The following are resources and events serving the lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

, gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

, bisexual

Bisexuality

Bisexuality is sexual behavior or an orientation involving physical or romantic attraction to both males and females, especially with regard to men and women. It is one of the three main classifications of sexual orientation, along with a heterosexual and a homosexual orientation, all a part of the...

 and transgender

Transgender

Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

 (LGBT) community in the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 city

City status in the United Kingdom

City status in the United Kingdom is granted by the British monarch to a select group of communities. The holding of city status gives a settlement no special rights other than that of calling itself a "city". Nonetheless, this appellation carries its own prestige and, consequently, competitions...

 of Brighton and Hove.

Brighton is well known for having a very substantial LGBT community, effectively making it the UK's 'gay capital' (much as San Francisco can be considered the same in the USA). The 2001 census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

 revealed that Brighton and Hove had the highest proportion of same-sex households in the country at 1.29%: some 2,544 individuals said that they lived with a person of the same sex.

Events and organizations

Brighton Pride

Brighton Pride

Brighton Pride is a registered charity from Brighton and Hove in England promoting equality and diversity, and advances education to eliminate discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community...

 is an event, and wider organisation, which promotes equality and diversity, and advances education to eliminate discrimination against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community. The major event is an annual summer festival held in the first week of August. The 2005 summer event attracted 120,000 visitors.

The Brighton & Hove LGBT Switchboard

Brighton Gay and Lesbian Switchboard

Brighton & Hove LGBT Switchboard, Brighton & Hove's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans Information, Support and Counselling Service is a British listening service, or hotline, for the LGBT communities based in Brighton. It has been in operation since April 1975....

 is a telephone helpline that describes itself as 'providing a service to the lesbian, gay, bisexual & trans communities since April 1975' and is one of the oldest in the UK.

Also based in Brighton is the UK charity the Gender Trust set up in 1990 that aims to help transgender

Transgender

Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

 people with gender identity

Gender identity

A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...

 issues. The Clare Project is a local support group which provides a safe and confidential meeting place for anyone exploring issues around their gender identity

Gender identity

A gender identity is the way in which an individual self-identifies with a gender category, for example, as being either a man or a woman, or in some cases being neither, which can be distinct from biological sex. Basic gender identity is usually formed by age three and is extremely difficult to...

, besides organising other events such as monthly meals.

The city also has the Allsorts Youth Project, which recently passed a unanimous resolution to include transgender

Transgender

Transgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....

 young people and those who are unsure as members of Allsorts at their Annual General Meeting on the 21st November "to support young people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or unsure (LGBTU) of their sexuality".

Both Brighton and Sussex universities have active LGBT organisations and they often work together to cater to the needs of the ever increasing number of LGBT students. Sussex LGBTQ is for students at the University of Sussex and LGBrighTon is for students at Brighton University.

The Brighton Ourstory Project was set up to collect and preserve our lesbian and gay history community in the area.

In 2000 the award-winning and large scale LGBT community survey, Count Me In, led to the development of an LGBT Community Strategy 2001-06 for Brighton & Hove. Spectrum developed from this process to work with local services and planners in implementing the strategy, and to provide infrastructure and community development support for the LGBT community. Its aim is to act as an independent voice, negotiating the rights of LGBT people locally with specific focus on the needs of marginalised sections of the LGBT community. A second study, Count Me In Too!, published its 'Initial findings Reports' in June 2007, in partnership between the University of Brighton

University of Brighton

The University of Brighton is an English university of the United Kingdom, with a community of over 23,000 students and 2,600 staff based on campuses in Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings. It has one of the best teaching quality ratings in the UK and a strong research record, factors which...

 and Spectrum. The second study aimed to identify gaps in the original research and update the strategy.

One free magazine is distributed in the city: Gscene, which describes itself as "the gay and lesbian lifestyle, listings and community magazine for Brighton and Hove". Brighton also has a gay and lesbian sports society called BLAGSS which offers a range of 17 sports or activities to its 600+ members, and a branch of the Metropolitan Community Church

Metropolitan Community Church

The Metropolitan Community Church or The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches is an international Protestant Christian denomination...

.

Historical stories

An early recording of the LGBT community in Brighton was in August 1822, when George Wilson, a servant from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was accused by a guardsman he had met in the Duke of Wellington public house in Pool Valley of having offered him a sovereign and two shillings to go with him onto the beach to "commit an unnatural crime".

Another early story of the LGBT community in the area is that of philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts

Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts

Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts , born Angela Georgina Burdett, was a nineteenth-century philanthropist, the daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet and the former Sophia Coutts, daughter of banker Thomas Coutts...

 (1814-1906), a friend of both Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

 and the Duke of Wellington

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...

, who spent part of each year at the Royal Albion Hotel

Royal Albion Hotel

The Royal Albion Hotel is a 3-star hotel in the seaside resort of Brighton, part of the English city of Brighton and Hove...

with her companion Hannah. The couple were devoted to each other, socially recognized as a pair, and even sent joint Christmas cards. When Hannah died in 1878, Baroness Burdett-Coutts said she was utterly crushed by the loss of "my poor darling, the companion and sunshine of my life for 52 years".