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Conference

11th OCTOBER

At this year’s Conference at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, in London, we will be reflecting on our history, examining and debating the challenges we face today and laying out our vision for the future.

It’s bound to be a lively, thought-provoking and action-packed day. You’ll be joining hundreds of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals for the biggest event in the LGB calendar.

Take a look at an outline of our day. We’ll be announcing our fabulous speakers and guests as well as a range of additional activities over the coming weeks – so remember to check back for updates.

BUY YOUR TICKET HERE

Plan your day

 

8.30 DOORS OPEN
Grab a tea or a coffee and browse a fantastic array of stalls.

9.30 WELCOME from our CEO, Kate Barker

9.45 YOUNG LESBIANS FIGHT BACK 

Alison Ellis, Jo Bartosch

Alison and Jo discuss the plight of young lesbians, the impact of social media, and consider how lesbian spaces, culture and autonomy can be reclaimed.

10.30 GENERATION GAY 

Chair: Dermot Kehoe

Frederick Schminke, Hassan Mamdani, Richard Kirker, Richard Merrin

Men were prosecuted in the 1960s for their homosexuality. Today there is a new threat to men who state their, exclusively, same-sex attraction. Our cross-generational panel ask, will it ever be OK to be gay?

11.20 BREAK

11.50 SOUNDING THE ALARM

Chair: Eileen Gallagher, OBE

Julie Bindel, Cath Leng, Ben Appel, Simon Edge

Our panel discusses courage, conviction and curiosity in the media and explore how the most consequential stories of our era have been covered – or covered up.

12.45 HUNGRY HEARTS

Tonje and Edith of Hungry Hearts perform us into lunch including their Eurovision entry for Norway, Laika.

1.00 LUNCH WITH FRIENDS

Friends’ Groups from right across the UK are travelling to Conference to give you the chance to connect, in person, with your local group. Find your tribe, and your vibe, and make new friends for life.

2.00 OUR KEYNOTE SPEAKER – JAMES DREYFUS

We are thrilled that the talented and much-loved actor, James Dreyfus, will be addressing Conference.

2.15 SEX, LIES AND VICTORIES

Chair: Bev Jackson

Anya Palmer, Michael Foran, Lizzy Pitt, Akua Reindorf

Our panel provide expert analysis of the court cases that shape our movement. They are the people who are making history.

3.15 BREAK

3.45 JAMIE REED IN CONVERSATION WITH KATE HARRIS

Jamie Reed made headlines when, appalled by the medical treatment of minors at a US gender clinic, she decided to blow the whistle on their unethical practices. Hear how her intervention led to law changes that protect children in a number of States.

4.15 GAY QUESTION TIME

Chair: Rhona Hotchkiss

Jan Baxter, Faika El-Nagashi, Charlotte Kenyon, Laurie Burton

Our panel of LGB cross-party politicians, trades’ unionists, councillors and Peers will answer questions from the audience about how we can work more closely with our elected representatives to effect meaningful change.

5.15 WE MEAN BUSINESS

Toby Hopkins

Toby will launch an exciting new LGB Alliance initiative that’s set to tackle the capture of our workplaces and provide better representation and create better working conditions for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals.

5.30 CLOSING, KATE BARKER

5.45 BARS OPEN AND THE PARTY BEGINS!

6.30 GRASS ROOTS ACTIVIST AWARD

We will reveal which activist you voted the unsung hero of 2024.

7.00 THE BIG GAY DISCO

BUY YOUR TICKET HERE

If you would like to come to Conference but would struggle to afford a full-priced ticket, you can request a concessionary or free ticket by emailing events@lgballiance.org.uk

Our speakers

James Dreyfus

We are thrilled that the wonderful, talented, mischievous, brilliant, warm, hilarious and brave James Dreyfus will be delivering our Keynote Speech at Conference. A highly accomplished actor best known for his roles in Notting Hill, The Thin Blue Line and Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, James has been courageously outspoken in recent years and we couldn't be more excited and proud to have him as this year's Keynote Speaker.

Julie Bindel

Julie is a feminist campaigner, author and journalist. She came out as a lesbian aged 15 in 1977. She, alongside Kathleen Stock, is co Director of The Lesbian Project, and cohost of its associated Podcast hosted on Substack. Julie’s forthcoming book, Lesbians: Where Are We Now? will be published by Swift Press in May, 2025.

Alison Ellis

Alison is a TikTok content creator who spreads awareness on the issues young lesbians are currently facing. She consistently gets violations, mass reports, videos removed and accounts banned simply for stating facts about lesbians. Upon searching what a "TERF" was, she eventually came across the videos of Magdalen Berns which gave her the courage to use her own voice. She likes to debunk the lies about lesbians widespread on the perils of TikTok so that other lesbians who are afraid see a way out. Alison demonstrates determination and resilience in defending young lesbians despite the backlash she receives online.

Ben Appel

Ben is a writer living in New York. A graduate of Columbia University, he has written for Newsweek, The Free Press, Spiked, UnHerd, Queer Majority, The Spectator, and other publications. Some of his notable essays are “The New Homophobia” (Newsweek 2022), “Homophobia in Drag” (Spiked 2023), and “The Re-Demonization of the Gay Male” (Queer Majority 2024). A memoir about his Christian fundamentalist childhood and his experiences in activism and academia will be published by Post Hill Press. You can find him on X @benappel and online at benappelwrites.com.

Simon Edge

Simon was the final editor of Capital Gay, after which he had a 15-year career as a staff journalist on the Evening Standard and the Daily Express. Throughout that time he continued to write about lesbian and gay politics and law reform for Gay Times and Attitude. The author of six novels, two of which – The End of the World is Flat and In the Beginning – are satires on gender ideology and were hailed by Richard Dawkins as ‘coruscating satires on currently trendy anti-science lunacy’. Now the senior editor at Eye Books, he was instrumental in publishing Graham Linehan’s Sunday Times-bestselling memoir Tough Crowd. His next book will be a non-fiction takedown of the myth that lesbians and gay men owe all their rights to trans people.

Akua Reindorf

Akua KC is a barrister at Cloisters Chambers specialising in employment, discrimination and human rights law. She appeared for LGB Alliance in the challenge to their charitable status brought by Mermaids and is instructed in a number of high profile claims of discrimination because of gender critical belief. In 2021 she authored the “Reindorf Review” for the University of Essex. Akua is a Commissioner of the EHRC and a fee paid Employment Judge. She was Chambers and Partners’ Employment Junior of the Year 2022 and was named Barrister of the Year by the Legal Business Awards 2023.

Jan Baxter

Jan is a lesbian activist and trade union rep. Proud to have represented members at all levels of union work including TUC LGBT and at events in Europe. Speaking out at her union conference, she learned there are many feeling silenced by the bullies of gender ideology so works with others to swing the pendulum back, in the best traditions of our movement. She also designs and delivers workshops on Diversity & Inclusion, Bullying, Harassment & Discrimination, and writes workplace blogs. As a founder of a Lesbian & Gay switchboard in the 80s, she is experienced in battling ignorance and actual bigotry.

Frederick Schminke

Frederick has been living and working as a high school English teacher in Paris, France for the last 4 years after an initial move from his hometown of Eugene, Oregon, in the United States. He studied history at the University of Oregon, and later received a master’s degree in education from the Sorbonne. He has participated in a variety of political organisations over the years and enjoys drawing political cartoons to keep things light. One silver-lining is that we’re certainly not running out of all sorts of good material any time soon!

Jo Bartosch

Jo was one of the first journalists to question the medical protocols around the transition of children and has been a key figure in the fight against transgenderism by bringing it to national attention in the press. She’s been published in outlets from the Times to to the New Statesman and is a frequent contributor to broadcasts on political topics. Jo is assistant editor at The Critic and a regular contributor to Spiked.

Richard Kirker

Richard’s 30 year professional life was spent challenging homophobia and campaigning for the rights of same-and-bi sex attracted people, and helping form alliances and coordinating broadly-based initiatives across many sectors to promote the well-being of LGB people. But, he says “in view in particular of the onslaught on women’s and lesbian rights, spaces, and chances, as well as brazen aggression and threats to employment and free speech, by an emboldened class of intolerant enforcers and censors, the LGB Alliance is helping restore sanity, compassion, and common-sense where it is most needed. This is no more important than in legislation, universities and schools, medical care, safe-guarding, and public policy, as well as sports, art, culture, and academia.”

Dr Michael Foran

Dr Michael Foran is a lecturer in Public Law at the University of Glasgow. His PhD from the University of Cambridge, focusing on Equality and Constitutional Law, won the Yorke Prize and was published in 2023 as "Equality Before the Law: Equal Dignity, Wrongful Discrimination, and the Rule of Law". He is an expert on the law relating to sex and gender. His analysis of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was instrumental in UK government decision-making, ultimately resulting in the use of an order under s.35 of the Scotland Act to prevent the Bill from coming into force. His forthcoming book, Sex, Gender Identity and the Law, will be published in 2025 with Cambridge University Press.

Hassan Mamdani

Hassan calls himself a reluctant activist. He is a scientist, company director and, along with Dennis Kavanagh, is co-director of the Gay Men’s Network. Around 2019, he became concerned by the replacement of sex with gender in the biological sciences and in main-stream scientific publications. While following this trajectory, he saw the rise of a new homophobia in the form of gender ideology. Having come out in the mid 1990s and never been a gay activist, he felt the need to articulate a positive vision for being a gay man in the face of this new homophobia.

Faika el-Nagashi

Faika el-Nagashi is a long-time lesbian and feminist human rights advocate. She is a political scientist by vocation, political activist by passion and politician by profession. Her expertise is on women’s and human rights, (women’s) migration, development cooperation, integration and diversity politics. She is currently a member of the Vienna City Council and the Vienna Provincial Parliament and the spokesperson for Integration and Human Rights of the Vienna Green Party.

Lizzy Pitt

Lizzy Pitt is an experienced social worker and has been for over 16 years working in a range of teams and Local Authorities, most recently employed by Cambridgeshire County Council as a Social Work Manager. In July 2024, represented by Naomi Cunningham and Liz McGlone, Lizzy won a landmark Employment Tribunal against Cambridgeshire County Council for discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and sex based rights. Lizzy is unbelievably grateful to everyone who supported her CrowdFunder enabling her to bring the case which sets precedent for Local Authorities and social workers. Lizzy was at the inaugural meeting to establish LGB Alliance and has many years experience campaigning for the rights of same sex attracted people. "Sex matters particularly to me as a woman who is exclusively sexually attracted to women. I do not believe that men can literally become women, so being a lesbian does not mean I am transphobic."

Cath Leng

Cath Leng is a journalist of 25 years experience with the BBC and a founder member of Seen In Journalism, which works towards accuracy and impartiality in media coverage of sex and gender. She left the BBC after multiple disciplinary actions following her work to try to bring greater balance to BBC journalism in the issue. She has written for the Critic, and as well as her work with SiJ, she now coordinates with other sex equity campaign organisations to highlight misinformation and disinformation in UK and global media.

Jamie Reed

Jamie Reed is a whistleblower from a pediatric gender centre in the United States. She holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology and a Master of Science in Clinical Research Management. Working at the Washington University Transgender Center at the St. Louis Children’s Hospital from 2018 to 2022, she held the position of case manager and clinical research coordinator. She officially blew the whistle regarding the practices at the gender centre in January 2023 by submitting an affidavit to the Missouri Attorney General (AG). Once the affidavit was formally accepted, she published a first hand account with the publication The Free Press. The publication went viral and broke the narrative regarding ‘care’ being offered within paediatric gender centres in the US.

Richard Merrin

Moving to London in the early 1990’s Richard settled into a career in public relations and is today the owner and CEO of Spreckley, a business-to-business PR agency in the field of technology and how it impacts our world. Always politically active in his home Borough of Camden – described as ‘spicey’ by the Camden New Journal - Richard stood for the Conservative Party in the 2010 General Election. Richard is also a Freeman of the City of London.

Charlotte Kenyon

Charlotte Kenyon is a West Sussex County Councillor. In June 2024, Charlotte was appointed Advisor to the WSCC Cabinet Member for Children, Young People, Learning and Skills to undertake a review of advice offered to schools, parents and children. This was in response to concerns that she had raised regarding organisations that endorse an uncritical approach to the gender affirming model of therapy for children with ‘gender distress’. Charlotte is recommending an approach which accurately reflects current UK legislation and guidance and the recommendations of the Cass Review.

Laurie Burton

Laurie Burton grew up in Brighton and has been involved in LGB activism from an early age. At University he chaired the gay rights campaign, fighting for civil partnerships and an end to Section 28. Working in the Education Sector, he teaches Mathematics, Philosophy and Economics. In 2018 Laurie was elected to Southend Council, turning Red a normally Tory seat, and for three years he has been Portfolio Holder for Education and Inclusion. A few years ago he became increasingly concerned about the large number of children in care identifying as trans, often as a means to escape previous trauma. This concern led him into campaigning for a more holistic approach to these vulnerable children.