News from our partners: Photo call to help build a ‘wave’ of success
News from our partners
A Shropshire LGBT+ group is urging older people to get behind a photo campaign to increase the visibility and profile of older and old LGBT+ people.
SAND (Safe Ageing and No Discrimination LGBT+) is asking LGBT+ people who are aged over 50 to submit a photograph of themselves waving to the Wave Project, which is designed to raise the profile of older members of the LGBT+ community in the county.
A spokesperson for SAND said:-
“Since 2014, SAND has been talking to – and running LGBT+ awareness training for – people who work in health, social care, and advice and support services for older people across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin. It has been an interesting and inspiring experience for us and for them, but we have repeatedly been hearing astonishing phrases such as ‘It has never occurred to me that there are old LGBT people’.
“This has come from all sorts of people, from NHS consultants to housing support workers, and including those with LGBT+ family members. As a result, we are running ‘The Wave Project’, specifically to increase the visibility and profile of older and old LGBT+ people.
“The idea is to get lots of photos of people giving a wave to anyone out there, our friends, allies, as well as those who think we somehow cease to exist after a certain age. They can be out on a walk, having dinner, in a group or on their own, and the photo doesn’t have to make them identifiable if they are uncomfortable with that, and we are asking for their ages and a biographical paragraph.”
Images can be submitted to the online gallery, and there are plans to create an exhibition of the photographs to be displayed at Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery in the summertime.
Wave project.
If you identify as LGBT+, are aged over 50 and live, work or play in Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin, you can get involved.
To find out more contact james@lgbtsand.com or ring 01743 590023 and to view the gallery as it grows visit Wave Project – Gallery – Safe Ageing No Discrimination (lgbtsand.com)
