Lisa Power MBE is a British sexual health and

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, Gay men, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishmen ...

campaigner. She was a volunteer for Lesbian & Gay Switchboard and Secretary General of the International Lesbian and Gay Association. She co-founded the Pink Paper and Stonewall, later becoming Policy Director at the Terrence Higgins Trust. She was the first openly LGBT person to speak at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

and continues to work and volunteer as an LGBT+ and sexual health activist in Wales with groups such as Fast Track Cymru and Pride Cymru.

Early life

Power was born in 1954. She came out as

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 ...

in the 1970s in a time when homosexuality was still controversial in British society. She volunteered at the Lesbian & Gay Switchboard in London. At the switchboard, she started to take calls about a mystery illness which became known as GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) and later

HIV/AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

. She was an early worker on the National AIDS Helpline and worked for Hackney Local Authority as HIV policy officer.

Career

Power became Secretary-General of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (now the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) in 1988 after helping to set up the '' Pink Paper''. She co-founded Stonewall in 1989 in direct response to Section 28 and subsequently was the policy director of the Terrence Higgins Trust. In 1991, Power was the first openly LGBT person to speak about gay rights at the

in New York. She was subsequently sainted by the Order of Perpetual Indulgence as St Lisa Potestatis for her services to queer life and her saint's day is New Year's Eve. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours, "for services to sexual health and to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community" and was named on the 2022 Pinc List as that year's most influential LGBT figure in Wales. In 2020, she collaborated with National Museum Cardiff and curator Dan Vo on a program called "Queer Tours", which aimed to uncover hidden LGBTQ histories in Cardiff. She was for several years the Organiser for LGBT History Month at Pride Cymru and Chair of the HIV Justice Network. She was Historical Consultant for the ground breaking Russell T Davies Channel 4 series "It's A Sin", has appeared in a number of HIV and LGBT modern history programmes and is a Founding Trustee of the Queer Britain museum. On International Women's Day 2020, Power commented "Women are raised with an inner voice of self doubt; tell yours to shut up and let you have a go".

Selected works

References

External links

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Listing of Lisa Power's papers on AIM25
{{DEFAULTSORT:Power, Lisa 1954 births Living people British LGBTQ rights activists Members of the Order of the British Empire British HIV/AIDS activists Welsh women activists 20th-century Welsh women writers 21st-century Welsh women writers 21st-century Welsh writers Lesbian feminists British women civil rights activists 21st-century Welsh LGBTQ people