Medway Pride Radio

Doing this gig is a privilege and I never forget that, but some weeks it is beyond a privilege. This has been one of those weeks, I got to interview some of my musical heroes, Ryan for the funk band Scary Pockets and Drew and Big Al from The Hot 8 Brass Band. To say I was over excited would be, well an understatement of the highest order.

Chatting to Big Al and Drew we did the whole bonding thing over music, our love of the funk, soul, jazz sound the New Orleans typifies. We laughed at shared experience of when I lived in New York and the weather, and generally got on amazingly well.

So, I asked a difficult question, I knew I was chancing my arm….

‘Derek Chauvin was convicted today; did you want to share your thoughts on what is going on in America?’

I probably should back up and explain:

In 2004, Hot 8 Brass Band Trombone player Joseph Williams was shot dead by police in controversial circumstances. According to a local news source:

According to New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) accounts, officers were stopping 22-year-old trombonist Joe Williams for driving an allegedly stolen vehicle when Williams slammed the white Ford F-150 into reverse, accelerating into an NOPD squad car and officer. His actions, says Deputy Superintendent Marlin Defillo, caused officers to fear for their lives and thus open fire, killing Williams.

The same source reported that several eyewitnesses say that police shot Williams while he was unarmed and his hands were in the air.

So, these guys have, as a band first-hand experience of the issue, before it was a global media issue.

Let’s hear that questions again…..

‘Derek Chauvin was convicted today; did you want to share your thoughts on what is going on in America?’

Immediately there was, despite our bonding, total mistrust in their eyes. What was I after? Was I just about to stitch them up? I’ve had it before in interviews when I have asked difficult questions but never so palpable. I think it was Drew who spoke first, slowly and carefully. I let them speak, I had asked a question and while it was possibly clumsy, I wanted to hear the answer.

As I did not interrupt or tell them they were wrong, or worse still try to tell them that ‘all lives matter’. They warmed back up. They were eloquent, they were genuine, and they taught me.

However, when the interview was over these Grammy nominated guys thanked me for using my voice to stand with them and amplify what needs to be heard. Why? Because as a white person my voice is louder. I am, as you know trans and part of one of the most denigrated groups on the planet.

But to them I am privileged. I know the media want to make it sound like privilege is not an actual thing, but when one minority thanks another for using its voice it makes you think.

Maybe we all carry some privilege, maybe we should embrace it and speak where we can on behalf of voices that don’t carry that far.

We should all value free speech, but remember that if speech is free, listening is even cheaper, and we can all learn from others real life experience.

I want to thank Drew and Big Al for being everything a fan of the Band would want them to be.

Check them out at 9pm on the Sunday Sessions, and don’t forget Ryan from the Scary Pockets will be on the Funk and Soul show at 7pm

The Auction Raised £419.50

Medway Pride Radio joined forces with The Friends of Wisdom Hospice to raise funds for The Wisdom Hospice Rochester. We ran an Online Auction from 15/03/2021 to 6pm on Good Friday 2nd April.

The Friends of The Wisdom Hospice is a Charity dedicated to supporting the work of the Wisdom Hospice, providing specialised end of life care and support to the communities of Medway and Swale. Hospice care is not just for the patient but also supporting their families, friends and carers whether at home, in the hospice or hospital.  It’s all about the patients and helping the hospice team to care for them and their families.

We will be contacting those who won the bidding to let them know how to pay for the items and receive them.

MPR 03/04/2021

Medway Pride Radio is supporting TDOV though our visability and programing today 31st March 2021.

Why you may ask is TDOV important?

The International Transgender Day of Visibility (TDoV) is celebrated on March 31 every year. It was founded in 2009 by Rachel Crandall, a licensed psychotherapist specializing in transgender issues. The purpose of TDoV is to recognize the accomplishments of transgender and gender non-conforming people as well as bring attention to their continued struggles. It is an important day for the LGBTQ+ community as a whole and the transgender community in particular.

Members of marginalized groups often have limited exposure to successful people that look like them, be it real-world examples or visibility in the media The transgender community is no exception to that rule.

Their visibility in the media is not only minimal but often used to ridicule and missrepresent the community. Over the past 3 years mainstream media has used Trans people, and Trans Women in particular to drive a push back on Trans peoples equality rights and healthcare for young trans people. Taking out court actions against organisations that are supporting the equality rights of trans people or those providing support to them.

From the stories published in mainstream media you would think that Trans people were all powerful, able to quash the voices of the majority of people and demand health care provision to help reduce gender dysphoria and have treatment provided imediately the next day, Forcing children though a conveyor where they are plied with drugs to change their gender without chance to consider their futures.

The reality is very different!

The reality for Trans people of any age today is living in a society where the media is seen as a toxic force with a government that is not taking action to support trans people and where small but organised groups are using the Trans community as a wedge issue to push back on LGBTQIA+ and womens equality rights.

The reality is if you are a young person in need of support to discuss their gender identity with parents, wider family, friends and peers, you are made to feel ashamed and guilty for being you.

If you are lucky and have a supportive family and you find a supportive GP you will be refered to Child & Adolecent Mental Health Services and then onto the Gender Identity Development Service. Through this pathway, your placed on waiting lists, to have your first assesment with a gender specialist / psychologist, which can take up to 3 years, and that is for the first appointment to discuss your gender identity not to receive medical treatment, this is only available after many assesments by child & adolecent pyscologists and gender specialist. It certainly dose not fit the image of a conveyor belt pushing young people though a process to quickly.

If you are an adult and find the courage to discuss your gender identity with family and friends and found the support to ask your GP for help you will come across barriers to access treatment, your GP may not feel able to treat you, if they do refer you to the adult NHS gender service you will find yourself on a 3 to 4 year waiting list for a first apointment. and once you manage to navigate to the appointment you will need to progress through a process that can take another 3 to 5 years to complete your journey. A decade of you life on waiting lists while dealing with life in what can appear to be an hostile environmentn.

The majority are supportive!

When you find the courage and support to be yourself, you will be supprised to find out the the majority of people are supportive of the community. The majority are busy living their own lives and are not bothered about the concerns about which toilet people use, or what services they can access. They may not totally understand why trans people are trans but they are not transphobic.

This is why TDOV is important today. It gives members of the Trans community and others a chance to see that you can live, be happy and be successful and a Trans person. It gives Allies a chance to show their support for the community and all this helps those who may need support to not be scared, to find an organisation that can support them, and take that first step to live as their true selves.

To the Trans community I say, I see you, I stand with you, I will support you.

To our Allies I say be visable, be vocal in your support, help educate your friends and work mates.

To everyone, take the time to find out more about communities from the communities, talk to them and avoid those who spread hate and conspiracies theories

Hilary Cooke

CEO Medway Gender & Sexual DIversity Centre

Chair Medway Pride

MPR Charity Auction in aid of Wisdom Hospice Rochester

ITEM ID – MPR013

The Vinyl Detective – Written in Dead Wax – Signed by Author

(Vinyl Detective 1) (Vinyl Detective Mysteries): A Vinyl Detective Mystery

Synopsis

He is a record collector – a connoisseur of vinyl, hunting out rare and elusive LPs. His business card describes him as the “Vinyl Detective” and some people take this more literally than others. Like the beautiful, mysterious woman who wants to pay him a large sum of money to find a priceless lost recording on behalf of an extremely wealthy, yet shadowy, client. So begins a painful and dangerous odyssey in search of the rarest jazz record of them all…

Andrew Cartmel is a British author and journalist. He was the script editor of Doctor Who during the Sylvester McCoy era of the show between 1987 and 1989. He has also worked as a script editor on other television series, as a magazine editor, as a comics writer, as a film studies lecturer. He is also a presenter for Medway Pride Radio on his weeky program The Jazz Lounge.

Andrew Cartmel began his professional career as script editor of Doctor Who for BBC television. These days he is a playwright and author of the Vinyl Detective series of crime novels. He lives in London with too many records and just enough cats. The Jazz Lounge is a celebration of his love of jazz music, its influences and offshoots, where it’s coming from and where it’s going.

How to Bid for an Item

Medway Pride Radio have organised this Auction with (FOWH) the Friends of Wisdom Hospice with donations of items from the community. We ask you to help support the FOWH by bidding for the items shown in the posts below. A lot of these items are unique, in that they have been signed by the authors, players, artists and are therefore collectable with a value above the norm.

You can click on each post to see futher details of the items in the auction and then you will have options to place your bid

• You can place a post in the comments box at the bottom if the page displaying the item.
• You can click through to the facebook page post and bid there in the post comments on Facebook
• You can click through to the Twitter post and place your bid in the Twitter replies to the auction item.

In each case please quote the

1) Auction Item Number (MPR013)

2) Your bid amount in UK Pounds,

3) Your contact information allows us to reach you, via an email address, or account names for facebook / messenger or Twitter message.

We will contact the person with the valid maximum bid and ask them to pay the bid amount with the item reference (MPR013) to the Friends of Wisdom Hospice via their web site donations pages. Once the payment has been recived we will arange for the item to be sent to the person with the winning bid.

MPR Charity Auction in aid of Wisdom Hospice Rochester

ITEM ID – MPR012

Title of painting is ‘Mountain Blue Green’

Including frame this artwork measures 106cm by 76cm

The Artist is Matthew kvasnik

Matthew is renowned for his video projections, paintings, animations, and music. You can meet him projecting at live events, or at exhibitions of his paintings.

“I make videos and animations, and do projection mapping at live events and clubs. I work in many disciplines, from filming performers to editing, drawing and animating stories, and helping to design shows and productions”.

Examples of Matthew’s work can be found on thier website 

https://www.instagram.com/matthewkvasnik/?hl=en-gb

http://www.kvasnik.cz/

How to Bid for an Item

Medway Pride Radio have organised this Auction with (FOWH) the Friends of Wisdom Hospice with donations of items from the community. We ask you to help support the FOWH by bidding for the items shown in the posts below. A lot of these items are unique, in that they have been signed by the authors, players, artists and are therefore collectable with a value above the norm.

You can click on each post to see futher details of the items in the auction and then you will have options to place your bid

• You can place a post in the comments box at the bottom if the page displaying the item.
• You can click through to the facebook page post and bid there in the post comments on Facebook
• You can click through to the Twitter post and place your bid in the Twitter replies to the auction item.

In each case please quote the

1) Auction Item Number (MPR012)

2) Your bid amount in UK Pounds,

3) Your contact information allows us to reach you, via an email address, or account names for facebook / messenger or Twitter message.

We will contact the person with the valid maximum bid and ask them to pay the bid amount with the item reference (MPR012) to the Friends of Wisdom Hospice via their web site donations pages. Once the payment has been recived we will arange for the item to be sent to the person with the winning bid.

Wednesday 31 March is Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV).

It’s a day at the station we are keen to mark as, in the struggle for trans rights, visibility has become all important. Now it is important to note that not all transgender people can be visible, there are many reasons such as work, family, etc that it is not possible to come out, and even for those of us who are out, visibility can often be a scary thing.

This week I was invited to help my childhood club AFC Wimbledon with their new initiative to show the range of diversity their fans represent. I jumped at the chance to help for several reasons not least of which was the chance to have a nose around the brand new stadium at Plough Lane.

I’m not going to lie I was terrified, dysphoria always seems to grip at just the wrong time, but the club staff especially Mandy and Jane could not have been kinder, and yes I got to have a guided snoop around. Being a brand new stadium it has been built with many things in mind including a  family area and access with specialist bath rooms for those who need extra room or whose needs might normally prevent them from something that we take as simple such as watching a sporting event.

The club have really thought about making sure everyone can be included in watching AFC scrap to stay out of the relegation zone (lots of finger crossing in the coming weeks), and that is what I, and others were there to do, celebrate the wonderful diversity that there is.

On the drive home with TDOV a week away I could not help but think that the positive change whether it is in language or practical like making sure you allow for access for everyone starts with visibility, it doesn’t need to be everyone just a few and that can be enough to start changes. So to those celebrating TDOV whether visible of not, we know you are there, you are valued, and tune in on the 31^st for some messages from or friends and allies.

Shea