We had a another hugely successful return to Bournemouth’s LGBTI Pride event, BourneFree. As in previous years we were in the Gardens with our stall from about 8.00am until 5.00pm. We also took part in the parade. We had about 150 cards signed – 2/3 of which concerned Sakris Kupila. Sakris is facing discrimination in Finland because he is transgender. He discovered he needed to be diagnosed with a “mental disorder” in order to change his name to one that he feels better matched his identity. Then he learned that in order to have his gender legally recognized, he would also need to be sterilized.
Last year we took many photographs of willing participants holding our infamous selfie frame (we noticed several stalls copying our idea). This year we focussed on getting people to be photographed on their own cameras (invariably phones). This worked very well – although we have no idea how many we took! As an event to engage with the passing public, BourneFree is fantastic. It was a long tiring day, but we all enjoyed being there and feel many have learnt a bit more about Amnesty International’s work.
