MPA welcomes ‘Celebrate’ conference to London

33/05
30 June 2005

The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) sends warm greetings to all the delegates attending the Celebrate Conference in London, Thursday 30 June – Friday 1 July 2005 to be held at the Novotel Hotel in Hammersmith, London. Kirsten Hearn, Chair of the MPA Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board is speaking at the Celebrate reception on Thursday 30 June 2005 at 6.30pm.

She said:

“The MPA are very proud to be represented at Celebrate. This is an unprecedented international event hosted by the Gay Police Association with delegates from 50 British, 10 European, Australian, Canadian and American police services.

“The MPA are committed to promoting sexual orientation equality and tackling homophobia and for this reason have contributed financially to this event.

“The MPA’s Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board has ensured that the importance of promoting Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people’s rights is high on the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) agenda. As an out lesbian I remain determined to work with the MPS to shape LGBT policy.”

“We are committed to working with our partners to ensure that LGBT people have equal access to high quality policing and to provide a safe environment for its workforce.”

John Roberts, Deputy Chair of the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board added:

“The MPA is tackling issues such as: the scale of under-reporting of homophobic crime, lack of officers’ experience when dealing with LGBT community members, lack of dedicated roles to liaise with LGBT communities and the importance of LGBT officers and police staff to work in a safe environment.

“It is important that all public services respond appropriately to discrimination As an out gay man I am fully aware of the need for a comprehensive approach to responding to people’s experiences across all forms of discrimination.”

Notes to editors

1. Celebrate is a European conference hosted by the Gay Police Association (GPA) on behalf of the British Police Service. Key note speeches, workshops and drama presentations will tackle a range of subjects from the recruitment, retention and development of gay police officers and staff, through to external community safety and partnership issues. The Celebrate Conference begins on Thursday 30 June 2005 and finishes Friday 1 July 2005.

2. Full details of the Celebrate conference can be found at www.gay.police.uk

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