Tessa Havers-Strong at the forum+ birthday party

“EVERYONE has a role to play” in celebrating the rich and radical history of north London’s LGBTQ+ community, the organisers of a series of events this week.

As the charity forum+ launched its packed programme of events to mark the beginning of LGBTQ+ History Month on Wednesday, its director Tessa Havers-Strong celebrated the role of the “local community” in the celebrations.

“It’s not just about having LGBT people organise the events, it’s also about the local community getting involved to organise events. That fosters community,” she said.

As well as working with “our usual people,” Ms Havers-Strong said the charity has focused on drawing “community centres and libraries” into this year’s plans.

“Everyone has a role to play, and I think in the long term it helps toward community cohesion. On one level it’s important we recognise people who historically have been out there, it is a way of celebrating all our achievements, but it is also an opportunity for the wider community to see that as well and celebrate,” she said.

More than 40 events are planned over the course of this month, from an LGBT+ film day at the British Museum and an art exhibition at Belsize Community Library to history walks through Camden and Islington.

The programme coalesces around this year’s theme, “Behind the Lens”, decided by education charity Schools OUT.

“The idea with ‘Behind the Lens’ is to explore all LGBT identities, from film-makers and scriptwriters, documentary producers and photographers, not just the icons on screen,” Ms Havers-Strong said.

As well as celebrating the LGBT+ community, the charity supports victims of homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime. “Compared to 20 years ago, things are a lot better today than they were; however, there’s still lots of work to be done,” Ms Havers-Strong added.

“People still experience homophobia and transphobic abuse and harassment.

“We tend to see that on local housing issues, where it starts off as a neighbourhood dispute where tension may have arisen because of too much noise or something else going on, then there will be a flashpoint where homophobic language is used.

“It’s better than after the Covid lockdown finished: thankfully we don’t see violent crime as much.

“But we do see everyday chronic homophobic behaviour, which can be very distressing.”