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Dressed
ssed
as a Girl
Jonny Woo Talks
Critically acclaimed frockumentary Dressed As A Girl was the talk of the queer cinema
scene when it premiered at The British Film Institute in March. Now it’s part of POUT, an
LGBT film festival showcasing the best contemporary movies.
We caught up with Dressed As A Girl’s pontificating, prancing protagonist Jonny Woo to get
a bit of a background on the film and how it’s been received.
Hey Jonny, tell us a bit about Dressed as a Girl for those who
don’t know about it.
The film as a whole looks at six people who are on the gay scene in
London and who are part of a scene, which in this case is the East
London drag scene. And it looks at our lives, it looks at the trials we
encounter and the way we overcome them. One of the things that Colin
[Rothbart, director] chose to focus on at the beginning is how the excesses
of partying led to my hospitalisation. My story starts there. It kicks off with
that but that’s not the thrust of the film in any way.
Each of the characters are dealing with their own demons and
experiencing their own triumphs. It’s filmed over six years and it
celebrates the scene without unnecessarily saying it’s greater than it
actually is. It watches it and documents it in a higher, objective way.
How did you come to be involved in the film?
Because Colin the director and Holestar who’s in it had an idea of
documenting the scene. It was going to be just about Glastonbury. I’m
part of the gay tent [NYC Downlow] that goes to Glastonbury, I’m one of
the people who started it all up, and so I agreed to be in it. They wanted
people to be in it and I agreed to take part. We didn’t have any idea
which way the film was going to go. It just got longer and longer and
ended up being a film that documented our lives.
It’s difficult to follow people around. When people are getting on with
their lives it’s not necessarily that convenient for them to be documented
continuously. All the cast have their various lives so it wasn’t really
possible to do a six month look at the scene.
Can you see a transformation in yourself over the last six years?
I can see a transformation in myself and I can see a transformation
from the final interview I gave. In my final interview I’m giving, it’s about
stopping drinking and I’ve got a kind of earnest attitude towards it. I’m
a lot more relaxed about it now and there are snippets of interviews I
gave I can really see the changes, physically and more to my attitude,
my handle on things. You grow up in six years and I changed a lot
in the past year. The characters changed physically and they also
changed their attitude to their lives, not just in the drag scene, which is
continuous. We fall in and out of love with it.
What’s the response been like so far?
People generally respond to it very well. Obviously people who are
more familiar with the scene and familiar with the characters really
respond to it because it’s nice to see something they’re familiar with
being documented. I think it’s a really interesting, honest, unpretentious
documentary that doesn’t try to be too clever.
What do you think the viewers will take away from it?
I think people come away feeling very lifted, and feeling that there’s
a community, and that all this stuff about the scene is dying isn’t
necessarily true. The London scene is thriving and vibrant and very
strong. It’s about the people in it. If you want to truly see the gay
community, watch this film.
DRESSED AS A GIRL is screening at Picturehouse Central on 6th
September, with a live cabaret performance and Q&A afterwards.
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qxmagazine.com
LGBT CHARITIES
VS AUSTERITY
The LG community has always relied heavily on its charities,
LGBT
but with another bout of austerity on the cards these vital
bu
support services are coming under increasing pressure to
survive. Chris Godfrey speaks to Broken Rainbow, GMFA and
the Kaleidoscope Trust about the potential impact of another
sustained period of government cuts.
s one of society’s most vulnerable groups, austerity hits
LGBT people hard. There’s a reason so many LGBT-
specific charities exist, tackling issues like homelessness,
discrimination, sexual health and mental wellbeing.
But the last five years of government cutbacks has
left many of these organisations at breaking point,
and facing dwindling reserves, redundancies and a
decrease to the services they provide; all against a
rising tide of people turning to them. With another five
years of Conservative-led austerity on the cards, the
situation is about to get much worse.
Broken Rainbow runs a national helpline providing
confidential support to LGBT people experiencing
domestic violence. A reported one in four LGBT
people experience domestic violence, and while such
incidences have similarities to heterosexual cases, there
are certain nuances that require specialist knowledge of
the queer experience.
In 2013 Broken Rainbow took over 3,000 calls and
last year they spoke to over 6,500 people. But despite
its integral importance, the unexpected conservative
majority doesn’t bode well for the helpline, which was
until recently funded by the Home Office.
“We already knew that if the Tories were to get in it
would be a disaster for us as an organisation, in that
we would potentially have to go into a commissioning
process,” says Jo Barringer, Broken Rainbow’s interim
managing director. Last year the charity was given
an extra year’s funding from the Home Office on the
understanding that there would be no more beyond that.
“We knew, come the election when there was a
Tory majority, that we were facing harsh realities with
regards to service provision in the future, and that
A
potentially we’d need to completely rethink the way
we do things,” says Barringer. “It could mean we can
no longer run helpline, which clearly we’re doing
everything we can to avoid at this point.”
It’s a familiar story for GMFA. Since 2012 the gay
men’s health charity has lost nearly all statutory funding
and now relies on reserves and donations. As a result
it’s had to make redundancies, make its magazine
FS digital only, and drop some of its online services
completely. Its sexual health website, which receives
over 100,000 visitors a month, is currently financed
through its own reserves.
“We receive so little statutory funding at the
moment, so it’s not like our statutory funding could
go down,” says Matthew Hodson, chief executive at
GMFA, reflecting on the likely impact of yet more
austerity. “The challenge is that HIV prevention
funding is now the responsibility of local authorities,
and local authorities obviously have very restrictive
budgets, as austerity is now clearly going to continue.
There’s no let up in sight.”
Austerity has already stripped GMFA of government
funding, so the next five years are unlikely to impact the
charity financially. But with little from the governments
budget for much-needed health programmes,
the work of gay health charities has become even
more important, particularly where the rise in HIV
transmissions is concerned. In London the budget for
HIV prevention schemes has been decimated, heaping
pressure on sexual health charities.
“When HIV prevention budgets drop by more than
66% over the course of a decade you have to wonder
how serious a priority HIV prevention is,” says Hodson.
“Sometimes it feels like we’re soldiers who are expected
to go off and fight a war armed with catapults.”
The last five years of government
cutbacks has left many of these
organisations at breaking point.
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qxmagazine.com
Yet there’s a significant
lack of recognition from the
government over the nuances
of the LGBT experience.
With the health service budget already stretched, most
government funded social programmes are designed to
reach as many people as possible, providing the elusive
‘greater return on investment’. It’s a mentality that leaves
LGBT-specific charities (and any organisation targeting
minorities) particularly vulnerable.
“I don’t believe that it’s necessarily anti-gay prejudice
that’s putting LGBT charities in such a vulnerable position,”
continues Hodson. “If you’re working with a minority
group, like gay men, and you’re being funded by the local
authority, then the number of any minority group within
that local authority is going to be much smaller.
“So I think there’s a certain argument to be made that
when you’re delivering work for any minority group it
makes more sense to do it across a wider geographical
area, because you’re going to reach more people. But with
most of the responsibility for public health now coming
from local authorities, it’s a much bigger challenge.”
HIV prevention is a clear example of how essential it
is for programmes to specifically target the social groups
most affected, with near record numbers of gay men
diagnosed in the UK last year. Homelessness and domestic
violence too are issues that require specialist knowledge
when they concern LGBT people. Yet there’s a significant
lack of recognition from the government over the nuances
of the LGBT experience and the need for more relevant
support services (and, more crucially, funds).
“As much as the home office support the work we do,
they don’t really understand why it’s different to that of the
generic domestic violence sector,” says Broken Rainbow’s
Barringer. “I think LGBT issues are the first to be cut.
Equalities are always the first thing to be struck off any
budget training and I think that’s because of the positive
strides we’ve made. People don’t think we need it - why
can’t they use generic services?”
As a result LGBT charities are now competing for funds
against their bigger and more dominant heterosexual
counterparts.
“It’s harder and harder for LGBT charities to get money
from the sector, and part of that is about the fact that
people don’t understand the services that LGBT people
need,” says Barringer. “Domestic violence isn’t the most
sexy subject. It’s not about young people, it is about
workplace issues but not the nice parts of workplace
issues. So corporate funders tend not to want to get
engaged with this type of work.”
While established charities struggle to maintain services,
younger charities are struggling to expand. Formed in
2011, the Kaleidoscope Trust works internationally to
advance the protection and equality of LGBT people in
countries where homosexuality is still criminalised. It’s an
issue that regularly receives intense media coverage, with
flashpoints like Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act. But even
for such a politically popular topic, it’s tough to get traction
with institutional benefactors.
“We’re so well supported by individuals that that’s
what’s kept us up. But it’s also kept us small,” says Felicity
Daly, executive director at the Kaleidoscope Trust. “We
don’t have major turnover. To be more effective we
obviously need to have a step change, and grow over the
next several years.”
Finding the necessary funds to grow the charity is
easier said than done. Day-to-day cooperation between
charities may help promote common causes, but they’re
still competing for the same donors, corporate backing
and ever-dwindling government funds.
“I just think it’s a surprisingly competitive sector,”
says Daly. “People who don’t work in international
development charities are often shocked to see how cut
throat it can be because we’re supposed to be a bunch of
liberal do-gooders.”
For decades LGBT charities in all their forms have
provided a much-needed safety net for one of society’s
most marginalised groups. But as the cuts go deeper, the
impact on this vulnerable sector will be more profound;
more and more will find themselves needing support.
When they do, the hope is the community’s charities are
still in a position to provide it.
As the cuts go deeper, the impact on this vulnerable
sector will be more profound; more and more will
find themselves needing support.
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qxmagazine.com

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