Julian Clary – Award Ceremony Host, Jackie Burnett – OLGA Secretary, Peter O’Neill – CEO of State Street, Mary Birch – OLGA Project Coordinator and Ruth Hunt CEO of Stonewall. Photo by SHOT BY ROB

The Older Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Association was named Community Group of the Year by Stonewall supporters for their work to support older members of the LGBT community. The group was presented with a cheque for £5,000 – kindly provided by State Street – to continue their work.

Mary Birch’s Acceptance Speech

First, I would like to thank Stonewall & State Street for sponsoring this award. Next thanks go to all of OLGA’s volunteers who support us in our campaign work. We thank Comic Relief for giving us a grant a few years ago. This grant enabled us to make an impact nationally as well as regionally.

We campaign about the issues surrounding being lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans and receiving health and social care. Nationally, care service providers still say “We haven’t got any of them here.” Of course, they will have gay & trans clients but need to develop ways of finding out who we are.

We echo Age UK Camden’s Opening Doors Project which says “It is up to the organisations to come out as gay (and trans) friendly, instead of the gay (and trans) client having to come out in order to get their needs met.”

When we need health & social care, we feel vulnerable and are frightened of coming out for fear of abuse or discrimination from health and care workers. We go back in the closet.

We salute the undercover filming in hospitals and care homes which has exposed cruelty and abuse there. We appeal to more gay & trans groups and organisations to campaign to make it safer for us to come out to health and social care providers.

I’ll end on a personal note. When I am admitted to hospital or into a care home, I will not want to hide a part of my identity. I want to feel confident about naming a contact person of my choice. I want to put photos by my bed and in my room. Photos of my same gender partner and photos of my family of choice. I will hope that staff are trained well enough to be able to chat to me about my photos in the same way they would with anyone else.