We’re really excited to be holding 3 amazing post-show panel events during our UK No Kids tour.
TOBACCO FACTORY THEATRES | 7 March
A panel discussion around the experiences of adopting in a same-sex relationship
In 2003 Lynne Elvins and her partner Emma were the first gay couple in Bristol to be approved for adoption. Two years later they adopted their son (then 5-years-old), Steven. In 2015 Lynne told the story of this process in a TEDxBristol talk, where she also unpicked some of the myths and misunderstandings about gay adoption.
Tor Docherty is the Chief Executive of New Family Social, the UK's LGBT+ Adoption and Fostering Charity. With more than 3000 members and 150 local events each year NFS is the first point of contact for LGBT+ people considering adoption or fostering. Tor and her wife Jackie have three children and live in rural Cambridgeshire.
CONTACT / THE LOWRY | 1 February
A panel discussion on the questions we might ask ourselves before having children in the 21st century.
The panel will include experts and campaigners from various fields including environmental activism, gender politics and academia:
Jamie Lee is an activist with Extinction Rebellion, an international movement using mass civil disobedience to challenge governmental inaction on climate breakdown.
Dr Ginette Carpenter is a Senior Lecturer in English at MMU with a specialism in contemporary women’s writing, theories of reading and literary feminism.
Dr Alison Ronan is the Chair of the Proud Trust. She has been involved in LGBT youth work for the last 25 years and is a founder member of Feminist Webs.
BATTERSEA ARTS CENTRE | 13 February
A panel discussion around homophobic bullying.
Chair: Sharan Dhaliwal is Editor in chief of Burnt Roti magazine, a platform created to give South Asians a voice. She manages and curates all content of the magazine, as well as designing the annual print issues. Sharan is also a writer, with bylines in the Guardian, Broadly and i-D magazine - where she talks primarily about cultural and sexual identity. She's been named as a LGBTQ+ trailblazer from The Dots and has featured on the front page of the Guardian newspaper.
Josh Bradlow is Policy Officer at Stonewall. He leads on the organisation’s lobbying and research on education and young people as Policy Officer. In 2017 he wrote School Report, which is the most comprehensive insight to date into the bullying faced by LGBT young people in Britain’s secondary schools. Josh specialises in LGBT youth mental health and anti-LGBT bullying in schools, and sits on the Advisory Panel of the Anti-Bullying Alliance. Josh spoke at last year’s Global Summit on Mental Health Culture Change on LGBT youth mental health, alongside discussing LGBT representation in youth TV at the 2018 Children’s Media Conference.
Linda Riley is a business leader, philanthropist and expert on equality, diversity and inclusion. She co-founded the British LGBT Awards, as well as their Australian and New Zealand equivalents, and has launched several diversity initiatives including the Global Diversity List, the Alternative Parenting Show and the Diversity Careers Show. Linda is the publisher of DIVA, the leading brand for lesbians and bisexual women, which includes DIVA Magazine, the DIVA Literary Festival, Radio DIVA and the DIVA Awards, as well as heading up the European Diversity Awards, the annual London-based event which celebrates the very best diversity initiatives and leaders across the continent. Linda has been a patron and supporter of several charities over the years. These include GLAAD, Stonewall, Action Breaks Silence and Diversity Role Models, and currently acts as a diversity adviser to HM Opposition in the UK Parliament.
Cliff Joannou is editor-in-chief of Attitude, the UK’s best-selling gay magazine. Previously editor of award-winning QX magazine for over 12 years which he developed into a multi-platform brand. Cliff is also well known in the gay community for his campaigning work. During his time at QX he organised numerous fundraisers for LGBT charities, and staged a rally with Peter Tatchell that highlighted the plight of LGBT Russians that directly resulted in David Cameron raising the issue with President Putin at the G20. He also devised the #SameSexSRE campaign that highlighted the importance of statutory age-appropriate sex & relationship education in schools, which culminated in responses from the main political party leaders.