I grew up in a Royalist household. I wouldn't say I'm a royalist but I do have a great fondness for of the Royal family, especially the late Queen. Growing up we had many royal items in the house, such as decorative plates upon the wall, novelties of silver spoons, thimbles and cups celebrating each royal and specific events; every big event was even kept for prosperity via newspaper cuttings. My mum worked for the MOD and always had a sense of her service on behalf of the Queen. One personal highlight was not only meeting the Queen twice for her role but in one of those instances being awa ..read more

  There's many things that disabled people become resigned to. We live in a world designed by and for non disabled. In 2020 the world watched George Floyd take his last struggling breath in what clearly was a racially systemic action. Whilst we lived, we watched the reality of a negative continued action; this time it sent a ripple of "No more" across the world. What can only be seen as a revival against oppression George Floyd's death, discrimination and the #BlackLivesMatter movement affected millions of people worldwide. Visibly and emotionally impacting a generation to the core. A ..read more

When William entered mainstream education (Year R) he started at the top of his class but by the end of the academic year he was bottom.Behaviourally Will went from being enthusiastic, engaging and carefree to upset, anxious and emotional. He would have massive emotional outbursts heading to school and subsequently needed dragging in. Within the schooled environment his behaviour become worse. There were incidents between him and other children and his responses were labelled "abnormally aggressive". As a teacher (and also working with Ofsted) I knew the school's practices and policies tha ..read more

Accessibility is one thing that HAS made movement in the Rights for disabled people but not necessarily in the way you would think. The Disability Discrimination Act came into affect in 1995, 15 years later the Equality Act of 2010 encompassed discrimination and harassment of minorities based on gender, sexuality, race, age, religion, marriage and disability as unacceptable within employment and service industry; in theory, no one can refuse custom of anyone on these grounds. However, when it came to those with disabilities there was one major flaw: accessibility. Hypothetically, a disable ..read more

 "The key to human flourishing is within Communities that flourish; at the heart of God in all of us. It is vital that the Church is equipped with the tools to respond effectively and with compassion.”  The Most Revd and Rt Hon Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury The realisation in my previous post on Ableism and of continued oppression within the timeframe of positive action hit hard. The Driedgar quote "Disability is the Last Civil Rights movement coming after the liberation [of others]" was written over 30+ years ago and the subsequent movement focused solely on the socio-str ..read more

I LOVE my church. I love the community, the acceptance and the connection to God. So you can imagine my upset when, for the first time in 11 years, I feel rejected by it. I've made it my mission to educate myself on the Theology of what is written in canonical and apocryphal bible texts over what society deems is written in them... An example is Mary Magdalene. Mary is known as the prostitute that Jesus saved. However, she WASN'T a prostitute. Pope Gregory I, in 591 AD, created this. This is partially because Jesus casts seven (or more) demons from her (this is important later) in theo ..read more

Dad was born to Edgar and Julia Kitney on the 10th of June 1940 in Rainham. He was raised in 59 Station Road and for a short time alongside his cousin, Christine. At 12 his sister Ruth was born and you can see in old family photos his pride of being a big brother. His other cousin, Don said despite Keith being 11 years older than him and not seeing him much, he still has fond memories during the 60s when the family would gather together. Even then, Dad loved to be around family. In 1954, at the age of 14, Dad joined the Royal Marines school of music at Deal where he played a variety of instru ..read more

As mentioned previously, growing up I had multiple generational and social stereotypes being pushed upon me.   Mum and I were similar so she nurtured the person I was over the person they, especially Dad, expected me to be.  For a long time I would say they were part of the “uneducated generation” but I won’t excuse it. They BOTH negatively impacted my understanding of LGBTQ+ communities.  Dad encompassed the bigoted world and, unlike Mum who varied, I never witnessed ANYTHING outside of that opinion.  Anything other than heterosexual was "wrong".   ..read more

I've spoken a lot over the years about my Mum.  I, of course, was a massive Mummies boy. So it isn't surprising that I have. However, she did have her flaws.  Mum was a strong woman. Physically and mentally. She was the epitome of a "Matriarch".  Her years working in the army, particularly within the Royal Engineers, meant that many of her actions were with militarily precision.  Mum's roll in the Army changed over the years but it was mostly admin work. Her exemplary work and commitment was even rewarded by her superiors and she received a commendation for service and ..read more

  I know that life can change who you are. I was in care as a very young child so I had that "face" until I was adopted and had a new one. Between having my health conditions, being married, divorced, being an alcoholic and even the person that I am today, as a parent or as the person I am with Hannah I've had many "faces" over the years. Yet it's not something I've considered of my parents. However, on losing dad this week I've found it difficult to mourn the man he was and the different faces he's had. When I was 25 I found out, accidentally who my parents were before they had kid ..read more