Cardiff Pride 05

A group of young people attended Cardiff Pride in September.

A few people went on rides. Then another person went on a rodeo bull and managed to stay on for 23 seconds.

The people that were there looked astonishing. Some of the guys looked like gods. The drag queens looked amazing with what they were wearing. The women had really cool clothes on. A few people bought rainbow flags and were wearing them round there waists.

Different Stalls selling the usual rainbow badges, jewellery and bits and pieces. Everyone enjoyed it and for some was a first visit to Mardi gras. Many organisations from Gay Bikers to Flag and Welsh Police were there too!

It was a great day out. The usual fairground rides were there to thrill people and give us a chance to win big cuddly toys. The music was really good. Artists such as Gina G, Charlotte Church and Noel Sullivan and some other bands sang. Russell T Davies, the writer of the New Doctor Who and Queer as Folk, also turned up. We ended up under the police tent to keep dry and we all found each other. We left soggy but in an excellent mood. There was an atmosphere of everyone enjoying themselves and having fun. Nobody had a problem when people were there to be themselves. When we got back everyone was talking about how they enjoyed their day.

Members of freedom youth attended the Manchester queer youth conference on 22nd july - 24th july 2005 we travelled up on the Friday by train to the Manchester Youth Hostel Association, where we were met by the staff of Queer Youth Alliance who showed us to our rooms and talked about the programme for the weekend.

The workshops on offer ranged from LGBT history, LGBT rights, religion, homophobia, badge making and banner making.

On the first evening we watched a live drama and musical performance called "What a difference a gay makes" which was performed by Lesbian and Gay Youth Manchester. The play was about LGB history, and rights from 1969 - to present day.

The next day after a yummy breakfast at YHA, we travelled by mini bus to the arts centre where the workshops were being held. Members of freedom attended various workshops and they offered a lot of information and education.

In the evening we went to the disco

Young people from Freedom Youth attended the award ceremony that was held at the L Shed in Bristol on Tuesday 1st November.

There were several young people from different youth groups being nominated for work they have done throughout the year, and were due to collect an award.

There were 5 young people from Freedom Youth that were going to pick up an award, for various pieces of work they have been involved in over the last year, such as the Self Help Booklet, starring in a video, and setting up the new LGB Young people’s Forum called Y Front. Logan, who is a volunteer at Freedom Youth, helped compere the event.

There were several work shops for young people to get involved in, from head massaging to rock climbing, break dancing and circus skills.

There were also several different bands that performed at the ceremony. The one that really sprang to mind for me was Ten Sing, they were great! They did several songs and seemed a really interesting group.

This was an evening that enabled youth groups and different projects to show their ideas and work with other groups and get to know the different groups that are out there.

By Alan Langler

Your Say - Your Changes Conference 2005

This is one of many themed conferences to be organised by Young People's Services in Bristol.

Focus groups of young people have been set up to discuss the plans to start ‘Every Child Matters' consultation and the changes for children report. The City of Bristol Young People’s forum played a lead in organising the event and encouraged different groups to run workshops on issues that might affect them.

It is a great opportunity for young people to have a say and vote on the quality of services available to them, as well as, being able to ask councillors questions about the services already out there, and make suggestions to improve them.

The LGB Young People's forum called Y-FRONT? were asked to run a workshop around the effects of homophobic bullying to young people attending the conference.

It was quite a success and the two young people from Y-FRONT? Worked hard to present the workshop, to raise awareness of the use of language, and what is acceptable and not acceptable. The workshop also gave factual information, and we also gave out resources like the self help booklet.

Some of the feedback from the workshops was very positive with words like:

Interesting – useful – brave – not judging – be yourself

As expected there was some negative feedback.

The group is still waiting for the results of the whole conference to see what the young people made of it.

On the 27th August 2005 a group of young people from Freedom Youth went to Bristol Mardi Gras. We turned up at 11am behind @ Bristol. There were several marquees, lots of stalls, and a large stage.

We had a big stall with lots of publicity about our group and the activities that we get involved in. Members of Freedom Youth handed out lots of information and talked to several people about the group and the activities.

The entertainment that was on ranged from drag queens to cabaret acts. One of my best acts I thought, were the mocking birds. They are a duet that sings a selection of different styles of music like 'Foot Loose', from the film.

There were a couple of famous acts there for the Mardi Gras; it was hosted by Jet Black and Doctor Bev. It got really busy at about 2pm when the acts started getting going; there must have been thousands of people there.

Everyone was waiting for the last couple of acts that they had in store for us. One was Nikki French, who sang in the Eurovision song contest, she sang Total Eclipse of the Heart and the other one was Gina G, she was brilliant. She sang some of her old songs like, Ooh Aah Just a Little Bit, Fresh and I belong to You, she also sang one of her new songs too.

This was a really good day for everybody and people felt it was much better than the response from last years Mardi Gras.

By Alan Langler