Lisa Power MBE (born 1954) is a British sexual health and LGBT rights 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 Stonewall or Stone wall may refer to: * Stone wall, a kind of masonry construction * Stonewalling, engaging in uncooperative or delaying tactics * Stonewall riots, a 1969 turning point for the modern LGBTQ rights movement in Greenwich Village, Ne ...

, later becoming Policy Director at the Terrence Higgins Trust. She was the first openly LGBT person to speak at the United Nations and continues to work and volunteer as a LGBT+ and sexual health activist in Wales with groups such as Fast Track Cardiff and Vale and Pride Cymru.

Early life

Power was born in 1954. She came out as

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. 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 n ...

in the 1970s in a time when homosexuality was still controversial in British society. She worked 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. She was an early worker on the National AIDS Helpline and worked for Hackney Council and the Association of London Authorities 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 and then helped to set up the '' Pink Paper''. She co-founded

in 1989 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 United Nations in New York. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the

2011 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2011 were announced on 31 December 2010 in the United Kingdom,United Kingdom: New Zealand,New Zealand"New Year Honours 2011"(14 January 2011) 2 ''New Zealand Gazette'' 55. The Cook IslandsThe Cook Islands: Grenada,Grenada: ...

, "for services to sexual health and to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community" and was named on the 2017 Pinc List of leading Welsh LGBT figures. In 2020, she collaborated with

National Museum Cardiff National Museum Cardiff ( cy, Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd) is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. The museum is part of the wider network of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Entry is kept free by a grant from the Welsh G ...

and curator Dan Vo on a program called "Queer Tours", which aimed to uncover hidden LGBTQ histories in Cardiff. She is also the Organiser for Pride History Month at Pride Cymru, chairperson of the HIV Justice Network and a trustee the planned Queer Britain museum. On

International Women's Day International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday list of minor secular observances#March, celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights, women's rights movement, bringing attention to issues such as gender equality, ...

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

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