Love Muscle Organisers Meeting

Attendees:

Lucy Scarisbrick
Michael Upson
Zoya Ahmed
Tami Pein
Tom Hannah
Laurence Huntington
Nabil Ali (Not able to make it but fed in points before the meeting)

Initially we discussed points raised by Nabil as he was unable to attend then

moved onto other issues raised by attendees in the meeting.

1. An issue from March LM where a white person apologised to a black

person for slavery. Person who was at the receiving end of this felt that it was
with good intentions but obviously completely unnecessary – no further action
was requested from the person that reported the issue.

A thought that we had after the meeting was that we could share literature to
get white people that attend LM to understand issues around race more and
pass on some learning to hopefully prevent future incidents like that. Below
was suggested.

“Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race” Reni Eddo-Lodge

2. Non Trans people bidding for the tickets from Trans Leeds -
Nabil felt this was counter productive at giving better access to Trans ppl to
Love Muscle. (Although I know you mentioned this last week that it was down
to them to decided what to do with the tickets) 


It was noted that trans Leeds do this to generate money for their organization.
Action: Speak to Sophia about us giving her the money for the tickets and
they go to trans people.

3. Issuing tickets to the Bayard Project in a similar way to Trans Leeds to give
greater access to BME people due to tickets selling out so quickly. Obviously
making sure that we are still vocal about the issues Wharf Chambers currently
has around structural racism so people are able to make a choice.

4. Idea of putting tickets on sale like releasing tickets in waves?

This started a more general chat about the mix of people in the crowd at
recent parties and how the speed in which tickets sell out could be off-putting
for LGBTQ that don’t already attend or know someone who organises for LM.
It was suggested that we should use LGBTQ ticket sellers outside of our
normal friendship spheres in order to connect with queer people in the city.
5. The issue of people rubbing stamps onto each other. We discussed using
asymmetric stamps but also wristbands. Wristbands although unpopular and
quite corporate in their appearance are most effective way to keep out people
sneaking into the party.

6. Relooking at membership. It was felt that this should only be for LGBTQ
people and should be representative of wider Leeds queer community. There
are currently quite a few straight women within the membership. It was felt
that whereas straight cis women did find affirmation from Love Muscle as it is
the only place where they don’t feel like they will be harassed that it was
fundamentally a queer party and should first and foremost serve queer
people. We agreed to remove all non-LGBTQ members and reach out to
more queer women, trans people and qpoc.

7. Survey and self reflective work on racism & white supremacy – It was
discussed that Michael will be meeting with Anne-Marie Stewart to discuss the
survey for POC that attend LM.