Activism: Annotated Bibliography

LGBTQ volunteering and activism: Annotated bibliography

Since 2010 centred has been engaged in work to better understand diverse LGBTQ volunteering and activism experiences, and to facilitate the sharing of learning about creating positive volunteering experiences between diverse LGBTQ organisers. Over the course of this work centred has compiled information about research on LGBT volunteering and activism. A summary of some of the resources that are available is below. There is a notable absence of any kind of exploration of intersectionality in UK writing and a notable absence of LGBT issues in much of the writing about ‘mainstream’ volunteering. This has increased motivation within centred for our own work and case studies that consider intersectionality.

Activism

Equality Network (2011) Forty Years of LGBT Activism in Scotland

The article is a timeline of important events from the last forty years that relate to LGBT activism in Scotland.
Beginning with the formation of the Scottish Minorities Group (SMG), Scotland's first gay rights group, in 1969. The document focuses on SMG’s development. It records the introduction of LGBT-discriminatory legislation and the subsequent development or repeal of these discriminatory legislations, the formation of activist groups in response to these legislations and the activist responses of the Scottish LGBT community.
Though it does record the formation of the Edinburgh Bisexual Group in 1984, the content of this document mostly records gay and lesbian discrimination and activism. Trans issues and activism are covered more than that for bisexual people, but is not comparable to the space given to gay and lesbian activism.There are no other identities mentioned.

Edgar, Gemma (2009)What Does It Mean To Engage WithThe State?A comparative case study of two non-governmentorganisations working with marginalised young people (This content is best viewed in Mozilla Firefox)

This article is a Phd thesis written at the University of New South Wales (Australia), published in 2009.
It is a comparative case study of two LGBT voluntary and community organisations (VCOs):Twenty10: Gay and Lesbian Youth Support in Australia and the Albert Kennedy Trust (AKT) in the United Kingdom, both formed by LGB activists. Overall the article asks how VCOs can support marginalised young people and what role ‘the state’ plays in facilitating this. The two VCOs differ in their structure, AKT operates predominantly in a political context with a strong advocacy role and the vast majority of its funding comes through philanthropic support and voluntary work. Twenty10 plays less of an advocacy role and the majority of its funding comes from the state.
The article takes its theoretical approaches from queer theory and citizenship theory
Article focuses on LGB; with the complete absence of analysis of race and disability, the focus by default is assumed to be on a white non-disabled LGB experience
Argues that under New Labour LGB activism gained legitimacy, but that that engagement demanded a more professionalised approach and language
The professionalisation of LGB activism serves to depoliticise LGB issues and homogenise how the LGB community is presented in the public domain; the author here is talking specifically about ‘mainstream’ LGBT organisations, and there is an omission of intersectional organising that is not ‘professionalised/institutionalised’ in this way
Voluntary organisations and activist movements are becoming increasingly institutionalised. Increasingly gaining stable funding, clear objectives and stable staffing.
Institutionalised movements are argued to be important for the continuation of social movements, but through queer critique they are often accused of betraying social movements
Conversely, it is also argued that if a state’s resources can be used to further the cause of a social movement than the effect achieved could be transformative

LGBT Students’ Handbook, NUS LGBT Campaign

NUS LGBT Campaign supports LGBT FE students by, among other things, training activists.

Effective campaigning section

Suggests that nearly all advances in LGBT rights have been the result of activism and campaigning, e.g. age of consent and repeal of section 28
Offers advice on effective campaigning; successful campaigns need to be well planned, clearly defined, well defined aims
Highlights need for early understanding of whether the goal of the campaigning is to affect change in policy or services, or to raise awareness of a cause. This is relevant as it will dictate the approach that the campaign will take
States that the most successful campaigns are those that have a cause that is ‘widely felt’ or ‘deeply felt’
Breaks down some main forms of campaigning (Lobbying, Protests/demonstrations/pickets and stunts), explaining where, when and how one might use them and the pros and cons
The NUS offers some advice for successful campaigning
Publicising and recording the event is a priority
Source help and support from friends and allies
Keep individuals committed by involving them in other events once the current one is over

Barker M in conversation with Yockney J (2004) Focus on Activism: Including the B-Word: Reflections on the Place of Bisexuality within Lesbian and Gay Activism and Psychology, Open Research Online

Yockney describes two approaches within bi activism, that are also replicated in the wider LGBT movement
“[T]hose looking for a legal and social equality with heterosexuals”
“[T]hose whose sexual politics is informed by the way that being queer encourages complete reconsideration of accepted social roles and behaviour”

LGBTQ Volunteering

Consortium of LGBT VCOs, InVolving LGBT Volunteers: Case Studies

Volunteer Now (2009)Welcoming Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and

Transgendered People as Volunteers: Checklist

The article is a good practice checklist published in 2009 for organisations that have LGBT people as volunteers. Volunteer Now recommends the following: the publication of equal opportunities policy and ensuring that all staff understand it and how to implement it; publicity materials should be welcoming and include images of LGBT people volunteering; volunteering opportunities should be advertised in publications or through organisations relevant to LGBT people in addition to usual methods; avoid assumptions of sexuality; staff and volunteers should be trained in equal opportunities to avoid stereotyping and negative attitudes; if someone offers information on their sexuality it should be held as confidential; consistently available support to all volunteers; consistent good practice in all areas of volunteer management; there should be clear procedure in place to deal with discrimination and inappropriate language and instances of these should be challenged every time; organisations should consider displaying symbols, such as the rainbow, to indicate that it is an LGBT friendly place.

Intersectionality and different diverse identities and experiences are not explored as issues in good practice.

Juetten, Nico and O’Loan, Sara (2007) LIFELINE, NOT LUXURY – IMPROVING OUTCOMES FOR LGBT YOUNG PEOPLE THROUGH SPECIALIST YOUTH WORK, THESCOTTISH YOUTH ISSUES JOURNAL, LGBT Youth Scotland, Issue 10

Broad article about how LGBT specific youth work is situated in mainstream youth work in general. The article uses data produced from the work LGBT Youth Scotland had done with LGBT young people during the early stages of implementing the national youth work strategy.
LGBT specific volunteering is a valuable resource for young people as it provides a “safe space for LGBT young people to socialise, engage and participate, as a community of interest” [p47].
Analysis of wider discrimination and prejudice incorporated; references to intersectionality: ‘If we learn to challenge the dominant constructions of knowledge about our ethnicity, our class, our race, our gender and oursexuality, we can begin to have the kinds of creative conversations in which we are never finished even after we have parted company.’
LGBT specific volunteering plays a role in remedying negative experiences from other areas of an individual’s life. Further, LGBT specific volunteering can aid the reification of an individual’s identity and aid, through belonging to a community of interest, an easier transition into adulthood

Disability Rights Commission (2006) On Safe Ground: Participation in Community Groups by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Disabled People

The article sets out to research the real and perceived barriers to LGBT disabled people participating in voluntary and community organisations in Scotland using qualitative methods

Based on experience, disabled LGBT people tend to make judgments on whether their disability or their sexuality is the more contentious issue when trying to engage with voluntary or community groups. For example, whether an LGBT organisation is ableist or a disability organisation is homo/bi/trans phobic [p20]
Those disabled LGBT people who want to take part in a LGBT voluntary or community organisation may hide their disability to avoid further segregation and stereotyping [p20]
considerable levels of discrimination and prejudice experienced by bi and trans people within the voluntary sector [p21]

National Centre for Social Research (2011) Formative Evaluation of v The National Young Volunteers’ Service: Final Report

Article constitutes a formative report focusing on the evaluation of v - The National (England) Young Volunteers’ Service. The evaluation is a response to one of the recommendations of the original commission that spurred the initial development of v. The evaluation has a number of strands and focuses on the young volunteers that it processes and their experiences and the impact of v and the future implications of this. The document is not LGBT specific, nor does it refer to LGBT in the main body of the document; except to say, interestingly:‘In terms of sexuality, the majority of volunteers were either heterosexual or did not provide this information – the level of information that was not provided for this question means that it is difficult to ascertain much about the profile of volunteers for this characteristic.’ However, in its appendices that summarise the equalities monitoring data the document does give information on the sexual orientation given by its young volunteers:

Sexual Orientation / Number of Volunteers / % of total
responses / % of total valid
responses
Heterosexual / 201511 / 74.6 / 93.6
Bisexual / 4447 / 1.6 / 2.1
Gay / 3552 / 1.3 / 1.6
Lesbian / 1986 / 0.7 / 0.9
None of the above / 3805 / 1.4 / 1.8
Not completed / 33 / 0.0
Prefer not to say / 54897 / 20.3
Total / 270231
Total valid responses / 215301

Brewis, Gerogina et al (2010) Bursting the Bubble: Students, Volunteering and the Community, vInspired: Students

The document is the final 2010 report on research carried out into the volunteering of students at six higher education institutions, selected in order for them to be representative. The research uses focus groups, semi structured interviews and surveys to gather data. This article has no specific focus on LGBT volunteering but it does give data on the proportion of volunteers that identify as heterosexual, L, G, B or other:

Sexuality / % of students who volunteer / % of students in survey
heterosexual / 62.9 / 85.2
Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual / 65.1 / 6.3
Other/not stated / 62.7 / 8.4

*there are substantial differences between these results and the results outlined above in the ‘Formative Evaluation of v The National Young Volunteers’ Service: Final Report’ which included younger age groups.