Green mayoral candidate Sian Berry today pledged to oppose the gentrification threatening London’s LGBT scene as part of her manifesto for the community.
She made the promise during a visit to the now boarded up premises of the Joiners Arms in Shoreditch, alongside former Joiners landlord David Pollard and longtime openly gay Assembly Member Darren Johnson, openly gay City Hall candidate Ronald Stewart and no 2 candidate for City Hall Caroline Russell.
Noting that as a Camden councillor she supported the campaign to save the Black Cap, she vowed that if she is elected to City Hall she will enable the designation of LGBT venues as assets of community value to prevent their closure.
Sian said: “London’s LGBT population have worked long and hard to build communities and community infrastructure. Yet hard-won spaces which have established themselves over decades are now under threat. The out-of-control London housing market threatens far too many pubs and clubs, no matter how successful.
“I will ensure that the need for housing does not force the closure of these venues. Among other measures, I will amend the London Plan to ensure that residential developments built next to venues would cover the cost of soundproofing needed for venues to sit happily next to housing.”
Other measures in Sian’s LGBT manifesto include:
- bringing back an LGBT community space – real or virtual – to support both younger and older members of the community;
- ensuring that sexual health services are adequately funded at a Londonwide rather than a borough level;
- guaranteeing the level of funding for Pride and her own attendance as Mayor;
- returning the Greater London Authority to the Stonewall index of LGBT-friendly employers;
- working with local councils to ensure that trans people are treated with dignity, including the optional honorific Mx;
- ensuring that homophobic or transphobic advertising never feature on the city’s public transport network;
- Preserving hate crime hot lines specifically for LGBT people and LGBT-related hate crime;
- protecting and expanding Safer Neighbourhood policing teams as well as ring-fencing funding for each borough’s LGBT liaison office.
These pledges come on top of her existing promise, made on World Aids Day last December, to establish a long-overdue Aids memorial.
Sian said: “The Green Party has always been at the forefront of fighting for LGBT rights. We were the first party in England to officially support marriage equality. Our Green Assembly members successfully pushed for the a same-sex partnership register in London which Tony Blair acknowledged paved the way for national legislation. I will continue the fight for a more inclusive London if I’m elected to City Hall.”