This event will begin with a short talk by Peter Tatchell Foundation Executive Officer Pliny Soocoormanee: Jumping over the Rainbow with LGBT+ Asylum seekers.

He helped organise the UK’s first Pride in 1972 and in 1973 staged the first LGBTQIA+ protest in a communist country, East Germany. Peter has outed homophobic bishops and ambushed anti-LGBTQIA+ prime ministers, archbishops and sports stars like Mike Tyson. His attempted citizen’s arrest of the Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe on charges of torture resulted in him being beaten unconscious in 2001. A documentary about his life, Hating Peter Tatchell, is on Netflix. He is Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation: PeterTatchellFoundation.org

Mauritian-born, Pliny holds an MA in International Business, specialises in cross cultural issues, and has a BSc (Hons) in Economics & Finance. He is Executive Officer at the Peter Tatchell Foundation where he assist fleeing persecution, hate crimes and homophobia. He has been involved in several campaigns for LGBT+ rights such as same-sex marriage & decriminalising homosexuality in the commonwealth among others. He is also passionate about History and is involved in Napoleonic re-enactment in his free time.