Save the Gay Centre in Manchester Petition : [ powered by iPetitions.com ]

#	Name	Comments
1	Sam Rowe	If this happens it will create a lot of hurt and upset. Many LGBT people experience being uprooted from places they consider home throughout their lives, and it is entirely unacceptable that the city coucil are treating people who use the gay centre in this way.
2	Anonymous	Save the centre! The youth of today need this place!!
3	yvonne coombe	Keep LGYM open, its the only place in manchester
4	Fernando Rapado	Please do not close it. This Centre provides support to the largest gay community in this country outside London. Thanks very much Kind regards
5	David Buckley
6	Adam Hodgson	Places like this are just so important to minority communities that would otherwise not have access to the resources and support provided. Closing LGYM would be such a blight to the LGBT youth community in Manchester, and would be a serious blemish on an otherwise gay friendly city. I hope MCC will reconsider closing the centre or provide an alternative location for all the groups housed in the Gay Centre to continue to convene at.
7	Georgina	Dont close it down, fools. xx
8	hannah
9	Robin	I'm not gay, but i do think that love is love. It doesn't matter if it's a female with a female, or a male with a male. I think it's great that they have a place where they can get support. It would be horrible to shut it down.
10	Paul Sloggett	I'd almost say this is (at least almost) a rather homo/trans/biphobic move of Manchester City Council.
11	James Lucas
12	Suzi Kuzmowicz
13	edwin	yay
14	Anonymous
15	Kristy
16	renee pearson	i think it is rediculas you are even considering closingnthis centre, and after being in manchester for the festival i have seen that more people need it much more than i thought.
17	michael evans
18	Kimberley	this centre saved my best friends life.
19	Charlotte	it shud stay open defo
20	Kimmie	this centre saved my best friend's life
21	Chris W	Young LGBT people need safe spaces they can go, where they're safe from the discrimination, prejudice and hate that faces us. Groups like LGYM do so much to help young people, and councils should be doing more to support them, not cutting back.
22	Dylan	Good luck vonn. =]
23	Kathryn Shaw
24	Enya
25	Anonymous	This is a disgrace! A decent reason must be given!!!
26	Matt Saint
27	Misc ToMb()Y	You can support this Save The Gay Centre Manchester Campaign Collective 2007 by sending your contact details and offers of support to: savethegaycentre[at]yahoo.co.uk Subscribe to the announcements email list by sending a blank email to: save_the_gay_centre_mcr-subscribe[at]lists.riseup.net (Replacing the [at] with the @ symbol). Join us as a friend on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/save_the_gay_centre_mcr The Manchester LGBTQI Centre will be shut down by Manchester City Council by December 2007, so we must act fast and work together collectively and co-operatively to save it! Peace, Love & Pink'N'Black Glitter, ToMb()Y *****************************************************
28	Jessica
29	Anonymous	Don't shun the vulnerable!!
30	Anonymous
31	Anonymous
32	Simon Bradley
33	paula chorlton	whilst not a member of the gay community myself, i know many people who are and feel it is outrageous that such a focal point is in danger of closure.
34	Rachel
35	Amy	This place does amazing work. I have a friend who goes there and it has saved her life. She was so down and deppressed about hiding her sexuallity and Lgym helped he come out of her shell and is now helping other people too. if the councill close the center then more people will be on the street and they will feel miss trusted and lonley as it is one of there valuble lifelines of life. It is also a very hommophobic/ Transphobic/ Biphobic atction of the concill.
36	Fiona Loughnane
37	Zoe Gregory
38	Anonymous	It has taken twenty years to shape the Gay Centre into the vibrant, welcoming and inclusive LGBTQI space that it is today. No other space exists for those who are otherwise marginalised by mainstream, pink-pound oriented, lesbian and gay-only spaces. The centre is a much-needed and much-used epicentre of queer activity here in Manchester, catering for a variety of people, with a range of interests and backgrounds. The closure of the centre will have serious repercussions for those who need it most - the excluded, the vulnerable, the at-risk groups. People's lives should come before profit...save the centre!
39	Louis Bailey	It has taken twenty years to shape the Gay Centre into the vibrant, welcoming and inclusive LGBTQI space that it is today. No other space exists for those who are otherwise marginalised by mainstream, pink-pound oriented, lesbian and gay-only spaces. The centre is a much-needed and much-used epicentre of queer activity here in Manchester, catering for a variety of people, with a range of interests and backgrounds. The closure of the centre will have serious repercussions for those who need it most - the excluded, the vulnerable, the at-risk groups. People's lives should come before profit...save the centre!
40	David Henry	This is really sad news indeed. I have known for a while the council cheifs have had teir eyes on closing the centre and rediverting the money to other gay projects for some time now but I didn't think it would ever actually happen. The closure of the Peer Support Project about 2 years ago was the start of the end for the Gay Centre. I first started going to LGYM about 9 years ago when I had just come out, Sally and Gordon are amazing youth workers and their spirit lives on in the thousands of young people they have supported over the years. Just before the UK's first national LGBT Youth Organisation was founded (The Queer Youth Alliance) we held a lot of our first meetings in the gay centre and we used to run a youth group there jointly with LGYM once a month on a tuesday night called 'OutSpoken' which was Manchester LGBT Youth Council at the time. I am sure whatever happens LGYM as a group will survive. If we are unsuccesfull in saving the centre then we need to campaign for a new community resource outside of the gay ghetto!
41	Carol Robson FRSA
42	Suzie Campbell-Kelly
43	Rub.
44	Anonymous	SAVE THE GAY CENTREEEE.
45	Tracy Dean
46	Melanie Maddison
47	Clare Hooley	The LGBT centre has and is still helping hundreds or more LGBT youths and is there as a safe space where they can get advice and meet others. It helped me alot n it would be devestating to see it go and not be their for others to help them through difficult times. Its not often you find places for LGBT people and to see a service as good as this go to waste is a real shame! SAVE OUR CENTRE!!!
48	Rebecca Dittman, Chair of Trustees	On behalf of the Trustees of The Gender Trust we wholeheartedly support this campaign. The trans community being so small relies on local support organisations for help in dealing with the complex problems and difficulties that effect their lives. Loss of such a resource as The Gay Centre Manchester will have a profound effect on the wellbeing of trans people within the Greater Manchester are.
49	Joe Swift
50	Vicky Fraser-Smith	I am shocked to hear that you plan to close this valuable resource. I have used this centre myself extensively over the years. It provided for me, and for so many others, a valuable, essential lifeline. Surely the groups it supports now are as needed as they ever where when the centre was opened. This will leave a huge hole in your LGBT provision. Shocking from such a supposedly equality driven authority. Please, reconsider.