The question time panel at the young peoples hate crime conference held at the maritime museum

Goodbye Poland

A sad goodbye.

Vintage Cat Fashion Show

Featuring an interview with a couple of designers and Sophie B.

Tonight we were back at the brave new world bar for a fashion show of vintage clothing. It looked great and we interviewed the designers and Jess spoke to Justyna about the festival and its influence on LGBT culture and politics. We went and had a really nice pizza and then to the lemon bar which was interesting. Everyone had a good time.

out and about in warsaw

This is a picture of a memorial for soldiers who have died in different wars. The flame in the middle is not allowed to go out and there are also two soldiers on guard either side of it side stood to attention.



Some spectacular views of amazing architecture and buildings of Warsaw from the thirtieth floor of the Palace of Culture. It was an amazing sight to see even though I was nearly blown away literary by the wind but a long way down!!
this is andrew reporting for project triangle.

Day One

Breakfast in the Oki Doki hostel is between 8 and 10 and remarkably for the first day in Poland our 8 young people were raring to go by 11. We walked up to the Art Gallery to see a retrospective of the work of gender bending digital artist Katarzyna Kozyra. Andrew felt that she was a man hater. She did chop a couple up in her snow white film so he might have a point. Back at the Oki Dokey we played Jenga and drank beer. Later we went to the Brave New World bar to meet the Polish youth group and saw an amazing opera house music singer. After an evening tour of Warsaw on foot we went to a warehouse concert and Andrew met a lovely Polish boy called John. Much vodka, beer and tequila was drunk and Im told Sophie B fell off the bunk bed ladder in an attempt to spoon Jessie Mc Gee. News came this morning that Lou Muddle has been entered for the Ukranian disco dancing championship.

LGBT People and the Uniformed Forces

Here's a short video showing some of the highlights from the debate about LGBT people and the uniformed forces from Wednesday night.  It was very interesting to hear the experiences of the different services and how fortunate we are in the UK.  Thanks to Zotie for the translation.

10th February

Today was lots of fun!! Airport went well all met on time, even Becky and Val got there before we HAD to check in :)
Sophie was brave and handled here 3rd EVER flight well with the help of KML complimentary beverages.
KML is a winner airline!
Made our connection in perfected timing aside from the fact we were all glowing (or in manlier terms Sweaty mess') at the gate.
Lou Benson is 'Boss' looked after us brilliantly.
Had some beers, zubrovska( impossible to remember spelling but polish vodka), maccies, hobo dances and a great bonding session with the group.
Can only look forward to more exciting times to come :)
BRING ON POLAND!! Warsaw is massive too.
Time for the dance/electro opera. ..
Sian (on left in photo)
over and out
x

helen the polish police and the american embassy

Last night was the launch event of the equal right to love festival here in Warsaw. The first event was a debate about LGBT people in the uniformed forces and was held at the aptly named brave new world bar. Helen spoke about Merseyside police and their policies for LGBT people along side the us ambassador who spoke about the dont ask dont tell policy and the head of human rights for the polish police. The debate was in polish but I found that the more Lech i drank the more polish i was understanding.

We then went up the street to the launch of a new exhibition of very large oil paintings mainly of naked men.both events were very well attended and it was a very successful launch of the festival.

tim will be posting some of the debate in the next day or so. today we are preparing for the arrival of the rest of the group tonight. The usually quiet oki dokey hostel is in for a shock. Bev

Warsaw 2011

Today we are in Warsaw, bev tim, lou and helen are part of the advanced party of project triangles second visit to the Polish capital to see the "equal right to love youth festival". The rest of the group arrive on thursday. Its cold, there's a little bit of snow in the air and we have spent today drinking hot chocolate, eating and resting in the rather marvellous okie dokey hostel. tonight we take part in a debate around sexuality in the uniformed forces. Im not sure what my contribution will be having only ever been in the brownies. Really looking forward to seeing the rest of the group tomorrow night..keeping my fingers crossed they get make their flight connection on time. Bev x

The Tony Snell Show

Bev & Jess appeared on the Tony Snell show this week to talk about Project Triangle.  You can listen here - their piece was on 1:22 mins in.

An update from Bev

Last Saturday saw the liverpool youth service launch of the project at knotty ash Community centre..the full film was screened to 140 young people and their families.  It was a james bond themed evening where all our participants were treated to a limousine and red carpet arrival..mocktail bar and food.  Thank you to Cathi Wareing and her team for a fantastic event. They have been huge supporters of the project and have 100 of our packs for use across the city.  We hope project triangle will be inputting to the Trident project with them very soon.Watch out for press this week on this event and on our support from Sir Ian McKellern.

Last week I presented the education pack to 15 PSHE teachers at a healthy schools event. Every one of which have asked us to go into their school with a pack and are keen to start using the lessons as soon as possible.  Interestingly there were at least 6 faith schools amongst them and when asked if they thought  there might be any specific issues regarding bringing the pack into their schools they were very clear that there would not., and they have been the first to get back and make appointments. Jess and I are going into liverpool schools from next week to give them all a free pack.We are able to provide them with a free pack thanks to Alison and the team at City safe who have provided additional funding to enable this.

Also Wirral Youth offenders service have approached us requesting use of the pack throughout their service and they would like to promote the pack throughout all Merseyside Youth Offender teams.  Im meeting with them next week to discuss.

Also last month the fim was shown to the merseyside police authority and Jess and Emily went along accompanied by Tracy O to answer questions.  They were very moved by the project and keen to support its continuation and im told they young people brought a tear to the chairs eye.  Im hoping in a good way.

We are currently preparing for the NUT national conferance (easter weekend) where our film will be shown to all delegates and 4 of our young people will be holding a workshop for 50 teachers on the education pack. We are also developing inset training with our young people and NUT for teachers to deliver the pack nationally..and are in discussions with cathi and the her team regarding the setting up of a training social enterprise for delivery of the pack.

I have small amount of spare packs at the moment which I will get out to you all as soon as possible.  Let me now if you could use some. Thanks to Stuart and Fire and Rescue service who have offered £2,000 which will help us significantly with our ongoing printing costs!

Finally some of you will know that Homotopia were invited to the LGBT history event at Downing Street last month, they are very interested in the project and have asked for a pack which we sent last week.

Thanks for all your support

Bev

Knotty Ash Black Tie Screening

Project Triangle Trailer

I made a short Trailer to promote the film and the anti-bullying educational resource pack that we've just finished. Looking back, it's amazing to see how far the young people have travelled since this last year.

We're pleased with the completed and have so far had a fantastic response from teachers. We are planning to officially launch the pack at the NUT conference in Liverpool in April.

Campaign Against Homophobia

Radio 4 article by Stephanie Power

Great Radio 4 piece by Stephanie Power looking at Homophobic hate crime in Liverpool (it's about 25 mins in)http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00npfr8/PM_12_11_2009/

It also features a brief interview with Jess from Project Triangle.

The First Screening

Ok - here's the finished DVD for tonights screening. It's been an
epic editing process - trying to make sure everyone is included
without central messages being watered down. It's always about balance
and I hope I've got it right. It feels right, and I'm looking forward
to the screening although it's always a nerve racking experience.

The next stage and I suppose the most important one is the development
of the educational and DVD. There's a number of themes that have come
out of the film that we can look at more closely in the DVD. It's
going to be an exciting process.

The Real Cabaret

Interesting BBC 4 Documentary about the real story behind the film Cabaret and what life was like in Berlin in the 1930's before the Nazi's got into power.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00nf012/sign/The_Real_Cabaret/

The Editing Process

Well - it always takes a lot longer than you think. For the last few
weeks since the trip I've been busy doing follow up interviews and
researching suitable music and archive images.

Structurally, I've broken the film down into 18 sections that I can
knit together once all complete. We managed to obtain some archive
footage filmed by the Russians at the liberation of Auschwitz - we
have the rights to use 30 seconds in the film.

Also have the rights to use a few seconds from a police recruitment
video from 1974 to help illustrate how far we've come in terms of
equality.

Still some work to do. We've also been researching relevant news
headlines to feature at the end.

Not long now though until the first screening so onwards and upwards!

Obama speaks at HRC last night: watch the video

Dear Friend, Just hours ago, President Obama took  the podium at HRC's National Dinner to  talk directly to the LGBT community and  our many friends and allies. Find out what Obama said – and be sure to share the news with your friends >>

Post Trip Interviews

After a short period without a camera, I've now been able to start some of the post trip interviews with members of the group.  To be honest, I also wanted to leave a bit of space for everyone to be able to reflect on the experience.

This week I've spoken to Jess, Emily, Andrew, Jeanette and David.  On Wednesday we had a group feedback session with lots of cake and pop.  It's been great to catch up with everyone again, finding out what they've been doing.

I've been working on the structure for the documentary film based on the footage we have the the various messages and themes we want to put across.  With specialist advice from Paul Muddle, we started looking at some of the additional footage we need for the education pack.  It's all coming together.