Steve began the meeting by welcoming everyone and giving a brief over-view of the Fairness
Commission and its aims. He also highlighted how the Commission was keen to stimulate debate amongst the people of Sheffield on ‘Fairness’ and listen to ideas about how the city might address inequalities. There was initially some discussion about the meaning of the term ‘fairness’ and how difficult it is to reach a consensus on the definition of the word.
Steve went on to discuss the context in which LGBT communities experience health inequalities by providing some research findings. There was a discussion about how LGBT communities are consistently and disproportionately affected by physical ill-health and mental ill-health. Research suggests, for example, higher rates of self- harm and suicide amongst LGBT communities; higher rates of eating disorders; and gay and bisexual men continue to be the group most likely to acquire
HIV in the UK. There were further discussions about homophobic and transphobic hate crime- both in terms of being a victim of such crime but also the responses of the appropriate services when hate crimes are reported.
People attending the satellite meeting were asked to consider the following questions:
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What do you know, or what experiences do you have about fairness and inequalities?
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What do you think the causes of these inequalities are?
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Are there any examples from Sheffield, or somewhere else in the country, or in another country that we should think about using across the city?
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What should be the top three priorities for the city?
A huge amount of information and thoughts were shared by participants. I have tried to accurately reflect the breadth and richness of the information offered and the ideas proposed. Various themes evolved which included: exclusion, isolation, visibility and homophobia/transphobia.
Exclusion:
One of the older lesbian women commented that the gay community in Sheffield had always been excluded from the mainstream and been “Shoved int’ Cliffe” – referring to the fact that historically
Sheffield’s Gay Scene was hidden way from the city centre in the back streets of Attercliffe. Women historically had been even more excluded with Gay Bars and Clubs catering mainly for gay men.
There was some feeling that there were even fewer places for LGBT communities to socialise than there had been in the past. Older lesbians particularly felt that there were no safe places for them to socialise – a huge gap being left by the demise of the Women’s Cultural Centre.
People with spiritual needs felt that the attitudes of religious and faith leaders towards LGBT communities (e.g. the current public debate over gay marriage) left them excluded from religious and spiritual opportunities. One talked about feeling an ‘enforced atheism’.

Isolation:
Older gay men and in particular older lesbians felt isolated with nowhere to meet to share experiences, build friendships and develop supportive networks. There were descriptions of feeling isolated and old before their time. One woman commented that HIV prevention services had provided some support services for gay men around their sexual and mental health but the same was not true for lesbians.
Visibility:
Many participants said that they personally felt invisible and that there was no identifiable community in Sheffield. They felt that there was little representation in the city of the positive contributions made by LGBT people to their communities. People also felt that services assumed that everyone was heterosexual which made ‘coming- out’ about one’s sexuality more difficult.
There were suggestions that simple things such as posters advertising LGBT events in doctors surgeries and local authority buildings would help break down the sense of being invisible.
Homphobic/Tansphobic Abuse:
Most people described varying degrees of homophobic/transphobic abuse. What was most shocking was that they normalised such abuse and had come to expect it; changing their behaviour in order not to ‘provoke’ such attacks. One woman has stopped using public toilets in the city and at
Meadowhall, for example, because she has received such abuse relating to her appearance. When visiting women’s toilets other women frequently make snide comments to her such as: “The gents’ are next door, Love.”
Another woman described how she had been forced to move house because of persistent homophobic attacks culminating in the vandalism of her house and car. Her experiences of housing services and the police were generally - but not consistently - positive and supportive.
A male participant described how he and his partner wanted to move away from neighbours whose behaviour was more an annoyance than overtly abusive. However, they are worried about moving somewhere where neighbours may be even more homophobic.
Sadly homophobic and transphobic attitudes were not limited to members of the general public and people described discriminatory attitudes they had experienced within health services. One woman described how she had been pointed out by a group of staff and comments made about her
‘masculine’ appearance when she went for breast screening. Some gay men had experienced being placed at the bottom of the surgery list because they felt erroneous assumptions were being made about their HIV status. Participants acknowledged that with both examples it was hard to prove discrimination but they certainly sensed that prejudice was affecting their treatment and other friends had recounted similar experiences.
Recommendations:

Participants in the satellite group felt that there were so many recommendations they would like to highlight that it was not possible to limit them to three. General feelings were that their city which they loved had over the years not kept up with the times; lagging behind more obviously cosmopolitan cities such as Manchester and Leeds with a clearly identifiable gay scene and visible
LGBT communities.
The main recommendations were as follows (although there was some feeling that a city-wide full needs assessment of LGBT communities should be carried out).
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Assessment of the number of people within LGBT communities in Sheffield and their needs; a mapping exercise and audit of what is currently provided to meet some of those identifiable needs and gaps in provision.
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Specific funding needs to be made for LGBT communities. The needs of older lesbians need to be particularly acknowledged.
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The city needs to create partnerships to develop a centrally located social scene – one not dependent on the purchase of alcohol. Suggestions were along the lines of a café, bookshop and resource centre (similar centres exist in Manchester and Leeds). Some people said that the Independent bookshop which closed some years ago offered a point of contact for people and was an effective way of making contacts and sharing information.
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Improved information and communications to inform LGBT communities about events and services. (Some of the women felt uncomfortable about using the internet and social media).
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More training for service providers (health, social and police) around the needs of LGBT communities and the particular issues affecting them. Such training would need to challenge stereotypical ideas about sexuality and the practice of assuming everyone is heterosexual.
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The City Council should have a specific equalities team or diversity champion to ensure LGBT issues are kept on the city’s agenda and embedded across all services. If the City Council is already involved in promoting the needs of LGBT communities then there was a feeling that these need to be better communicated.
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Greater visual representation of LGBT communities and their families (e.g. posters in GP surgeries and local authority buildings and other health services)
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Safer transport needs to be available. One woman recounted that since being attacked on a bus she no longer travels anywhere at night. People liked the idea of women only taxis.
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Participants spoke positively about Pride celebrations and the pride march but felt more could be done in the city to encourage film festivals, book launches and cultural events with an LGBT focus.

Steve Slack
On behalf of fairness commission
July 2012