LGBT Foundation (formerly known as The Lesbian & Gay Foundation) is a national charity based in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

with a wide portfolio of services. With a history dating back to 1975, it campaigns for a fair and equal society where all

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

and

trans Trans- is a Latin prefix meaning "across", "beyond", or "on the other side of". Used alone, trans may refer to: Sociology * Trans, a sociological term which may refer to: ** Transgender, people who identify themselves with a gender that di ...

(

LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...

) people are able to reach their full potential. They support over 40,000 people directly every year, and a further 600,000 online. They provide direct services and resources to more LGBT people than any other charity of its kind in the UK. The

charity Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...

is governed by a board of trustees from a variety of backgrounds and with a wide variety of skills and qualifications. The trustees are supported by a Chief Executive, Deputy Chief Executive, Director of Operations, Director of Development and four Deputy Directors who oversee directorates for Delivery, Inclusion, Income Generation and Finance. The charity provides a broad range of support services including substance misuse,

domestic abuse Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. In a broader sense, abuse including nonphysical abuse in such settings is called domestic abuse. The term "domestic violence" is often use ...

, sexual health testing, talking therapies, wellbeing, community safety, trans advocacy, LGBTQ+ armed forces/veterans, and the Indigo Gender Service.

History

The origin of the LGBT Foundation was in the Manchester Lesbian and Gay Switchboard Services (MLGSS), which began on 2 January 1975 when six gay men got together to provide an information and support service for the growing number of gay men coming out following the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1967. The line ran from 7 to 9pm each evening with calls being taken about a wide range of issues. Over the decades, the services broadened out to include counselling, group work and email support. In April 2000, MLGSS unified with Healthy Gay Manchester (HGM) to form the Lesbian & Gay Foundation (LGF).Attitude.co.uk
, Lesbian and Gay foundation change their name to celebrate diversity. Drawing upon experience gained from MeSMAC Manchester, HGM was formed in 1994 by Paul Martin OBE (current Chief Executive of LGBT Foundation), and Gerard Gudgion with a clear aim to reduce the incidence of

HIV The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the im ...

infection through sex between men. Famed for its ground-breaking approach to safer sex campaigning, HGM was a pioneering gay men's health organisation offering free

condom A condom is a sheath-shaped Barrier contraception, barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a Sexually transmitted disease, sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both external condo ...

s and

personal lubricant Personal lubricants (colloquially termed lube) are specialized lubricants used during sexual acts, such as intercourse and masturbation, to reduce friction to or between the penis and vagina, anus or other body parts, or applied to sex toys to ...

, counselling, services, groups and volunteering opportunities such as condom packing evenings. In April 2015, the LGF adopted the name LGBT Foundation. The LGBT Foundation has witnessed and responded to and impacted a number of national and international developments for LGBT equality LGBT Foundation co-operated with

Manchester Pride Manchester Pride is a Charity (practice), charity that campaigns for LGBT, LGBTQ+ Equality Act 2010, equality across the United Kingdom, predominantly in Greater Manchester. The Charity offers dialogue, training, research and policy analysis, a ...

for the organisation of its yearly "

Pride Pride is a human Emotion, secondary emotion characterized by a sense of satisfaction with one's Identity (philosophy), identity, performance, or accomplishments. It is often considered the opposite of shame or of humility and, depending on conte ...

" event. It used to provide media partnership to Manchester Pride with its own magazine, ''Out North West,'' until the magazine was discontinued.

Current work

As of 2019, LGBT Foundation is the largest LGBT health and community services charity in the UK, offering a range of services serving over 40,000 people in person and over 600,000 people online every year. LGBT Foundation provides a wide range of wellbeing and support services. Their

programme provides practical housing advice, 1:1 casework support and advice sessions to LGBT victims of domestic abuse. Their substance misuse programme provides 1-2-1 and group support for those addicted to drugs and/or alcohol. Their talking therapies team deliver LGBT-affirmative counselling support. Their befriending service helps people to build their support networks, make friends and reduce loneliness. The Foundation Direct helpline – the organisation's oldest service - provides crisis email and phone support to over 5,000 people every year. They operate a sexual health testing service for

men who have sex with men Men who have sex with men (MSM) are men who engage in sexual activity with other men, regardless of their sexual orientation or sexual identity. The term was created by epidemiologists in the 1990s, to better study and communicate the spre ...

and LGBT people, conducting outreach testing across

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

. Each year their sexual health team distributes over a quarter of a million condoms and sachets of lube, celebrating 30 years of free condom and lube distribution in 2024. Pride in Practice is LGBT Foundation's quality assurance support service that strengthens and develops Primary Care Services relationship with their lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans patients within the local community. As of 2019, 2.1 million patients in Greater Manchester are now registered at Pride in Practice accredited GP practices. The Village Angels and Village Haven are LGBT Foundation's night-time safety and harm reduction projects. They provide support to vulnerable people in Manchester's historic

Gay Village A gay village, also known as a gayborhood or gaybourhood, is a geographical area with generally recognized boundaries that is inhabited or frequented by many lesbian, gay, bisexuality, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people. Gay vil ...

on a Friday and Saturday evening from 9pm to 5am. The Village Angels was first established in 2011, where a team of volunteers and a first-aid trained shift lead patrolling the Gay Village every Friday and Saturday from 9pm to 3am, wearing the hot pink uniforms for which they are renowned. In 2016, they piloted an expansion of the Angels programme - the Village Haven. The Village Haven is a night time safe haven for those too vulnerable to be out on the streets. Following the success of this pilot, the Village Haven became a permanent fixture of LGBT Foundation's community safety programme in 2017 working continually in tandem with the Village Angels. Each year the programmes support 5,000 people every year, including 450 highly vulnerable people. In 2017, they partnered with

Smirnoff Smirnoff (; ) is a brand of vodka owned and produced by the British company Diageo. The Smirnoff brand began with a vodka distillery founded in Moscow by Pyotr Arsenievich Smirnov (1831–1898), but its modern incarnation traces back to the ...

as part of their "We're Open" campaign making a short video about the Angels work and to begin expanding the programme nationally. In 2018, the Village Angels and Haven volunteers won the "Dedication to Volunteering" award at th
Greater Manchester Health and Care Champions Awards
an initiative of the

Greater Manchester Combined Authority The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is a combined authority for Greater Manchester, England. It was established on 1 April 2011 and consists of 11 members: 10 indirectly elected members, each a directly elected councillor from one ...

and the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

. In 2019, the Village Angels were awarded the

Queen's Award for Voluntary Service The King's Award for Voluntary Service, previously known as The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, is an annual award given to groups in the voluntary sector of the United Kingdom and the Crown Dependencies. Until 2022, awardees were announce ...

, the highest honour a voluntary group can receive in the UK. More recently, LGBT Foundation has expanded its operations to Liverpool, Coventry and

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

. The Soho Angels, a night-time harm reduction programme based upon the Village Angels, was established in

Soho SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

in 2018 in collaboration with

Westminster City Council Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in London. The council has been under Labour majority control since 2022. Full council meetings ...

and

. The

Government Equalities Office The Office for Equality and Opportunity (OEO, formerly known as the Government Equalities Office) is the unit of the British government with responsibility for social equality. Based in the Cabinet Office, it is led by the Minister for Women a ...

to had commissioned the LGBT Foundation to roll out Pride in Practice through five London clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) —  

Lewisham Lewisham ( ) is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in ...

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, which today also gives its name to the (much larger) London Borough of Lambeth. Lambeth itself was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey. It is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Charin ...

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Toponymy Wandsworth takes its name ...

CCG and

North West London The NW (North Western) postcode area, also known as the London NW postcode area, is a group of 13 postcode districts covering around 13,895 live postcodes within part of northwest London, England. It is the successor of the NW sector, originall ...

. Nationally, Eastern Cheshire, Mid Essex, St Helens, Greater Huddersfield,

Calderdale Calderdale () is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, which had a population of 211,439. It takes its name from the River Calder, and dale, a word for valley. The name Calderdale usually refers to the borough through which the ...

and North Kirklees CCGs have also expressed interest in running the programme in future.

References

{{Portal bar, LGBTQ Organizations established in 2000 Social welfare charities based in the United Kingdom Organisations based in Manchester LGBTQ organisations in England LGBTQ political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom LGBTQ culture in Manchester