that the circumcision procedure was done without their permission as children, before they could decide whether they wanted the operation or not.

    The mother claims that her son, neither can be named for legal reasons, was left in pain saying that her son was “mutilated and suffered permanent damage.”

    The mother made a complaint to the police and also to the General Medical Council in 2013, when the operation took place, however, the police found there was “insufficient evidence” for a successful prosecution. The mother’s lawyer, Saimo Chahal QC, is seeking to “Crown Prosecution Service’s decision last November not to prosecute”.

    Chahal QC said, ‘This mother clearly did not consent to her son undergoing the circumcision procedure, which could constitute a criminal offence.

    ‘While some people with religious beliefs see circumcision as normal, there are others who see it as an unnecessary assault which can be physically and psychologically harmful.’

    It is currently illegal to perform female genital mutilation. There are no such laws in place for males.

  • Two men jailed after slashing man’s face in homophobic attack

    Two men jailed after slashing man’s face in homophobic attack

    Two men have been jailed after they were found guilty of robbery and wounding with intent, which left a man in his fifties fearing for his life.

    Pair jailed after homophobic attack in Nottingham
    Nottingham Police Force

    Two men have been jailed after a court in Nottingham found them guilty of robbery and two counts of wounding with intent. Ryan Leverton of no fixed abode was served an eight-year prison sentence and Ashley Deavin of Melford Road, Nottingham was handed down a 15-year jail term.

    The duo attacked and robbed a man in his fifties, shouting homophobic abuse at him in his Nottinghamshire home. The sustained attack took place in May, in which the victim said he felt he had to “fight for his life” and that he “thought he was going to die”.

    The victim was left with slash marks on his body, hands and head after Deavin “waved knife at him during the assault” according to a statement released by Nottingham Police.

    The court also heard how the victim was threatened with having his fingers cut off unless he handed over money. Once they were inside the victim’s home, the court heard how Deavin started punching the victim to the face, causing him to fall to the floor. Deavin and Leverton frogmarched him around the flat as they continued to demand money from him.

    In a witness statement, the victim said Deavin threatened to cut his fingers off unless he gave him the money. His little finger was cut but he managed to wrestle out of Deavin’s and Leverton’s grip.

    Deavin and Leverton were sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday 4 November after being found guilty of the charges.

    The victim, whose wounds needed stitching and glueing at the Queen’s Medical Centre, said it was a totally unprovoked attack which he believed was due to his sexual orientation.

    Temporary Detective Sergeant Sharon Powar, the officer in the case, said,

    “We’re pleased with these sentences which show just how committed we are to taking hate crimes seriously.

    “The victim in this case showed immense bravery in coming forward and we’d encourage anyone affected by hate crime to contact us without hesitation.”

  • INTERVIEW | What It’s Really Like In A Gay Sauna

    INTERVIEW | What It’s Really Like In A Gay Sauna

    Secrets of the Sauna is an eye-opening new one-off documentary about a gay sauna in Nottingham, run by long-term couple John and Joe. Here, the pair talk about the documentary, getting married on screen, and their unconventional way of making a living.

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  • Nottingham Pride Faces Closure After Racking Up Debts

    The charity that runs Nottingham Pride has announced plans to close the pride, unless a generous benefactor helps raise the cash needed to continue.

    The annual pride event which was created in 2003 has announced that it is to close its doors after failing to raise enough money to keep it going.

    The BBC report that the acting chairman Ben Holmes said that ‘the charity has been in financial trouble for the last three years but tried scaling down the event to save money.’

    ‘I have invested many years of my life into making sure the event happened and unfortunately it has come to a point where we have to look at where it is going in the future,’ said Mr Holmes.

    ‘We are losing sponsors and we lost an awful lot of money from companies that are no longer going. We are not generating enough funds.

    ‘We hope something can happen. The charity could be saved if money comes in but unfortunately that doesn’t look likely.’

    The Pride event which was in its 10th year costs £30,000 to host and they asked each visitor to donate just £1, however this year only one third of the estimated 14,000 attendees made a contribution.

    On a statement on their website Nottingham Pride said,

    ‘We have now had time to count the donations received from the community who attended Nottinghamshire Pride and can announce that we raised a total of £4279.86 on the day.

    ‘We would like to say thank to those who donated, but regret to inform that this is somewhat short of the £12,000 we needed to raise on the day.

    ‘This means that unless an anonymous benefactor would like to make up the difference, we will have no choice but to explore options for charging at next year’s event. This is not a move we as a committee want to make, but following feedback from the community last year, we made 2013 donation entry and haven’t raised enough – this has somewhat forced our hand.’

    The charity has amassed £17,000 worth of debt.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | The Kite Runner, Nottingham Playhouse

    ★★★ | The Kite Runner

    Set against the complex backdrop of a 1970s Afghanistan in upheaval and later 1980’s Los Angeles, the story – narrated by an adult Amir who jumps in and out of the action – is of two young boys Amir and Hassan whose friendship is complicated by racial inequality and servitude.

    The boys are united through kite running competitions but a nasty incident and an act of cowardice tear the two apart.

    Wide in scope, heavy in emotion: The Kite Runner’s story is where its strengths lie but with Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling book and the film already available is this the best medium for it? The Kite Runner suffers in translation from text to stage due to its reliance on narration. The story is arguably too unwieldy to be dealt with in any other way but this is a story of human relationships and powerful emotions and too often I wanted to be shown instead of told. As a result the stage regularly appeared empty, lacking dynamism and I felt distanced from a story that had the potential to wrestle me to the ground.

    Credit to Ben Turner though, who was present on stage through the whole piece, switching as he does between the narrative voice and on-stage persona of Amir. Sadly though, I was never blown away; his American accent jarred and when playing the younger Amir I felt he went too young for the role, verging on childish caricature. Turner performed competently but never quite gripped. The supporting cast impressed though, including Farshid Rokey playing the childhood friend Hassan. Rokey again played it too young but was more convincing and I believed his unwavering loyalty. Emilio Doorgasingh as the father doesn’t quite fit the role of domineering patriarch in stature and voice but I felt his conflicted emotions and his frustration and he won my affection. Special mention goes to the on stage percussion – a nice touch that added a layer of energy to the performance and it seemed to me that as the curtain fell it was the percussionist that enjoyed the loudest applause.

    Simple but effective set design – minimal props and projection – allowed for quick and efficient set changes that let the story flow. The animated hand drawings of childhood and misshapen comic book skyline of Los Angeles added a sense of magic and warmth to what was often a heavy story.

    If this is the Playhouse’s centre-piece for the coming season then ultimately I was a little disappointed. It didn’t drag but it didn’t grab. Its strength is in its source material and this was source material I was familiar with; on stage I was hoping for something a little different, a little more dynamic.

    The Kite Runner is on until the 18th of May.

    Book here:http://www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/whats-on/drama/the-kite-runner

  • Research Plans To Investigate LGBT Students’ Experiences

    A national study which aims to explore the university experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) students has been launched at Nottingham Trent University.

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  • THEATRE: The Importance Of Being Earnest

    So, most of us know all about Oscar Wilde?

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