Out in the Bay: The Lancaster group changing lives in the LGBTQI+ community

Born in a women's prison in 1972, he found out he was adopted at the age of seven and began to struggle with his sexuality at 11. At church, he was told that ‘man shalt not lie with another man’, but all he knew was that he liked men more than women. He felt isolated and in his late teens ended up using alcohol and drugs as a coping mechanism.

But the most important thing Robert dd was found Out In The Bay to use his own personal story to help others.

A community organisation which works with and for the 2S LGBTQI community in the Lancaster area, the group supports those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and two-spirit, which is an umbrella term bridging indigenous and western understandings of gender and sexuality introduced by native people.

"I realised that there was absolutely no LGBT support in the area and I wanted to help stop others from making the same mistakes I have in my life," says Robert, who is from Tarleton, on starting the group in 2008. "The work we do is extremely important as there are a lot of isolated LGBT people; some living with mental health issues, addiction, or homelessness or who are victims of hate crime or domestic abuse.

"Because we work with so many organisations, we’re able to refer to other agencies to get extra support; even if that just means a chat and a brew to allow someone to offload, we’re happy for them to do this," adds Robert. "Sometimes it's all someone needs."

Robert knows the importance of support first-hand. Having dropped out of school at 16 due to incessant bullying, Robert's first boyfriend gave him HIV at the age of 19 and he was told he had six months to live. Blackmailed by his partner, who threatened to reveal that he was gay if he didn't stay with him, Robert had to watch as his boyfriend died whilst wrestling with the concept that this too could be his own fate.

He turned to alcohol, and at the age of 25 suffered liver failure. After recovering, he became addicted to heroin and crack through another relationship and overdosed for the fourth and final time in 2006, when he was told he would be lucky to survive. "I heard my father say to my mother ‘no father should ever have to bury his son'," says Robert. "Obviously I'd overlooked the fact that they loved me as their child."

After leaving hospital and detoxing, Robert went to rehab for 12 months at Littledale Hall in Lancaster and, despite thinking he wouldn't live long enough to complete the programme, he did just that. He then turned to what to do next and started volunteering for a local re-use charity called Furniture Matters and then for Lancaster Advocacy. Then he founded OitB.

"Without us to support them, the community has no one who understands LGBT issues like we do," says Robert. "I most enjoy watching people grow in confidence knowing that we've made a difference in helping them put their lives back together whilst enabling them to improve their well-being in a safe space where they can be themselves. It's great."

Promoting a non-judgmental and supportive environment for absolutely everyone, including non-2S LGBTQI people living with drug and alcohol addiction, OitB also supports people who have contracted long-term conditions such as HIV and have regular drop-in sessions for socially isolated individuals as well as social groups for trans men and women.

"It can be very draining at times as finance is limited but we offer hope when sometimes there seems to be none," says Robert. "We value every single human being as an equal and we pride ourselves on who we are."