diffrentcolours | Trans Day of Remembrance, and Ventilation (Reply)

A few weeks ago was Trans Day of Remembrance. A consortium of trans organisations (Not A Phase, Sparkle and others) had organised the usual vigil in Sackville Park, but given the sub-zero temperatures and bright_helpings' ankle, we decided to go watch a live stream of the vigil from the relative warmth and comfort of the Proud Trust building down by MMU. There were about a dozen people there, including one of the baby queers that E and I had met on the way to Trans Pride Manchester. I'd brought the CO2 monitor and was wearing a mask, of course. Even with a small number of people in a big space, the CO2 levels were very high, building up from 1500ppm to 2500ppm over the course of the event (800ppm is considered a relatively low-risk level). This goes against Proud Places's own accessibility guide which states "Each of the event spaces at The Proud Place has a background ventilation system that automatically adjusts to occupancy levels."

So after the event, as well as passing on my thanks to volunteers, I raised this with both Proud Trust (who own the building) and Sparkle (who'd organised the live stream). I'd spoken with a friend who's a Sparkle volunteer, who said that the Sparkle volunteers at the Proud Place weren't briefed on ventilation, which is a predictable oversight. In my feedback, I said that I loved the fact this policy existed, and would like to volunteer to help ensure that it's followed. I offered help in various ways, from providing procedures and/or training to staff and volunteers; providing Corsi-Rosenthal boxes to improve air filtration; developing CO2 level monitoring solutions so people are alerted when the ventilation is insufficient.

Back in May I came up with the idea of an organisation providing ventilation and filtration advice, devices and support to LGBT+ venues and organisations. I never heard back from Feel Good Club about it either. I still think it's a good idea, but only if we can get people on board. I could fill my shed with home-made CR boxes and they'd be doing bugger-all use unless I can actually get them used in venues.

So far I haven't had any acknowledgement from Proud Trust or Sparkle, let alone response, which is disappointing. Having just one LGBT+ venue in Manchester which can be trusted to provide some level of protection would be a game changer for me personally and the LGBT+ community. We should be used to looking after ourselves while the Government ignores a fatal and debilitating pandemic, after all!