LGBT Lives Conference

Last week I was fortunate to attend the LGBT Lives conference at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. I'd been diving around London the weekend before for another conference and meetings so I was on less than brilliant form. That said it proved a really interesting event. Chris Oswald kicked the day off speaking about the Equality and Human Rights Commission in Scotland. I got the impression that they have great ambitions but they seem to be suffering from underfunding. Tim Hopkins and Scott Cuthbertson gave an amazing presentation on the Equality Network and all I could think through the presentation is "why aren't Stonewall like you?". A really great informed and in touch organisation. Jeff Frank spoke passionately on the subject of measuring LGBT inequality but I have to confess it didn't really float my boat. Ian Rivers introduced some brilliant sessions on education. Elizabeth McIntyre presented some amazing work of how pupils are treated. She's an education psychologist and the work should be published next year. It's important stuff. BJ Epstein delivered some work on equality through literature which was also informative and Les Moran (the one lawyer) rounded the day off by talking about sexual diversity in the courts. I'd senior an earlier version fo this work in Manchester and it has clearly developed further. As ever with prof Moran, the presentation was stimulating and a source of debate.

Thanks to Ian and Richard for organising such an interesting day. The event was part of an EHRC funded project and showed the kind of interesting work that can happen if the funding is in place.

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