Sharing the Spotlight: Pride Month 2024
By Tabitha Gilbert, in collaboration with the Dramatic Resources trainer team
Pride Month is here! This year, we invited our team to share their favourite organisations which support, empower and protect LGBTQ people around the world. Without further ado, we’re passing the proverbial microphone to those who work tirelessly for a better world – all year long.
The year is 2004. The place is Bangkok. One of our international trainers was presenting his experiences from working in a Thai immigration detention centre at the 15th International HIV Conference. At the same time, in the same city, Rainbow Sky Association of Thailand was fighting to challenge stigma and conduct crucial research into the rates of HIV infection among gay men. Exactly two decades later, we are happy to hear that RSAT just celebrated its 25th year! RSAT is the first of two pioneering Asian charities chosen by the team; Ya_All is a groundbreaking LGBTI+ youth-led (and youth-focused) organisation based in Northeast India. Their primary focus is advocacy - “sensitization, community mobilization and mainstreaming” of Queer people’s lives in India. Ya_All is a true ‘first’ and an amazing example of youth activism. Your donation will help to scale their operation.
Switchboard is the national LGBTQIA+ support line in the UK. They say: “This is your space – to explore, talk and be truly heard.” Switchboard was founded as The London Gay Switchboard in 1974, operating for 5 hours every evening from above a bookshop near Kings Cross station in London. Very quickly, the service became 24-hours. The charity has supported more than 4 million callers in the UK experiencing police raids, the HIV/AIDS crisis, Section 28 and more.
Switchboard estimates it costs £16 for every conversation with an LGBTQ person who is struggling. You can support their work by donating here.
One of our US-based trainers shared the work of National Queer Theater, based in New York. NQT provides a home for LGBTQ storytellers and activists through social justice-based programming. Among their many wonderful projects, we love their Criminal Queerness Festival (now in its fourth year). This event gives a platform to artists from parts of the world where queerness is criminalized. In their own words, National Queer Theatre seeks to cultivate “a more just, joyous, and empowered intersectional queer community that is celebrated in all corners of society”.
Spread the word and help fund future work by buying from NQT’s merch store!
In recent years, one of our UK-based trainers has been partnering with Allsorts Parents & Carers Service in Brighton. Allsorts was created in 2013 in response to the needs of parents and carers of young people exploring their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Allsorts has celebrated many wins in the past decade but attests “there is still so much more to do” for LGBTQ youth in Britain.
To help Allsorts provide inclusive spaces for children and young people across Sussex and beyond, donate here.
Coco Butter Club is a Black LGBTQ theatre group in London, and a team favourite at DR – both as audience members and collaborators! CBC champions queer Black performers in the cabaret space. Their statement is clear: “When a space doesn’t demand you to assimilate, but instead encourages you to be yourself, it inspires confidence and leads to more Black, Asian and racially othered people learning how to tell their stories in their own way. This is how we decolonise performance - by telling our stories as we see fit.”
Sign up to the newsletter to hear about upcoming performances. CBC promises “jaw-dropping line ups of drag, burlesque, vocals and DJ's that'll have you screaming: yaaassssss it smells like cocoa buttuh out here!”
This year, Dramatic Resources is donating to Micro Rainbow.
LGBTQ people around the world still face imprisonment or the death penalty in their home countries and may seek safety in countries such as the UK. However, they face new challenges here. LGBTQ people are at extreme risk when housed with other asylum seekers whose religious and cultural backgrounds hold homophobic and transphobic views. Moreover, they may be rejected by their ethnic community when trying to establish a new life in the UK, leaving them in poverty and isolation.
Micro Rainbow tackles these complex issues head-on. They provide safe housing to LGBTQ people during the gruelling process of claiming asylum in the UK. They also run “moving on” and social inclusion programmes, helping refugees to access employment, training, education, financial services, healthcare, housing, places of faith, and public services.
To learn more, watch this short video.
Thank you to our team for collaborating on this article – and Happy Pride Month to our colleagues, clients and partners.