Twitter feeds you should be following in the new year
It's a new year, which means new beginnings and new adventures. I can't think of a better way to start of 2015 than following the folks who are sure to make headlines in the coming year. From politicians to artists to drag queens, here are 15 people you should follow on Twitter right now.
• Stuart Andrew (@stuartandrewmp)
Who is he: Conservative MP for Pudsey
Why you should follow: Andrew is one of a handful of out Tory MPs, but what makes him interesting isn't his sexuality; it's his constituency. Pudsey has been solidly blue for most of its existence, except in during the New Labour era. It had a Labour MP from 1997 until 2010, when Andrew was elected. Andrew himself has his own history of switching parties, having joined Labour for a time in the 1990s. The seat is considered marginal, making this constituency and its MP, both with a recent history of switching parties, one to watch.
• Panti Bliss (@pantibliss)
Who she is: Irish drag queen
Why you should follow: Panti's Noble Call, an impassioned yet reasoned soliloquy about the tangible effects of homophobia on an everyday gay person, thrust Panti into the global spotlight last February. It came on the heels of RTÉ issuing a formal apology and payout after Panti correctly labelled opposition to equal marriage as homophobic. Since then, she has argued for gay rights in international media. Irish voters will this May decide whether to equalize marriage, making Panti a must-follow.
• Emily Brothers (@ebrotherslabour)
Who she is: Labour parliamentary candidate for Sutton and Cheam
Why you should follow: When Spectator editor Rod Liddle asked how she knew she was transgender, considering her blindness, Brothers wasted no time punching back, publicly calling out the transphobia. But Emily Brothers doesn't want to be known as the blind trans lesbian standing for parliament; as she told the Telegraph in December, she plans to stand on the issues. This isn't surprising, given her tenacity and strength. It'll take all she has, tough, to win her seat; Labour hasn't come better than third in the constituency since 1970.
• Conor Collins (@conartworks)
Who he is: A contemporary artist and opera singer based out of Manchester
Why you should follow: Collins made international headlines last year with his portrait of Tom Daley made entirely out of homophobic tweets. His portraits, often of LGBT+ icons such as Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing, are frequently created with unusual media; he painted Tyler Oakley using only Taco Bell hot sauce. According to Collins' website, the director of Pallant House Gallery in Chichester says he's “never seen anything like it from someone so young.”
• Matthew Hodson (@matthew_hodson)
Who he is: CEO of GMFA
Why you should follow: Hodson has dedicated his life to spreading awareness of not only HIV/AIDS prevention, but destigmatising those living with it. It's something he knows about personally, living with HIV himself. At a time when HIV rates are increasing among young gay men, Hodson's advocacy and experience is going to be even more invaluable in 2015. GMFA is also one of the leading gay men's health charities in the UK, producing a magazine (FS), and providing life skills and smoking cessation programmes tailored for the gay community.
• Asifa Lahore (@asifalahore)
Who she is: The UK's first Muslim drag queen
Why you should follow: Lahore had been on many a radar for quite some time before, in March of last year, she was prohibited from talking about homosexuality during an episode of BBC Three's Free Speech which was to be broadcast from a Birmingham mosque. Since then, she has gone on to be a fierce media advocate for LGBT Asians and LGBT Muslims, bringing a spotlight to issues henceforth rarely discussed in mainstream media. She is also a dj and recording artist, having launched a bid to represent the UK in this year's Eurovision Song Contest.
• Phyll Opoku-Gyimah (@msladyphyll)
Who she is: The co-founder and current director of UK Black Pride.
Why you should follow: As co-founder and current director of UK Black Pride, Opoku-Gyimah has been instrumental in bringing black and minority ethnic LGBT+ people to the forefront of British consciousness. Starting off in the civil service, she quickly rose through the union ranks, eventually becoming a member of the Trade Union Congress' LGBT committee. She was named to the Independent's Rainbow List in both 2013 and 2014.
• Charlie Kiss (@charliekiss)
Who he is: Green Party parliamentary candidate for Islington South and Finsbury
Why you should follow: Kiss appears to be the only openly transgender man to be a parliamentary candidate at the 2015 General Election. He has spoken publicly about the need for more diversity in Westminster, as well as the challenges of being a trans candidate. Standing against disgraced Labour MP Emily Thornberry (she of the white van infamy), Kiss still stands little chance of winning (Labour hasn't lost since its creation in 1974), but expect the Greens to put up a fight. “We're on a real surge at the moment,” Kiss told PinkNews last month.
• Roland Jide Mcauley (@revjide)
Who he is: Founding pastor of House of Rainbow
Why you should follow: Mcauley, born to Nigerian parents in London, has made it his mission to reach out to the LGBT community and show us we have a place in Christianity. Through House of Rainbow, he has established an affirming, inclusive Christian ministry which reaches out to those who other denominations and missionaries often ignore. He has been a vocal supporter of LGBT immigrants in a year when so many LGBT refugees found themselves in dire straits.
• Roz Kaveney (@rozkaveney)
Who she is: writer, poet, activist, trailblazer
Why you should follow: Kaveney is, and has been for years, at the forefront of transgender activism in the UK. A frequent contributor to the Guardian's “Comment is Free” section, on topics as varied as religion and science fiction (she was an integral part of Penguin's “Midnight Rose” sci fi and fantasy collective), she continues her social justice activism today, and has been an inspiration to many young writers and activists, including Laurie Penny, who dedicated her latest book to Kaveney.
• Wes Streeting (@wesstreeting)
Who he is: Labour parliamentary candidate for Ilford North
Why you should follow: Streeting first came to national prominence as the president of the National Union of Students. His profile has only grown in the ensuing years, being elected as a Labour councillor, and serving as Deputy Leader of the Labour Group. According to LabourList, his constituency is one of Labour's target battleground seats, and the Ilford North constituency has a history of being a swing seat. Streeting's not all work and no play, though; he also tweets about pop culture, including championing X Factor winner Ben Haenow, to the chagrin of his mate Stella Creasy, whose own constituent Fleur East was last year's runner up.
• Michael, Lord Cashman (@mcashmancbe)
Who he is: Former MEP; number one on this year's Rainbow List
Why you should follow: Not only was Michael Cashman part of the first same-sex kiss on the BBC (as Colin on EastEnders), but he served 15 years as a Labour MEP before being created a life peer last year. He helped found Stonewall and has been at the forefront of LGBT activism for nearly three decades. As the Labour Party's special envoy for global LGBT issues, Lord Cashman has taken on the burgeoning world of international LGBT rights, and becoming one of the most important leaders in the fight for global equality.
• Margot James (@margotjamesmp)
Who she is: Conservative MP for Stourbridge
Why you should follow: She is one of the most prominent of the LGBT+ Tories, having first been elected in 2010 after a vice-chairmanship of the Conservative Party. She won her constituency by over 10 per cent at the last election, and has since become a darling of the Tory backbenches (her fans include The Sun columnist and former Tory MP Louise Mensch). James is also known for standing on principle, as was shown when, according to the BBC, the typically pro-Israel MP condemned attacks against Gaza as “wholly disproportionate,” proving her tenacity and unpredictability.
• Angela Eagle (@angelaeagle)
Who she is: Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Why you should follow: If Labour wins the general election, it stands to reason that Eagle could become one of, if not the, highest ranking LGBT+ person in British politics. First elected to Parliament in 1992, she made history by becoming Parliament's first openly lesbian member when she came out in 1997. David Cameron once told her to “calm down, dear” in a particularly patronising Prime Minister's Questions, but instead she has redoubled her efforts, focusing her attention on women's issues and representation within Parliament.
• LGBT in UKIP (@ukiplgbt)
Who they are: The LGBT faction of UKIP
Why you should follow: Because you're a glutton for punishment. To their credit, LGBT in UKIP stood up and expressed their dissatisfaction, if not outrage, when former UKIP parliamentary candidate Kerry Smith referred to gay people as “poofters.” But in an election cycle that is already being dominated by Farage and Kippers, paying attention to those of our community who support a party that seems so virulently homophobic could be crucial to understanding their appeal to the wider electorate.
Happy 2015, you lot!
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