Equality

Are you LGBTQIA+ *and* a Person of Colour? Do you want to meet others of similar backgrounds, in a relaxed and welcoming space? Look no further! After the successful turnout at UK Black Pride, it has come to our attention that there is still demand for specific QTIPOC *(Queer, Trans and Intersex People of Colour)* spaces. It can be hard to find people of shared experiences across intersections, so we're trialling this space with that in mind. Join Aaron for a friendly, relaxed meal at Nando's, located near the river in Kingston. No agenda - just food, fun and friends! While respectful allies have been welcomed as *guests* in certain spaces, we kindly ask that this event is a Safe Space for QTIPOC only. POC explicitly includes Mixed Race People Of Colour. This will be our **\*second ever\*** QTIPOC group meal, so if all goes well, there is capacity for regular future meetups. If you have any ideas for what you would like to see for local QTIPOC, we will be more than happy to hear your suggestions. **Nervous about not knowing anyone?** Try not to be! Nobody knew each other initially at our previous socials, but everybody left smiling and feeling more connected to community. We do exist! **Meal is at Nando's Kingston, 37-38 High Street, London, KT1 1LQ** While there is no option to book, we shall meet at the restaurant for **18:30**, please arrive on time, so we can order and eat together. **Spaces are limited, please confirm attendance by:** **1.) Answering the pre-requisite questions.** **2.) Confirming with Aaron you are definitely attending, either by direct message, a comment on here or via email** aaron@kingstonlgbtforum.org.uk **Please note, your place is not secure without these communications. If you can no longer make it, please inform Aaron asap and change your RSVP. QTIPOC events are few and far between and this ensures that everyone can access a much-needed, valuable space.** **Access:** Please see below AccessAble link for access information. Please do not hesitate to reach out regarding any access queries and we shall do our best to get these answered. We strive to make our events as inclusive as possible and understand the additional difficulties faced by disabled QTIPOC. **[https://www.accessable.co.uk/royal-borough-of-kingston-upon-thames/access-guides/nando-s](https://www.accessable.co.uk/royal-borough-of-kingston-upon-thames/access-guides/nando-s)** We look forward to seeing you! **Support Us**: Kingston LGBTQ+ Forum is run by unpaid volunteers and funded by the generosity of the local community. If you'd like to support Kingston LGBTQ+ Forum, [please click here](https://www.kingstonlgbtforum.org.uk/donate).

**Important (Must Read) Update:** We have made some changes to the price and booking conditions for this session, **do make sure to read this, click here> [Updated Details](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sl7oLOD9ZqPoJnHKk9ZpEw8WetlAJdxWxwXyqlKsJOo/edit?usp=sharing)** How to RSVP & Pay! (See Full Details Below) **RSVP on Meetup** then use this **\>\> [Collctiv Payment Link](https://pay.collctiv.com/friday-badminton-34874) until 10am Friday ([see full details here & below](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pMsg6dATGes2pM59YuuzQBXabl882VvvXeDby0Y2usc/edit?usp=sharing))** * After 10am (AutoPay) payments made via Meetup/PayPal (fees inc) *\***Social Badminton** -* Suitable for players from beginner to intermediate levels who like to play for fun & competitively, with a variety of different players. Games are arranged by the session rep! **SESSION DETIALS** * 4 court. 26 players max. Feather Shuttles * Water refill station (bring a bottle). No Rackets provided * **Cost** \- £12\.50 per person \(**see payment link below** ) * Cancellation/No Show & Refund Policy! (see T&C's below) **HOW TO BOOK:** First RSVP on Meetup & Pay straight away as below! * **Before 10am on Fri** (Manual option) **-** Pay via > **[Collctiv Payment Link](https://pay.collctiv.com/friday-badminton-34874)\*** * \*Supporting the Collctiv App is optional. Untick this to pay the session fee only. * **[Click Here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pMsg6dATGes2pM59YuuzQBXabl882VvvXeDby0Y2usc/edit?usp=sharing)** to see full details regarding Collctiv * **From 10am on Fri**, incomplete bookings will be withdrawn and need to rebook as below. Plus... * **Autopay switched on!** \- RSVP via Meetup and make payment via PayPal \(fee inc\)\. No PayPal account required\, simply continue as a guest\. * **Do not turn up without booking, and/or wanting to pay in cash.** **WAITING LIST** is open till 10am. If you get a spot, then make a payment ASAP! Make sure you have your Meetup notifications on! It is your responsibility to make your payment in due course! Cancelation & No-Show Policies apply! The list will close at 10am, after which you can book via AutoPay if a space becomes available. **VENUE DETAILS** * Harris Girls Academy, Homestall Road, London, SE22 0NR * Pedestrian - Enter to the far right corner of the main/blue building (right of the main reception) via the gate. * **Parking** is available outside in the street. * **Bicycles** can use the bicycle rack near the sports hall entry **TERMS & CONDITIONS** **[Click Here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/12WmILk6X9dwgf_W0Cm6kgswKeW4ovHDTN8TBvN4Gq10/edit?usp=sharing)** to view details for Full Details By RSVPing for this event you confirm you have read and agree to our T&C's **Dress Code, Well Being, Conduct & Equal Opportunity:** * Wear suitable clothing and footwear for indoor sporting activity. * Ensure than your jewellery is also kept to a minimal, and avoid wearing large ear rings, chains or bracelets/bangles. * If the above is not suitable, you might not be able to participate within the session. No refund, exchange or credit will be given! * If needed please seek advice from your doctor before playing any sports. * You are responsible for warming up/cooling down stretches to reduce the risk of strains/ injuries. * Play at your own risk as Crossfire Badminton Club will not be held responsible for any injuries incurred. * We welcome players of all backgrounds, and treat everyone equally with respect. This is also expected from our participants. If you fail to do this, you may be asked to leave the session, or even banned from future sessions

Pre Valentine Saturday Fun with Mint Set inside one of Soho's most iconic members' clubs, expect well-crafted drinks, lush surroundings, great sound, skyline views, and a warm, chosen-family feel. Link for tickets: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/lwiredevents/2004045

A 3 hour badminton session, some refreshments provided, toilets on site, parking onsite. Coach will organise games where needed. Contact Curtis on 07951 220256 for further information. Note: Not all out members are on meetup, so numbers don't necessarily reflect attendees for session. VENUE: Sundays: Harris Academy 112 Peckham Rd London SE15 5DZ Parking onsite Walk through main sliding doors entrance, go left, keep walking to the last double doors, the hall is on the left just before these doors. Sundays TIME: 12.30pm-4pm, 4 Courts COST: £12 Pay on arrival * Quality feather shuttles provided * No Racket Hire * Toilet Facility Only DRESS CODE, WELL BEING, CONDUCT & EQUAL OPPORTUNITY: * Please ensure that you wear suitable clothing and footwear for indoor sporting activity, no black soles. Ensure that your jewellery is also kept to a minimal, and avoid wearing large earrings, chains or bracelets/bangles. * Your health and safety in important to us, so if needed please seek advice from your doctor before playing any sports. * You are also responsible for warming up/cooling down stretches to reduce the risk of strains/ injuries. Please understand that you play at your own risk as Our Badminton Club will not be held responsible for any injuries incurred. * We welcome players of all backgrounds, and treat everyone equally with respect. This is also expected from our participants. If you fail to do this, you may be asked to leave the session, or even banned from future sessions.

Join us for Queertopia Brunch where love, laughter, and chosen family come together IRL! ## Queertopia Brunch: Love, Laughter & Chosen Family February can be a tough month especially for LGBTQIA+ people who may feel disconnected, isolated, or estranged from family. That’s why **Queertopia Consortium** is bringing the community together for a joyful, affirming brunch centred on **chosen family**. All profits go towards running costs for our **FREE** community spaces. This is a space to come as you are. Whether you arrive with friends or on your own. Many of our attendees come alone and leave feeling connected, seen, and held by community. ✨ **What to expect** * A delicious Caribbean brunch ***provided by Chans Place*** * Music, Games,laughter and good vibes * Gentle connection activities (no pressure, just invitation) * A warm, alcohol-free, inclusive space * A diverse, intergenerational LGBTQIA+ community * Black and global majority-led, trauma-informed facilitation 💜 **Who is this for?** LGBTQIA+ people and allies who want to build meaningful connection, especially those who: * Are building or rebuilding their chosen family * Feel isolated or new to community spaces * Want a relaxed, welcoming social event without alcohol * Believe in connection, care, and collective joy 🌈 **Accessibility & values** Queertopia is a community-led CIC committed to creating safer, inclusive, and accessible spaces. * The venue has **step-free access** * We keep ticket prices as low as possible * Ticket Gifting supports tickets to be available from you where possible to give to someone who might not be able to afford it! We wouldn't want anyone be excluded because of finances. 💛 **Community impact** Any profits from this event will go directly towards **providing free, inclusive events for the LGBTQIA+ community** throughout the year helping us reduce isolation and build connection for those who need it most. If you have any access needs or questions, you’re warmly encouraged to get in touch with us after booking. Come for the food. Stay for the connection. Leave with new faces that feel like home. **Love. Laughter. Chosen Family.** We can’t wait to welcome you 💜

Welcome back ramblers, rovers, loungers and loafers and happy 2026! It's a new year, but we're picking where we left off, in the onetime capital of cockney London with its dockworkers and gangsters, the Isle of Dogs - which became the landing-pad for an invasion of alien Thatcherites in the 1980s with the construction of Canary Wharf, which now towers over the council estates and parklands of this misunderstood peninsula. From there we'll head west, looking eventually to end up in the Brutalist wonderland (featured in Kubrick's *Clockwork Orange*!) of Thamesmead, possibly by way of the free Woolwich Ferry service from north shore to south. Meet at Canary Wharf station, out in front of the big curved class canopy. Elizabeth Line services at Abbey Wood will get us home. See you there! Check planned TfL disruptions here - our day should be all clear for most everybody: https://content.tfl.gov.uk/planned-track-closures.pdf A little background on our City Drifting project here: **Now just wait a minute. What the hell is a drift ([dérive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9rive))?** A drift is any unplanned journey through the urban landscape in which participants practice a form of radical mindfulness, collectively exploring new ways of relating mentally, ideologically and materially to the "ordinary" urban environment we all think we know so well. First theorised publicly by Situationist thinker, artist and provocateur Guy Debord in his 1956 essay *[Theory of the Dérive](https://libcom.org/article/theory-derive-guy-debord)*, drifting is a sort of *critique of ideology* done by walking, looking, and feeling. **The urban environment of London is not a neutral space:** it is packed with surveillance equipment, anti-homeless architecture, consumerist [Gruen transfers,](https://www.smartcapitalmind.com/what-is-the-gruen-transfer.htm) crowd management systems and security perimeters, among a thousand other subtle and not-so-subtle methods of population control. Moreover, our everyday relationship to the city and its pathways is conditioned deeply by our habits of movement and our habitual perceptions: our commute to work, to school, our nips down to the shops, etc. **All these routines create what Marxists call a *reified* relationship with the urban environment: through over-familiarity it becomes something seemingly natural, "just there", ordinary, unchangeable - boring.** This boredom and familiarity kills the radical imagination, without which we're fucked. To be able to start to imagine how society could be transformed, we also need to imagine how spaces, buildings, their use, their whole purpose (and who these serve) could themselves be transformed. A necessary step in this process, according to Debord and the Situationists, is the drift. Like the 19th-century gentleman *[flâneur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fl%C3%A2neur),* by wandering the city with an attitude of "fresh eyes", we can shake loose our ingrained sense of what London and its streets are like. **As a collective, we will work to "estrange our senses" and see the streets, buildings and people differently, as if we were encountering them for the first time.** That is to say: these aren't just random walks around London - with the right frame of mind, they will be opportunities to turn the world upside down, if only for a moment! But don't take it from me - as Debord observed: *"In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period **drop their relations, their work and leisure activities, and all their other usual motives for movement and action, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there.** Chance is a less important factor in this activity than one might think: from a dérive point of view cities have [psychogeographical](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogeography) contours, with constant currents, fixed points and vortexes that strongly discourage entry into or exit from certain zones."* See you on the streets comrades, and remember, as [Raoul Vaneigem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Vaneigem) once wrote: *"All space is occupied by the enemy. We are living under a permanent curfew. Not just the cops — the geometry".*

Sleep in on Sundays. When you've had your fill of pajama-time, roll out and have some tasty brunch with your fellow Humanists!

Rev. Steven Clevenger is an ordained spiritualist minister with over 40 years experience as a Spiritual Healer, Clairvoyant and Spiritual Teacher, educated and trained at the White Lily Chapel. Rev. Siobhan Wolf Shaffer is an ordained spiritualist minister and certified medium and healer with over 20 years experience. She began her development in 1988 in Pennsylvania and continued when she moved to Ohio in 1998 where she studied at Rays of Lights Church with Rev. Steven Clevenger. Our full worship services consist of an inspirational lecture, healing meditation, and messages from the spirit world that serve to demonstrate evidence of eternal life. Please visit our Official Church Website (http://raysoflightchurch.com) for more information.

Our group, KIND MEALS, will be picking up the tab for pizzas, at MIKEY'S LATE NIGHT SLICE, on Sunday, February 8th from 12-2pm. We will be trying out MIKEY'S Vegan Fake-ass BBQ Chick'n pizza and Vegan Fake-ass Pepperoni pizza, as well as some other special vegan pizzas that are served there. All the vegan pizzas are covered with Selfish Cow vegan cheese. The pizza is free, drinks on your own. Join us to learn more about **[KIND MEALS](https://kindmealscolumbus.org)** (a 501c3 nonprofit organization based in Cols. Ohio, providing hunger relief services to those in need). All of the food we serve is fresh and vegan! If you love working with community, being of service, looking to hang with some fun like-minded people, and just love to socialize on a Sunday afternoon, join us for some FREE vegan pizzas at MIKEY'S LATE NIGHT on 4th and Main. Mikey said the more the merrier!

We are recruiting new group leaders for virtual men's groups! Our primary groups are outdoor movement groups, but we are launching virtual groups for the state of Ohio and beyond and the groups will move outside in the spring, creating room for men's groups, women's groups and coed groups all over the country. Read below to learn about our groups and click the links at the bottom to apply. ### **What is an Outdoor Empowerment Group?** Our Outdoor Movement & Community Empowerment Groups are simple, guided experiences designed to help people reconnect with nature, themselves, and others. We combine some form of movement (hike, walk, run, bike, yoga, workout) and meaningful conversation within a simple community circle to create a space where individuals can support each other while prioritizing mental and physical well-being. Whether you’re seeking stress relief, personal growth, or community, our groups offer everyone a unique and welcoming environment. ## **Why Join?** * **Improve Mental & Physical Well-Being** – Movement, nature, and supportive conversations reduce stress and promote balance. * **Feel Less Alone** – Build genuine connections with like-minded people in a safe, welcoming space. * **Gain Clarity & Perspective** – Step outside daily routines and into a space designed for personal growth and reflection. ## **The Ideal Group Leader** The ideal group leader * Has a born-in passion for mental health, movement, connecting with nature and building community. * Has 5 extra hours per week to dedicate to a meaningful cause for at least one year. Yes, you can leave any organization at any time and we can also ask you to leave, but we are building with legacy in mind and we need people who can commit and be ALL IN on this mission to build with us. * Is independently financially stable with the ability to volunteer with no expectation of pay. This is a deeply beautiful journey of service that all participants commit to at Speak Your Mind. * An ability to manage groups with high emotional intelligence and desire for human connection. * An ability to self-motivate and market/promote their group on Facebook and other social platforms. * Nature informed therapy or clinical therapists/psychologists a plus. ## **Our Impact**  Since launching, we have helped thousands find support, connection, and healing through our Outdoor Movement Groups. 100% of participants surveyed have reported: * A noticeable improvement in mental clarity and emotional well-being. * An increase in social connection and a sense of belonging. * Said they would return again. We believe mental health should be accessible, community-driven, and rooted in nature. Join us and take the first step toward a more connected, grounded, and supported version of yourself. ### **Why Our Groups are Donation-Based** Our Outdoor Movement Groups are made possible through a donation-based model. This approach allows us to keep our events accessible to everyone, regardless of financial circumstances, while also ensuring that we can continue expanding our reach. It’s a great way to pay it forward and support the growth of this beautiful mission! Every contribution helps us: * **Cover Essential Costs** – Donations allow us to pay essential legal, marketing, insurance, and admin costs as well as nourish the important people who run the organization. * **Grow Our Mission** – With your support, we can bring these healing experiences to thousands more people in the future and execute our long term plan to expand across the USA, affecting up to 500,000 people per year. By choosing to contribute, you’re not just leading an event—you’re helping build a mental health movement that supports long-term well-being and connection for all during a severe mental health epidemic. ## **Come Join Us!** We’d love to have you be part of this growing community of people prioritizing their mental health, movement, and connection. 🔹 **Visit Our Website to Learn More:** https://speakyourmind.men/joinusoutside 🔹 **Apply Here to Lead Your Own Group!** – https://form.jotform.com/taketimespeakyourmind/sym-group-leader-application 🔹 **Support the mission**: If you resonate with the mission and want to support, feel free to join a group before applying or donate to help us reach our goals to help more people! You can donate here: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/angels-for-angels/speak-your-mind Please text Mario with any questions: (808) 855-8831

If you would like to participate in a fun gift exchange please bring a wrapped $5 sweet treat 😋

Welcome to Casual Boardgames, where we enjoy classic tabletop games and social deduction games while bonding over good food, drinks, and great conversations. 
We started this group to meet new people and make new friends, and bonding over games in a relaxed atmosphere is a great way to do that. We currently meet near route 23 and Polaris Parkway, and this is close to areas like Powell, Lewis Center, Worthington, and parts of Westerville and Columbus. 
Feel free to bring your own games or play one of the many games our members bring. If you are inexperienced, we will help you learn. 
Here are just a few examples of the kind of games we play. 
Tabletop/board games: Splendor, Catan, Azul, Dominion, 7 Wonders… 
Social deduction games: Code Names, Chameleon, Werewords… 
IMPORTANT: 
1. While we love playing a variety of games and competing, we are not just about the games. We interact and talk while playing, and this leads to a lot of laughter and fun. If you just want to compete and focus solely on the game, then this is probably not the group you are looking for. 
2. Many people join groups like this and never (or rarely) show up after weeks or months. If you join and never really come, we will eventually remove you from the group as a courtesy to our members. Why? Because limiting group conversations (on the app) to regular members makes communication and planning much easier. Also, while it may be rare, it protects members from people who join because they are interested in following a person instead of having a real interest in our group. If you get removed, it is just because you haven’t come, and we follow this protocol as a courtesy to our regular game players.

Start the year surrounded by Love From the Earth—with delicious vegan eats, sweet treats, artisan goods, and a chance to win one of our raffle baskets filled with plant-based goodies. Support small businesses, enjoy great food, and spend a cozy day with the community. We will reserve a table for this group if there is enough interest. Just comment "interest" below. Don’t miss out—see you there! Check [event page](https://www.facebook.com/events/893838639773267/) for a vendor list.