3 days ago
LGBTQ+ people 'not feeling as safe' in Guernsey nightlife
A Guernsey charity is renting a private pub space for LGBTQ+ people because it says there are growing concerns over safety in the island's Guernsey is hosting the fortnightly events at Pingquay Bar for the LGBTQ+ community as a space to be their "authentic self" without judgement. Liberate chief executive Ellie Jones said a regular LGBTQ+ bar space was "really needed" due to the feeling around safety in the community having "really changed"."If you look at some of the negative rhetoric on social media sites around LGBT stuff, people aren't feeling as safe," she said. Ms Jones said it had been "empowering" to see people going to the events to "really enjoy" the space.
Ms Jones said she had never intended to host regular nights for the island's LGBTQ+ community.
'Thinking they're weird'
"The rhetoric around LGBT people and how safe they feel especially in the night time economy has really changed over the last couple of years.""Having that space where they know that they can come, they will be accepted, nobody's going to be looking at them funny or any of those sorts of things is really needed right now sadly, I wish it wasn't."Ms Jones added: "I think we almost took LGBT bars for granted, you know, that they exist just for a fun side of things, whereas now I think there is a need for it from that slightly more serious side of stuff," she said. She explained people going to the events knew they were going to be included without people thinking they were "weird or strange" and there would be "no violence, no negativity".
Ms Jones added the event had attracted people from the LGBTQ+ community who she had not seen before. "You don't have to be LGBT but ,obviously, you need to be an accepting person, as we wouldn't accept anybody being rude or mean to people, they would be asked to leave, but we've never had that happen so we don't anticipate that ever happening either."