TOWER HAMLETS has a large LGBTQ population – and a modest number of queer venues which support the community with night-time entertainment in a safe space.

For many LGBTQ+ residents, and their friends, these safe spaces are a life-line. They allow members of the community to have a social life where they can make friends and avoid the loneliness that younger gay people often experience in a wider community where discrimination is still rife.

Entertainment venues are not a Worthy Project, though: they are also Just Good Fun. Tower Hamlets has a large number of LGBTQ+ residents – and a correspondingly high level of homophobic attacks, causing severe injury and even, in some cases, death. With that level of discrimination still going on in wider society, being in a safe venue can be the only place where the queer community can relax and have fun.

Sadly, the news has come that one of Tower Hamlets’ oldest venues, the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, is threatened with closure – this despite 8,000 people signing a petition organised by Equity, the performers’ union, asking that the Club remain open.

An emergency rally has been called for lunchtime on Monday, 29th July, outside the Club in Pollard Row, London E2.

●For more information go to:
Rally to save BGWMC

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