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Nineteen

Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre is a detention centre in Bedfordshire. It is usually described as being a place to detain failed asylum for women and families who havent commited a crime, prior to deportation, but around 2 thirds of detainees are usually granted asylum. Its occupants are primarily women and families, many of whom came to the UK fleeing torture and abuse, including sexual violence.

Natalie Bennett, former leader of the Green Party of England and Wales and prospective parliamentary candidate for Sheffield Central, told Ungagged:

“Many, probably the majority, of women in Yarls Wood are the victims of torture and abuse, often by officialdom, in their home countries. By holding them in indefinite detention, a practice used in no other European country, we are subjecting them to torture again. And in conditions that official report after official report have found to be unacceptable. This must end. It is a blot on the British state.”

In early February 2002, the building was burnt down following a protest by the detainees. The protest, which came after months of accusations of sexual violence, rough handling and forcible separation of lactating mothers from their breastfeeding babies, was sparked after a woman was physically restrained by staff. According to custody officer Darren Attwood, officers complied with orders to “lock the detainees in the burning building”

Yarls Wood has been plagued with human rights abuse allegations, with detainees going on mass hunger strike at least 6 times since 2001. In 2010 a group of women went on hunger strike in protest at their indefinite detention. One of them had been held for fifteen months. Instead of calming the situation, Yarls Wood locked the protesting women in an airless corridor with no toilet facilities.

A number of allegations of sexual abuse have been made against the centre, and the Home Office has refused FOI requests asking to reveal the number of rape allegations from within the prison. Women have reported being touched sexually, male guards entering women’s rooms late at night and male guards in positions of power over the women propositioning them that sexually. A 2006 Legal Action for Women (LAW) investigation into Yarl’s Wood Removal Centre found that: 70% of women had reported rape, nearly half had been detained for over three months. 57% had no legal representation, and 20% had lawyers who demanded payment in advance. Women reported sexual and racial intimidation by guards. LAW’s Self-Help Guide has been confiscated by guards depriving detainees of information about their rights. 10 years later, there has been little, if any, improvement. During a 2016 protest by local people and women’s groups, detainees hung a sign out of a window saying “Yarls wood officers in relationships with vulnerable detainees”.

Serco, the outsourcing company which operates Yarl’s Wood for the Home Office, denies that such instances are widespread, which suggests that they aren’t unheard of. This is an unacceptable abuse of power.

In April 2009, the Children’s Commissioner for England published a report which stated that children held in the detention centre are denied urgent medical treatment, handled violently and left at risk of serious harm. The report details how children are transported in caged vans, and watched by opposite-sex staff as they dress. This follows earlier allegations in 2005 by the Chief Inspector of Prisons that children were being damaged by being held in the institution, citing in particular an autistic five-year-old who had not eaten properly in several days.

Janelle Brown, a member of Sisters Uncut, an activist group protesting state sanctioned violence against women, said:

The devastating sign we saw being hung from the windows by the women inside saying ‘officers in relationships with vulnerable women’ confirms what we already knew- Yarl’s Wood is the embodiment of racist, sexist state violence against women.

Immigration detention replicates the torturous, coercive powers of domestic violence- male guards that control and abuse women trapped at Yarl’s Wood are no different to the perpetrators of domestic violence who abuse women trapped in their own homes. No woman should ever have to face such invasive brutality. Yarl’s Wood should be shut down.

In 2009, then Children’s Commissioner for England Sir Al Aynsley-Green released a damping report into Yarl’s Wood.

It stated that basic safeguards for children in Yarl’s Wood were failing, welfare issues raising “serious concern” were ignored, with children forced to remain in custody even when they were seriously ill or in danger from parents with mental health problems and criticised the “scant regard to basic welfare needs” during arrest and transportation to the centre.

The commissioner found that seriously ill children were denied hospital treatment, while bureaucracy substantially delayed others with critical conditions from getting to hospital. A baby with pneumonia and a teenager with severe mental health problems were among those affected. Despite being the main detention centre for children, no one on the Yarl’s Wood health team has child health qualifications, the report said.

Sir Al found major healthcare shortcomings at the centre, describing safeguards, records and professionalism as inadequate and below NHS standards. He reports that two children with sickle cell disease were not allowed to bring their penicillin with them when they were seized from their homes. As a result they became seriously ill and required urgent treatment. Instead of being referred to hospital for intravenous fluids and antibiotics they were simply given paracetamol. Under the NHS this would be categorised as a life-threatening “Serious Untoward Incident”.

Children suffering from serious medical conditions and the mentally ill were routinely kept in detention despite guidelines stating clearly they should not be. One diabetic child had three emergency treatments in the 24 days she was detained – including two occasions where her blood sugar left her “un-rousable” – but was still not released. An eight-month-old baby with asthma was neither released nor given an inhaler.

Immunisations were denied to children documented as needing them, creating a health risk. One child was even given the wrong vaccine, while the centre’s policy for preventing malaria was described as containing “serious errors” and being “unacceptably poor”.

Doctors working for Medical Justice, an organisation that provides voluntary medical assistance for Yarl’s Wood families, insist there is wider evidence of medical abuse beyond the commissioner’s report. They say they have documented evidence of a child under 12 being given his mother’s anti-depressant drugs on removal; of a young person in severe pain with sickle cell disease being denied painkillers because he was unable to walk to the clinic to receive them in person; and of children contracting severe malaria on being returned to their home country because they were refused suitable preventative medicine.

Paediatrician Dr Fred Martineau said:

“The detention of children, whether newborn babies or adolescents, almost invariably causes them physical or emotional suffering. Doctors from Medical Justice regularly see the effects of this, ranging from a failure to give immunisations against potentially fatal diseases, through to clinical depression …The only way of preventing this harm is to end their detention.”

During the investigation young people told how traumatised they were by the experience, noting that officers seemed to be laughing at them and “taking pleasure in the family’s distress”. The study said: “In a large majority of cases, children reported that officers’ behaviour had been aggressive, rude and, on a few occasions, violent.”

Children were even watched by officers of the opposite sex while they dressed, which the report called “an unacceptable safeguarding risk which must be addressed immediately”. They also had to watch parents being handcuffed and heavily restrained – a direct flouting of UKBA guidelines.

Caged prison vans were routinely used to transport children to the centre near Bedford, despite promises that people carriers would be used for families. Children were denied toilet breaks or food and drink. The vans, the report said, are “stained with urine and vomit”.

The Children’s Commissioner concluded that the detentire of children had to end, saying that detaining around 2000 children annually for administrative purposes is unaccaptable, saying:

“The average length of time children and young people are being detained is increasing, and, crucially, the decision to detain them is neither being used as a last resort nor for the shortest period of time as required by Article 37 of the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child”

Key meetings between social services, the UK Border Agency (UKBA) and Yarl’s Wood staff designed to discuss the welfare implications of keeping a child locked up for more than 28 days dwelt instead on PR and legal concerns.

In April 2014, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Rashida Manjoo, was barred from Yarl’s Wood by the Home Office when she tried to investigate complaints about the centre as part of her fact-finding mission into violence against women in the UK. In her 2015 report, Manjoo said that her being barred from Yarl’s Wood reminded her of when the Bangladeshi government refused her access to investigate alleged crimes against women at a notorious refugee camp and when the Indian government forbade her entry to state-run facilities.

The facility also draws criticism for its treatment of pregnant women. The stories of two women in particular highlight the level of inadequate healthcare and the impact guards have on pregnant women in detention. Firstly, a former Medical Justice client, who was due to be deported, was prescribed Mefloquine, an anti-malarial medication that the Home Office states should not be given to pregnant women in the early stages of pregnancy. According to Medical Justice, the woman was given this too late to test her tolerance to the medication if deported, and had not had a scan. Her deportation was stopped by the High Court, but she remained at Yarl’s Wood until the 20th week of her pregnancy, when she began experiencing abdominal pain and bleeding. She sadly gave birth to a stillborn baby, for which a guard was present throughout; she was later transferred to a psychiatric unit due to feeling suicidal. Secondly, a former Women for Refugee Women client who was 3 months pregnant and hospitalised for 3 days stated,

“I had three men guarding me. Even when the gynaecologist was doing an examination on me there were male guards in the room watching me. When I went to the toilet they were the ones who took me. When I sat down on the toilet the male guards were there. It made me feel ashamed”

These cases clearly demonstrate how health care services in detention are inept, how the dignity and respect of pregnant women are frequently violated by intrusive behaviour, and the detrimental effects of detention on the mental health of pregnant women. Sadly, these are not isolated incidents, as many other expectant mothers have faced problems with accessing healthcare services in detention, according to advocacy reports.

The House of Lords voted to ban the detention of pregnant women altogether, but Theresa May has only agreed to a 72 hour time limit, extendoable to a week. This was promised in April, but it has not come into effect yet.

We still detain families at Yarl’s Wood.

Women are still alleging sexual abuse, violence andabuse at Yarl’s Wood.

How much longer will we allow human rights abuses to go on under our noses?

UK chief prisons inspector Nick Hardwick said conditions were worsening and called Yarl’s Wood a “place of national concern”.

It’s business as usual in Yarl’s Wood.

How to Help:

Please help support the work of Yarl’s Wood Befrienders, who offer advocacy services, dignity and compassion to detainees.

You can also get involved with activist groups protesting inhumane dentention, such as Sisters Uncut, Movement for Justice and Shut Down Yarl’s Wood (there are many others).

Please once again, write to your MP. There are lots of different ways to apply pressure. All of them help.

If you want to contact Serco directly, their details can be found here.

No human is illegal.

Image by Debra Torrance

Written by Victoria Pearson

Thunder on the Left

11855772_946285732098593_5822942137535793700_n.png.jpg — Thunder on the Left

With Carla on lead vocals and guitar, Adam on bass and vocals and Arun on drums and vocals, Thunder on the Left are a girl fronted, heavy rock trio here to serve the disillusioned. Bringing you gnarly riffs from the London desert.

Thunder On The Left is a power trio in the every sense of the word.
With a sound that feels physically massive, the enormous intensity the three piece focus on the task at hand is quite remarkable.

– Clash Magazine

Check them out on Facebook

And soundcloud

Sporting Hero

Sporting Hero relocated from Belfast to Manchester where he released his own EP, Calendar on Switchflicker Records.

He later moved up to Scotland and collaborated with Roy Møller on tracks from his debut album, ‘Speak When I’m Spoken To’.

He is a guitarist and pianist with The Parsonage choir, band leader in The Gracious Losers and a member of Sister John and The Starry Skies.

You can follow Sporting Hero on MySpace

Eighteen

As virulent capitalism charges around the world, claiming righteously that their crushing and obliterating lives is just the unfortunate collateral of the “other side,” organisations across the Globe campaign against the murderous arms trade.

We have witnessed the horrors of what capitalism, in its for-profit, resource grab, has done in the Middle East – and is currently doing in Syria and in Yemen. The British corporations profits, its complicity in the murder, torture and absolute terror the House of Saud is meting out in Yemen amounts to a collective guilt we in the UK must share. Our Government in its selling (and attempts at covering up its sales) to Saudi Arabia make every one of us guilty in the murders of children and their families.

Every sale of one single bullet used to kill a poor person fighting in the wars of the corporations and the rich is a murder we are complicit in. Every child who loses a parent or their own life is a murder we have committed.

We think of the words of Elvis Costello’s anti-war song, “Shipbuilding,” the pay off of the arms trade – jobs. Do we want jobs at any cost? At the cost of children traumatised, maimed and killed?

“Is it worth it?
A new winter coat and shoes for the wife
And a bicycle on the boy’s birthday
It’s just a rumour that was spread around town
By the women and children
Soon we’ll be shipbuilding
Well, I ask you
The boy said “dad, they’re going to take me to task
But I’ll be back by Christmas”
It’s just a rumour that was spread around town
Somebody said that someone got filled in
For saying that people get killed in
The result of this shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls
It’s just a rumour that was spread around town
A telegram or a picture postcard
Within weeks they’ll be re-opening the shipyards
And notifying the next of kin
Once again
It’s all we’re skilled in
We will be shipbuilding
With all the will in the world
Diving for dear life
When we could be diving for pearls”

Here in the UK, non-violent protest group CAAT (Campaign Against the Arms Trade) continues to reveal the murky world of arming those who tear children apart with their missiles and guns. https://www.caat.org.uk/about/international

In seeking to end the arms trade, CAAT’s priorities are:

to stop the procurement or export of arms where they might:
- exacerbate conflict, support aggression, or increase tension
- support an oppressive regime or undermine democracy
- threaten social welfare through the level of military spending
to end all government political and financial support for arms exports
and to promote progressive demilitarisation within arms-producing countries.https://www.caat.org.uk/about

We at Ungagged! totally agree with CAAT’s aims and principles and their campaign for a wider security policy which would have the opportunity to reallocate resources according to actual threats and benefits, including addressing major causes of insecurity such as inequality and climate change.

Fight back against these murders happening in your name. Join CAAT or other peace organisation and campaign to stop the rich weapon and war profiteers from using our democracy to kill in our name.

“We should be diving for pearls.”

Image by Debra Torrance

Written by Neil Scott

Seventeen

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If you’ve been following along with Ungagged’s Activist Advent, you’ll recall that behind door number four we talked about the water protectors in North Dakota desperately fighting to keep their drinking water safe from contamination. We support that cause because we agree that water is life.

What you may other now is that here in the UK our water is also under threat from government supported multinational energy giants.

According to researchers who published a paper in the journal Science, Fracking can cause earthquakes that rumble on for months after the controversial gas extraction process ends. Earthquakes are not the only issue though.

Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Pennsylvania and Texas have all recorded massively increased air pollution as a result of fracking, including local concentrations of toxic hydrocarbons fumes as well as region-wide ozone pollution, with residents suffering headaches, sore throats, nosebleeds, dizziness and breathing difficulties.

Fracking also requires vast quantities of water, millions of gallons per well, which is stressing local water resources in areas where fracking is commonplace, in some cases making whole towns dry.

Fracking requires thousands of miles of pipelines (which, if poorly maintained can leak and cause explosions) roads, added traffic, drilling pads and related infrastructure which is fragmenting ecosystems, while pollution and radioactive waste also pose a severe threat to wildlife.

But probably the most worrying thing about asking is that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has just admitted that fracking, in particular horizontal fracking, does indeed contaminate drinking water.

Campaigners were unsurpirised at the news, given that Hormone-disrupting chemicals were found in water at fracking sites as early as December 2013. A study of hydraulic fracturing sites in Colorado found substances that have been linked to infertility, birth defects and cancer in the water.

A study of Pennsylvania birth records from 2004 to 2011, by researchers from Princeton University, Columbia University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also found that infants born within a 2.5-kilometer radius of fracking sites have increased likelihood of low birth weight and more health problems. The list of harms done by fracking goes on and on. You can find a fuller list, with very credible sources listed, on the Frack off website, which also includes photos of landscapes devastated by fracking.

Reserves of shale gas have been identified across large swathes of the UK, particularly in northern England. More than 100 licences have been awarded by the government to firms in the UK, allowing them to pursue a range of oil and gas exploration activities in certain areas.

Before firms can begin fracking they are supposed to first receive planning permission from the relevant local council, however Sajid Javid has just overturned Lancashire council’s rejection of a fracking site, paving the way for shale company Cuadrilla to drill in the county next year despite huge local opposition. Horizontal drilling will begin as early as April 2017, a UK first, and will be the first time Cuadrilla has fracked under homes. Horizontal drilling uses significantly more chemical hydraulic fluid than traditional fracturing. It also returns significantly more oil, leading to an oil glut that forced down global oil prices and is now leading a resurgence in sales of gas-guzzling SUVs, trucks and other fuel-inefficient vehicles. That’s bound to help use reach the new targets for reducing emissions we have just agreed to in Paris.

A spokesman from Lancashire County Council, county counciller Marcus Johnstone, said:

“A local council, made up of councillors democratically elected by local people, and charged with serving their interests, is exactly the right body to make decisions on local matters.

It is clear that the government supports the development of a shale gas industry, but I would ask them to do more to address the concerns of local communities and the councillors who represent them by supporting the best environmental controls.”

As ever, we would encourage you to write to your MP or MSP and tell them to respect the will of the people they are supposed represent. We have firmly said no to this dirty, dangerous method of fossil fuel extraction.

You can also get involved with or donate to anti- fracking groups in your area, such as Frack Off , Greenpeace or Friends of the Earth

Image by John McHarg

Written by Victoria Pearson

Sixteen

Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) help people worldwide where the need is greatest, delivering emergency medical aid to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from health care. MSF teams have tended to patients, assisted in births, and provided access to medical care for hundreds of thousands of people who would otherwise have gone without care.

They are not politically aligned in any way, remaining neutral, independent and impartial – a way of helping to protect their medical personnel as well as giving them access to areas that partisan groups would be unable to.

MSF’s specificity is providing medical humanitarian aid to people in the acute phase of a crisis, but they also consider certain diseases medical emergencies—HIV/AIDS, TB, in particular, as well as malnutrition. They train medical staff within the host country, many of whom go on to participate in MSF’s international projects around the world.

Médecins Sans Frontières works in some of the poorest, most dangerous places on earth, including Aleppo, Yemen, Occupied Palestine, Haiti, Somalia and many many more. They go where other humanitarian workers dare not go, focussing on bringing healthcare to those in most critical need and bearing witness to humanitarian disasters, human rights atrocities, and neglect in areas that rarely receive international attention.

While on the ground, the teams are in constant dialogue with local authorities, warring parties, and other aid agencies in an attempt to reinforce the organization’s operational independence and to facilitate the delivery of the best possible medical care for patients and their communities.

But at times, MSF may speak out publicly in an effort to bring a forgotten crisis into view, alert the public to abuses occurring beyond the headlines, criticize the inadequacies of the aid system, challenge the diversion of humanitarian aid for political interests, or call out policies that restrict access to medical care or essential medicines.

From Rwanda to Srebrenica, and Chechnya to Ethiopia, MSF has born witness to tragedy and spoken out against it. Their work is essential.

MSF encounter many challenges in the course of their work; access to appropriate medications, vaccines, and therapeutic foods to treat malnutrition can be difficult, policies, pricing, and politics can pose barriers for procuring vital medical supplies, and outdated diagnostics and treatments make medical assistance in resource challenged settings difficult and expensive.

Perhaps the most difficult challenge is security – particularly during the last 10 years, there has been a blurring of humanitarian aid and military interventions, where humanitarian aid workers have been directly targeted making it more difficult for them to work in certain high risk areas.

Although MSF works hard to minimize risk of deliberate targeting by talking to all sides in a conflict, asserting and reasserting their independence and impartiality, along with their medical ethics, they do suffer fatalities in the course of their vital work.

Among the most severe incidents were the killing of three aid workers in Somalia in January 2008, and two others in December 2011, and the killing of five field workers in Afghanistan in 2004, which forced MSF to end operations there for five years. In October 2011, two aid workers were abducted from a refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya, and held for more than a year and a half inside Somalia, until their release was finally secured in July 2013.

There are lots of different ways you can support Médecins Sans Frontières/ Doctors Without Borders. You can find details of how to help here.

You can find out more about MSF’s aims and objectives in the Principals Charter and on their FAQ page.

Image by Debra Torrance

Written by Victoria Pearson

Fifteen

One of the best bits about the festive season is the winter feast – gorging on chocolate and christmas pud, stodgy spuds, Yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes to build up some fat that we will lament in January, but that will keep us warm in the cold months ahead.

For some, the reality is very different. It’s almost impossible for authorities to come up with an exact figure for how many people sleep rough in the UK. Thats partly because Scotland, England and Wales and London all record homelessness in different ways but also because in order to protect themselves, many rough sleepers hide themselves away in places where they might be difficult to find. This is especially true for women. We do know, that in Scotland 25% of rough sleepers are under 24 and in London 1 in 10 are under 25. 10% of rough sleepers in London were care leavers, and 8% were from a military background.

The most immediate and basic needs for rough sleepers include hot food and somewhere safe to sleep for the night, but homeless people struggle to access services, and so many need medical care or emergency dental care as well. This is where Crisis tries to help. Their Crisis at Christmas campaign asks you for £22.50 which will reserve one space at Crisis at Christmas and provides a homeless person with; a chance to shower, freshen up and get clean clothes, three nutritious hot meals including Christmas dinner, a health check and treatment from a doctor, optician and dentist, and an introduction to Crisis’ year-round services for training and support for the future.

If you can’t afford it, perhaps you could ask someone to donate on your behalf, as a Christmas present? I’d much rather that than yet another bubble bath set myself- much more festive.

You can reserve a place for someone at Crisis at Christmas here.

There are lots of other ways you can help Crisis, from getting your community group, school or church involved, to shopping in their stores or on their website or visiting a Cafe from crisis.

Crisis also need an army of volunteers with a whole range of skills all year round. From fundraising and retail workers, through to learning support assistants, dentists, hairdressers and lorry drivers – almost everyone has a skill they can bring to the table to help get someone back on their feet. Find out about volunteering opportunities here.

If you aren’t able to manage any of those things, consider buying a sandwich and a hot drink for a homeless person, and sitting with them while they eat it. For many homeless people, loneliness and isolation are major issues and can exacerbate mental health problems. If you can’t give anything else, you can give 10 minutes of your time to ask someone how their day is going. A little conversation could make a real difference to them.

Written by Victoria Pearson

Fourteen

Regarding LGBTQIA+ civil rights, the Western Hemisphere has come a long way over the past several decades. No more section 28, no more guaranteed sackings after coming out, families are more likely than ever to support their children, and celebrities can come out as gay or trans without risking their careers on a scale once known.

It would be wonderful to say this shift in perception means the world is now wholeheartedly accepting of LGBTQIA+ folks. Oh how marvellous it would be to be able to go to bed each night thinking the ridicule, hatred, persecution and dangers of an alternative sexuality/identity no longer exist. Yet such a claim wouldn’t be true.

Despite so many accepting and tolerating the existence of those with sexualities or gender identities differing from the that of heteronormative ones, there’s plentiful quantities of toxic notions polluting the airways of western societies.

Growing up and living in such a world can be difficult for those within the LGBTQIA+ community . Many still consider them as different, as an “other” or as unnatural.

Stares of disapproval while holding hands with partners in public spaces, double takes when walking past strangers on a daily basis, unending glares from folk struggling to understand the people they are glaring at, plus irrational outbursts of outrage at the very idea of such folk having human rights so many take for granted (i.e using restrooms, getting married, participating in sports to name a few). All this because of the people they love, the sexualities they possess, the genders they identify as, the biological chromosomes they were born with, or the clothes they wear.

In such situations, LGBTQIA individuals are seen as subjects to be ogled at; no longer just people going about our day-to-day lives like every other. They are perceived as topics, talking points, political debates, and shocking news stories in the waiting

Not only are those with alternative sexualities and genders still looked upon as sensationalist subjects, but their existences and rights are also still debated as if the victims of homophobia, transphobia and other forms of prejudice are all somehow spoilt children demanding privileges they do not deserve.

The very thought of a trans person using a public toilet is so distressing that a few in the modern world still like to hold discussions about how dangerous this may somehow be to others. Even the notion of gay marriage is enough to wind the less tolerant up into an absurd frenzy. Then you have those who find the idea of referring to another with pronouns differing from the ones they were assigned at birth as so “unscientific” they’ll cry about their “freedom of speech” being at risk.

You’d think in 2016 we’d have grown beyond these petty “outrages”, and although the general population are no beginning to move forward and transcend beyond such ignorance, there are still some out there who want LGBTQIA+ folk to be denied legally recognised unions which they themselves take for granted; who feel letting an XY chromosomed lifeform pee in a women’s restroom (or vice versa) is dangerous; and who insist on taking ownership over another’s identity because “science says so”.

Unfortunately ignorance and bigotry haven’t been entirely eradicated by contemporary morals. Society may have moved forward and grown more understanding, yet we still live in an era where difference is perceived as peculiar, unsavoury and in some cases, dangerous.

There are still those out there who grow uncomfortable around gay people; seeing them as a threat to their own sexuality, less human, untrustworthy and overall different to themselves.

When it comes to trans people, attitudes still circulate in which they are depicted as deceivers masquerading as someone they’re not and challenging the sexuality of straight folk. Gender variant individuals may well be more accepted than ever before, yet they are still accused by the less informed as being liars, tricksters and individuals who don’t have the right to identify as themselves.

Intersex people also don’t fair all that well in modern society either. Despite all the progression and advancements in our understanding toward both intersex individuals as well as the overall differences between sex and gender identity, such folk are often either ignored entirely or treated as if they are medical stigmas.

It is still exceedingly rare to find many intersex advocates with a platform to voice their concerns upon and speak on behalf of the community they belong to. Surely if there’s anyone who can speak about the complex struggles they endure as a group, surely they are the ones to do so. Instead they are spoken by on behalf of non-intersex individuals and doctors.

When the media speak about intersex people, they are once again spoken about in a sensationalist manner; often portrayed as people suffering from a crippling disability as opposed to possessing ambiguous genitalia or chromosomes. Documentaries tend to have a habit of depicting them as unfortunate souls doomed to a dismal life of suffering and social ostracisation.

Never mind that most intersex folk go on to live fulfilling, complex and healthy lives; the narrative within the media tends to frequently focus on their genitalia and how that may “contradict” their identities or the ways others perceive them due to their medical status as an intersex person.

Furthermore, despite not being the same as transgender folk, intersex individuals are often victims of being forced into boxes by some in society. Peers, family members and even doctors are still known for trying to label them as “men” or “women” without giving them an opportunity to choose for themselves. Misgendering or pressuring into a gender role are still far too common.

As for bisexual and pansexual people, life isn’t all that rosy for them either in many respects. Those who are bisexual or pansexual still often find themselves in this day and age being ignored and demonised by both gay and straight people. Both orientations are often branded as invalid, irrelevant and in some cases, immoral.

Many have called into question the very existences of bisexuality and pansexuality, accusing such an orientation of either being a phase, an act of greed or even a ploy for attention. As is the case with attempting to erase any orientation, branding such sexualities as nonexistence can cause significant psychological harm, as well as funding cuts to bi/pan support groups.

Pansexuality has a significantly difficult time when it comes to public acceptance, largely due to the fact that so many misunderstand what such an orientation means.

The definition of pansexual is “a sexual orientation not limited in sexual choice with regard to biological sex, gender presentation or gender identity”. This essentially means that pansexuals will find people attractive regardless of whether they are cis gender, transgender, intersex, non-binary or any other. Biology, presentation or identity do not dictate someone’s sexual appeal.

Problem is, there are still many out there who fail to comprehend the meaning of this; choosing instead to either lump them in with bisexual people, gay people, or even go as far to accuse them of being attracted to other species and even children. This extreme misunderstanding can lead to either others attempting to erase their orientation completely, or accusing them of illegal acts such as bestiality or pedophilia.

Again, the problem here is people attempting to take ownership over another person’s state of being; telling others what their identities and sexualities are. It’s an act of taking control of another and telling them what they are.

All too often you still hear of folks hiding the fact that they are bisexual or pansexual simply to avoid having awkward and complicated conversations with people who struggle to separate sex from gender, believe them to be greedy, assume their orientation is nothing more than a story or believe them to be participating in some radical new “trend”.

The word “trend” is a term bandied about more frequently than usual these days. This is yet another belief some have toward LGBTQIA+ people which causes more harm than anything else. The assumption here is that anyone non-heteronormative aren’t actually authentic individuals whose sexualities or gender identities are wired into their natural state of being, but are merely acting out some sort of lifestyle choice to appear “hip” or “cool”.

This point of view implies that alternative sexualities or non-conforming gender identities are more of a modern fashion statement. Such points of views are hugely damaging of course, as they render people’s existences as nothing more than fads. This undermines the struggles LGBTQIA+ people face daily, as well as their mental wellbeing and position as legitimate people existing within society. Instead of being perceived as individuals, they come across as caricatures playing a role.

It also runs the risk of governments and other members of authority taking them less seriously when considering policies and laws that affect them. For example, why bother taking the funding of gender identity clinics – clinics which save countless lives via gender reassignment programs – seriously when people are harping on about how those who are transgender are merely dabbling in a “temporary craze”?

Of course it isn’t just the stigmatisation, sensationalization and trivialisation of LGBTQIA+ groups which causes harm in contemporary society, but the more traditional forms of prejudice still occur in day-to-day life.

People are still at risk of getting beaten, murdered, verbally assaulted, disowned by family members, ostracised by friends or losing their jobs because of their gender identity or sexuality. The western world may well be more tolerable today than ever when it comes to such individuals, yet the old poisonous ways of homophobia, transphobia and non-heteronormative prejudice still exist to some extent in these supposedly enlightened times.

However alongside all of this, progress is still certainly taking place. Regardless of the ignorant fools and bigoted creeps still causing suffering for others, there are so many in this day and age who are supportive, understanding, willing to learn and entirely accepting of those who are a part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Families, friends, colleagues, employers, members of authorities and even strangers in plentiful quantities are more willing than ever to offer their support and respect for those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, pan, intersex, asexual, aromantic and so on.

Society is growing more accepting as each year goes by, which is something we should celebrate and cherish. Because having allies is the only way of ever making society truly accepting and supportive toward such matters. The fact that so many now stand up for their LGBTQIA+ kinfolk means fantastic feats are being achieved in modern times.

All of this is utterly fantastic, however there’s still work to be done. So many allies have been made in this long and hard journey toward acceptance, nevertheless there’s still some out there who continue to pollute our society with bigoted toxic notions which cause far too much unnecessary suffering and distress.

So if any allies out there see an LGBTQIA+ person receiving hassle or prejudice during their day to day travels, please, show your kindness and compassion by offering a helping hand.

There’s no need to put yourself in harms way of course; yet acts as simple as supporting victims of prejudice, reporting a hate crime to a member of authority, politely calling out hurtful comments made by acquaintances, respecting the identities of those who may not identify as their birth assigned gender or even offering to listen to an LGBTQIA+ friend who may well be suffering will go a long way in enriching the lives of so many.

We’ve come so far over the past couple of decades in the western world, nevertheless there’s still too much distress, suffering and hatred aimed needlessly at individuals all because of the people they love, the genders they identify as and the bodies they were born with.

LGBTQIA+ or not, if we are to address and overcome these obstacles which still remain, coming together and helping one another out is the way forward.

Check out the following groups for more info

Stonewall

LGBT Youth Scotland

LGBT Foundation

The Kaleidoscope Trust

Mermaids UK

Intersex UK

Image by Debra Torrance

Written by Amber Heathers

Thirteen

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Imagine the outrage we would feel if a group of youths blocked off a small dog’s escape routes and chased it on bikes with much larger dogs baying for its blood. When the dogs catch up with the smaller dog, they tear it apart, unless one of the kids shoots it first. We would, quite rightly, demand the maximum possible penalty by law.

What differentiates the youths on bikes from toffs on horseback? What really differentiates the fox from the small dog?

To the Tories, these two scenarios are worlds apart. Theresa May has been under pressure from her backbenchers to repeal the (already largely ignored) Foxhunting hunting ban.

The hunt itself will gather in late morning, although an ‘earth stopper’ will have been out at dawn to block up any known fox earths, drains and badger setts, so that foxes returning from a night’s foraging will be exposed above ground. The huntsman will lead the hounds to a wood or covert where there is a known earth. The hounds are sent into the wood to flush out any foxes. As all underground escape routes are blocked, the fox is forced to run to escape the hounds. Riders positioned around the wood will ‘holloa’ to let the huntsman know the direction the fox has run.

Foxhounds are bred to be slower than foxes, but have far better stamina. Thus, the fox will initially out-pace the hounds, but tire quicker, allowing the hounds to eventually catch up with it. It is almost always an older, experienced hound who will catch a fox on the run, snapping at any part of the fox to slow it down. The rest of the pack then catches up and the fox is torn to pieces.

If the fox manages to find refuge in an un-blocked earth, the hunt employ terriermen who will put their terriers
down the earth to force the fox into the open to be re-hunted, or attack the fox underground while the men dig
down through the soil to catch the terrified animal. Once they have dug out the fox, the terriermen are supposed to shoot it, but many will simply give it a blow with a spade. It is not unheard of (although against fox hunting rules) for the fox to be thrown alive to the waiting foxhounds.

90% of agricultural land is used for crops, beef and dairy farming. The fox’s diet of rabbits and rats actually makes it an asset to most farmers. A 1996 MAFF booklet stated that only 0.4% of lambs that die do so due to accidents, dog attacks, and all other animal predation (including being taken by foxes). Besides, efforts at control are useless as the fox regulates its own population and is a territorial animal. This means that if one fox is killed another soon moves into its place from a surrounding area.
The hunters privately admit that they do not hunt to ‘control a pest’. A 10 year Oxford University study found that only half of the Hunt Masters questioned mentioned fox control as any justification for their ‘sport’. 82% claimed that the hunt’s main role was as ‘a recreational and social force embodying a traditional rural pastime’

As ever, we encourage you to write to your representatives in parliament to let them know that a repeal on Foxhunting would not be welcome, and that we demand tighter controls on the current system that is allowed or ignore by law enforcement. You can find contact details for your representative here.

There are lots of ideas of how to help stop foxhunting on the RSPCA website

Or you could get involved with the Hunt Saboteur Association

Image by Debra Torrance

Written by Victoria Pearson

Twelve

So since we have had a save the tree’s advent window, it only seems appropriate that we do a window for the animals that call woodlands their home.

By protecting the environment and habitat of these wild animals, we can help them survive and thrive as us humans encroach ever further into their spaces.

As well as planting wild seeds in public places to encourage butterflies and insects, you can build little insect houses in your gardens. Use old toilet tubes we told you to save yesterday, or bits of wood to create Net Winged beetle hotels.

The Wildlife Trust will give you information about the various activities and charities happening near you. This might be bird box building, species watching and counts as well as lots of other ideas to help our struggling wildlife.

I couldn’t write about wildlife without mentioning the wee red squirrel. A resident of these islands for 10,000 years, a true indigenous species. These wee furry and fleeting creatures are being slowly eradicated by the grey squirrel and the pox they carry. The grey squirrels also eat fruit earlier in the year and reproduce more successfully than the native reds, competing with resources of the reds.

The reds prefer conifer forests and broadleaved woodland, however have thrived however alongside pox free greys in the central belt of Scotland. According to scottishsquirrels.org.uk there have been 2395 sightings reported of red squirrels this year.

We must also mention the sad fact that there may only be as few as 40 pure Scottish Wildcats left on the planet. The biggest threat to these animals is hybridisation. So if you live in an area where wildcats are known to roam, and you have cats, ensure they are spayed/neutered.

In most instances however, the main threat to animals, is of course us. Humans. Shockingly some people still go out of their way to purposefully kill or maim an animal. These might be landowners trying to get rid of species they see as pests, it could be organised groups such as poaching or hunting with dogs.

A big problem in Scotland recently has been the persecution of birds of prey. Look out for traps, baited posts and suspicious meats if you are out walking, whether locally with your pet or especially if hiking out in our countryside.

If you suspect a wildlife crime may have taken place you should contact the National Wildlife Crime Unit.

Did you know that in the top 10 of UK’s most endangered species are hedgehogs, turtle doves, red squirrels but also that 6 out of the 10 are in fact insects?

Insects play a vital roll in the ecosystem. Not only providing food for our birds and other small mammals, but also pollinating plants, trees and grasses.

The most vital insect in this process is of course the bee. Honey Bees, wild and domestic perform around 80% of the planet’s pollination. The humble bee is facing great challenges right now. Whole hives decimated by disease. Bee keepers in the US reporting up to 50% losses.

You can adopt a hive, there are various sites online. You can also get a free Christmas Bee Saver kit from Friends of the Earth.

Check out Greenpeace’s www.sos-bees.org website and www.savebees.org tells you ways you can help too.

Images and writing by Debra Torrance