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Jackie Briggs sadly passed away on 5th October 2024 after a period of illness. Everyone at FTL is so grateful for all of Jackie’s energy, time and contributions over the many years she was involved in the organisation. Many members of FTL, past and present, came to remember and celebrate her life at her funeral on 1st November. At the funeral Mary Thomas gave the following tribute.
On a very cold Saturday on the 2nd December we held our special lunch for our families and friends. We entertained about 35 people and it was such a joyous occasion. It was a special way to start the month of December off with laughter and warmth.
I was welcomed by this lovely group of students and their teacher Adam. I was able to tell them all about myself and my family and also how Families Together London works. After my talk and some questions from the group I sat in on the tutorial which Adam gave on homophobia. It was a delightful afternoon.
Last Saturday Jackie and I attend the 30th Anniversary of FFLAG (Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). Following a really early start to the day, we trained up to Birmingham to meet with the FFLAG trustees and co-ordinators for a day of talks, workshops and brainstorming. Sarah Furley, their current chair kicked the event off with a warm welcome, and shared a congratulatory video message from Peter Tatchell. This was followed by talk given by one of their patrons, Bobbi Pickard, who is CEO of Trans in the City, and was the first openly transgender woman in BP.
Henry Hudson, the Founder of People Change Minds, came to give us a talk. The meeting was very well attended and Henry created an interactive meeting which was great fun as we all participated in exercises which opened up lots of questions for the Q and A session. Attending the same meeting was the clinic psychologist Emma Fitzgerald. It’s really gratifying that organisations such as hers have heard of FTL and want to dip into our organisation and how we operate.
It took a while to organise a date but this September Gill, David and myself went to Bank of America in The City to speak about Families Together London and ofcourse, as we always do, tell our own stories about having LGBT+ children.
It was well worth the wait to hear Natalie Gamble speak at our September Zoom meeting. Below is a synopsis of Natalie’s career to date. It was so inspiring to hear how passionate she is about the law as it stands at the moment relating to becoming parents when you are LGBT+ and also how to proceed down that rocky road, navigating the best way for our children to have children of their own.
Laura has given very helpful talks to us in the past so we were delighted to meet her again, with her colleague, Michael Beattie, following the recent publication of a much needed, practical and well researched book - “Gender Affirming Therapy - a guide to what transgender and non-binary clients can teach us” which they co-authored with LGBTQ+ counsellor and peer support worker, Skye Davies. Three of us parent members of FTL-Thad contributed thoughts that the authors included in the chapter “What about the parents?”
I think you’ll agree that this is a mighty fine picture. This year we were allocated 80 wristbands and all of these were taken up. The weather on the 1st July was just perfect for a parade and we all gathered at a delightful cafe in Seymour Place.
Thursday, 23rd June was a very exciting day for us at FTL. Prior to the pandemic Kearney had got in touch with us with a view to holding a session at their offices in collaboration with their PROUD network. Timothy Mallinson who is an Associate of this management consultancy business has been working hard to put this together and at last the day arrived. Alongside me were my colleagues on the Steering Committee of FTL who run the FTL-T section.
We at FTL were contacted earlier this year by Devyani Mahajan who works in the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion sector of the British Medical Journal organisation. She wanted to see whether we would be part of a panel and the talk would be Zoomed to members of the organisation. I was very happy to participate.
On the afternoon of the 31st May I was invited, along with my lovely Pets as Therapy dog Coby to give a little talk to the young persons who had gathered at their meeting place for an afternoon of chat, cups of tea and nibbles. Lukasz Konieczka, who I have known for about 15 years, has created the most amazing safe space for these young people to gather.
On the 20th February we were delighted to welcome at our Battersea venue Jake Kelly (he/him} from Gendered Intelligence (GI). Jake is the Head of Youth and Families Services at GI.
We at Families Together London were so proud to have been contacted by the NSPCC. They held an open discussion and invited us to give a general talk about what we at FTL do, how we came about, what changes have happened within the LGBT community over the last number of years and how things are moving forward in that community.
It is always uplifting to have a major company get in touch with Families Together London and ask whether we would be happy to co-host a webinar. Close Brothers, the merchant bankers in the City of London, did just that and I was delighted to participate in this open forum.
Henry is an LGBTQ+ Inclusion Speaker and Trainer at People Change Minds. He works with teachers and pupils in secondary schools to create an inclusive environment.
We were delighted to welcome Lukasz Konieczka, the Executive Director of Mosaic LGBT+ Young Persons’ Trust. Lukasz who is a trained psychologist, social worker and youth worker talked to us about his personal coming out story back in Poland and how Mosaic contributes to the future generation of the LGBT+ community.
Emma Goswell, the writer and broadcaster, has been interviewing parents who have LGBT children for her series of Coming Out Stories. I hope you find the interview I did with Emma both interesting and uplifting.
Quite recently I was interviewed by River Radio’s Emma Jane Taylor alongside Lorna Mcardle and Helen Garlick. Since that interview Helen asked whether I would participate in her YouTube series “Hello! It’s better to talk”.
We were delighted when PwC approached us to take part in this specific session to do with parenting LGBTQ+ children. I can say on behalf of FTL that we were very grateful that a company which is so supportive of their employees was able to approach us for this project.
Emma Jane Taylor broadcasts weekly on River Radio (which is available to listen to on digital radio).
Today I was invited to join a small group of panelists for Emma Jane’s show.
I was delighted when BBC Radio London got in touch with us to talk about Families Together London during LGBT History Month.
Over the last year we, along with every other support service, have had to rethink how we can continue to provide assistance to our members. We have been blessed since March last year with some wonderful speakers who have attended our Zoom Saturday meetings.
Ramboll had been searching for a suitable group who were actively involved with families touched by LGBT issues and fortunately for us they chose FTL.
Live radio is very different from something that is pre-recorded and I was a little hesitant at first, but as the minutes swept by I began to enjoy the mixture of questions, discussion, music and news bulletins and forgot that I was actually ‘on air’.
The BBC have been running a number of Bitesize programmes during the coronavirus pandemic. This series has covered a number of issues relating to parents with young children, older children and children who are LGBT+. FTL were invited to participate in that particular episode.
We at FTL were all set for Pride 2020. Fortunately the organisers of Pride in London would not let the moment slip away unnoticed and Piccadilly Circus became the focus of Pride 2020. I hope you enjoy the picture of FTL’s walking group and our strapline.
Emma-Jane Taylor hosts on Marlow FM a PowerHour and I was invited to take part recently alongside Lorna Mcardle, Chief Executive of SupportU based in Reading. The programme facilitated an informative and lively discussion on LGBT+ issues and I hope that you find the hour well worth a listen.
We were so lucky at FTL to welcome back Laura Scarrone Bonhomme. She is a clinical psychologist specialising in gender and sexual diversity. We had a fantastic turnout of nearly 20 members, most of whom have a transgender child.
Earlier this month was International Women’s Day and the week that followed I was invited to speak at a networking event sponsored by Curwens, a law firm practising in the north of London.