This section answers some questions about what the law says on consenting to sex. Specifically, it deals with questions about situations when you might feel unsure about whether you’ve agreed to sex or when you feel something is wrong but you’re not sure about it. If this information sheet doesn’t answer your specific question, do give Galop a call in confidence to talk about your own situation. Contact Galop on 020 7704 2040.

This resource has been compiled with assistance from Pink Law and School of Law, Queen Mary, University of London: Breanne Becker, Frances Ridout, Gabriella Denlew, Julie Pinborough, Karl Laird, Michael Southern-Augustine.

This section explains how the law can protect LGBT people from different forms of abuse.

This resource has been compiled with assistance from Pink Law and School of Law, Queen Mary, University of London: Breanne Becker, Frances Ridout, Gabriella Denlew, Julie Pinborough, Karl Laird, Michael Southern-Augustine.

If you have suffered an injury as the result of a homophobic or transphobic attack, sexual assault/abuse or domestic violence you may be entitled to financial compensation from the government. This section tells you about the Criminal Injuries Compensation Claim and how Galop can help you.

We have now filled all our dedicated Galop places for the 2010 Royal Parks Half Marathon.  However if you have your own place in this race and would like to raise money on our behalf we would be delighted to support you.

You can find more information about the race itself at www.royalparkshalf.com

cforms contact form by delicious:days

Join Team Galop and help us gallop against hate crime.

Galop provides its services on very low levels of funding, and money raised by Team Galop can massively impact on our ability to do our work.

Just £10 means that we can answer another call on the Shoutline

£30 pays for 1 hour of casework support

£50 allows us to support someone who has experienced domestic or sexual abuse to meet with a police officer and make a report

£150 allows us to use community outreach to educate at least 100 people about their rights

Team Galop participates in races throughout the year. Galop supports our runners with training and fundraising advice, people to cheer on the day – we even supply a running vest! All you need to do to qualify for one of our dedicated marathon or half-marathon places, is agree to raise a minimum amount of sponsorship for Galop.

Alternatively, if you already have a place, you are still welcome to register for our team, and access our help and support, without having top make a minimum contribution.

Click here to find out what places we currently have available for races and register your interest.

Further running…

If you’re a keen runner, there are many other races to keep you busy during the year; you may be interested in any of the following races (please note that Galop does not currently have any reserved places in these):

Virgin London Marathon, Sunday 25th April 2010
www.virginlondonmarathon.com

British 10k London Run, Sunday 11th July 2010
www.thebritish10klondon.co.uk

Adidas Women’s Challenge (5k), Sunday 5th September 2010
www.womenschallenge.co.uk

If you’ve had a bad experience with the police, this section explains how to  make an official complaint.

If you feel you have been treated badly by the police in any way Galop can help you to make an official complaint.  We will take the details of your complaint and pass it to the official Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) so that they can record it.

Galop can advise you the best way to approach your complaint, help you articulate your issues and help to make sure you meet any deadlines for submitting information if necessary.  Submitting through Galop will not give your complaint any ‘preferential attention’ but we will try and monitor the progress of your complaint.

Unless there are exceptional circumstances you should make your complaint within 12 months of the alleged incident.

This section provides some guidance for trans people who have been required to have a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) check.

Galop offers a service called Assisted Reporting (or Third Party Reporting).  This means that if you have experienced or know of a homophobic or transphobic incident in the Greater London area but do not feel able to report it directly to the police, you can report it to us instead.

We promise not to reveal your identity to the police unless you want us to and we will never pressure you to take any action you are uncomfortable with.

If you do choose to report to Galop there are three ways we can handle your report:

This is a list of organisations who may be able to provide further information or assistance. Please note this is not a comprehensive list. Clicking on the links will take you to an external website and Galop cannot be responsible for the content of any of these. We do aim to keep this list as up to date as we can but if you find a broken link or know of information which is out of date please let us  know.

General Hate Crime

Stop Hate UK

Stop Hate UK is a charity that provides independent and confidential reporting services for people affected by Hate Crime including those motivated by hostility towards your disability; race, ethnicity or nationality; religion, faith or belief; sexual orientation or gender identity. You can report 24 hours a day by phone 0800 138 1625, SMS 07717 989 025, or on the website www.stophateuk.org.  The services cover several areas of the UK including some London Boroughs. The full list can be found on the website.

General LGBT

London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard

Provides an information, support and referral service for lesbians, gay men and bisexual people throughout the United Kingdom.

www.llgs.org.uk

London Friend

Provides services including: Counselling ; Support Groups ; Social Groups ; A library on LGBT issues ; Free information on HIV and AIDS and other Sexually Transmitted Infections.

Telephone Helpline – 020 7837 3337

www.londonfriend.org.uk

PACE

Responds to the emotional, mental and physical health needs of lesbians and gay men in the greater London area.

Counselling Helpline 020 7697 0014

www.pacehealth.org.uk

ELOP

Low cost, self-referral counseling service for LGB people based in East London. All counseling is provided on a one to one basis around any issue.

Telephone 020 8509 3898

Victim Support

National charity supporting people affected by crime. Although not solely for LGBT people, they do offer an LGBT service.

Victim Supportline 0845 30 30 900

www.victimsupport.org

Rape & Sexual Assault

The Havens

The Havens are a 24/7 hospital based service offering care to all victims of rape and sexual assault in London; women, men and children. They see victims who are not yet ready to involve the police and provide services including treatment of minor injuries, recovery of DNA evidence Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) prevention & treatment, emotional support and access to specialist advisers in a warm, friendly, confidential and quiet environment. The specially trained staff have experience with LGBT clients.

For more information or to make an appointment, you can call:

The Haven – Paddington (for NW London) – 020 7886 1101

The Haven – Whitechapel (for NE London) – 020 7247 4787

The Haven – Camberwell (for all of South London) – 020 3299 1599

www.thehavens.co.uk

Rape Crisis

Offers details of Rape Crisis Centres which offer support, counseling and reporting facilities mainly for women.

www.rapecrisis.co.uk

Metropolitan Police

Comprehensive information about sexual assault and rape and where to go to get help.

www.met.police.uk/sapphire – general

www.met.police.uk/sapphire/documents/male_rape/index.htm – men

Survivors

Information, support and counseling for men who have experienced sexual assault or rape.

Helpline 0845 122 1201

www.survivorsuk.org

Domestic Violence

Broken Rainbow

Listening, information and signposting Helpline Service, staffed by LGBT people.

Helpline 0300 999 5428

www.broken-rainbow.org.uk

SOLA

Survivors of Lesbian Partnerships Abuse

Helpline 020 7328 7389 (ask for SOLA)

Opendoor Housing Trust

Housing and support for gay men escaping domestic and homophobic violence. 18-65 years old.

Helpline 020 8743 2165

Women’s Aid

Support and help for women and children experiencing domestic violence. This is not specifically an LGBT organisation

Helpline 0808 2000 247

www.womensaid.org.uk

Housing

Stonewall Housing

Provides housing advice and supported housing for LGBT people.

Adviceline 020 7359 5767

www.stonewallhousing.org

Transgender

Trans London

Discussion/support group for all members of the ‘trans’ community, whatever their gender identity (or identities) and whatever stage in their ‘transition’ they have reached (if at all).

www.translondon.org.uk

The Gender Trust

The largest Registered Charity helping adults throughout the UK who are Transsexual, Gender Dysphoric or Transgender. Provides information, advice and training. National Helpline: 0845 231 0505

www.gendertrust.org.uk

Young People

Albert Kennedy Trust

Supporting young LGBT people who are experiencing housing problems or abuse at home.

Helpline 020 7831 65

www.akt.org.uk

Jigsaw

Police & Legal Rights

Independent Police Complaints Commission

Independent body investigating and processing complaints made against the police.

Enquiries 08453 002 002 (local rate)

www.ipcc.gov.uk

Community Legal Service Direct

Access free quality legal help and information. Find a solicitor or legal adviser in your area, check if you are eligible for legal aid, or find advice from one of over 300 carefully selected websites.

www.clsdirect.org.uk

Rights of Women

Legal information and factsheets for women. Operates a free legal advice line for women staffed by women.

Helpline 020 7251 6577 (telephone) or 020 7490 2562 (textphone)

www.rightsofwomen.org.uk

Index of Gay Law

A concise up-to-date summary of the law by Solicitor, Clive Sanders, hosted by Gay Times.

www.gaytimes.co.uk/gt/?topic=article&id=2127

Law 4 Today www.law4today.com

The Site www.thesite.org

Full Force www.full-force.co.uk

Law Rights www.lawrights.co.uk

Liberty Human Rights www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk

Counselling

Please note that this section is for reference only. Galop is not able to endorse the services offered by any organisations listed here.

The Pink Practice

Counselling and Psychotherapy for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer communities .

020 7060 4000

www.pinkpractice.co.uk/

British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)

The leading professional body for counselling and psychotherapy and reference point for anyone seeking information on counselling and psychotherapy in the United Kingdom. (Not LGBT specific).

www.bacp.co.uk/

Counselling Directory

Support network and directory of UK counsellors and psychotherapists. (Non LGBT specific but includes section on sexuality).

www.counselling-directory.org.uk/

We wanted to let you know about the trans project we are running at Galop. This page outlines the thinking behind what we are doing. It’s a summarised version of ‘introducing the new trans project at Galop’ which is available on our website. Please tell us what you think – contact below.

Download full version: Introducing Shine @ Galop

About The Project

What will happen over the next 2 years?
The project has two phases; the first phase is about providing resources which people can access to improve their safety and perceptions of safety. We are running a series of free voice and movement workshops to achieve this.

At the same time, the project will also talk with trans spectrum people to explore experiences of transphobia, the police, and accessing services without discrimination. We will be holding a mixture of themed sessions (open to everyone) and closed sessions (for specific groups of people, eg black and minority ethnic trans people and sex workers) to identify specific issues and points for change. We have chosen to split the discussions in this way because we want to make safer spaces for people who identify in certain ways to participate in the discussions, and to further explore the differences (in terms of experiences and therefore needs) amongst trans spectrum people. We think that people’s experience of violence is affected by many things including race or ethnicity, class, age, religion or belief, disability, sexuality, at the least, and we want to investigate this further to ensure the work we do is relevant to the people we work with.

The second phase of the project involves using this information to improve Galop’s services to the community, as well as producing two resources. The first resource will be around ‘making your organisation trans inclusive’. This will be aimed at LGBT and mainstream organisations. The second resource will build on the first and we aim to use this to build coalitions to influence policy change, outlining key issues concerning trans communities, and safety issues.

How do we hope to make a difference?

By using voice and movement to improve the feelings of safety and actual safety of trans people accessing these workshops.

Increasing accessibility and improving services to trans people from a range of LGBT organisations including Galop, by providing trans targeted services and having a fuller understanding of the issues.

Working towards increased safety by lobbying for increased legal protection, and better services from the criminal justice system.

A word about language

We know that the word ‘trans’ although designed to be inclusive, may not fit well as a descriptive term for everyone. (For example, those who do not have majority privilege, and those who have always been the men and women they feel themselves to be) We use it here as a way of talking about all people who have a history or present experience of being of feeling ‘gender different’ in some way. We talk about this more in the full version of the document and welcome further dialogue on this issue.

About Galop

Galop was established over twenty-five years ago, in June 1982, and remains one of London’s oldest LGBT voluntary sector organisations. Over the years, our work has developed, although our ethos of working to end hate crime, by supporting victims and campaigning for change has remained constant. We started working with trans people in 2004.

Want to get in touch? Email Ben: benjamin.gooch@galop.org.uk  or phone 02077046767