Queer Leadership – Past, Present, and Future | A Conversation with LGBT Foundation

Watch it back

Event write up

In this online Pride in Leadership event, Paul Martin OBE shared his extraordinary 35-year journey as an LGBTQ+ leader, from volunteering at the Gay helpline to becoming CEO of the UK’s largest LGBTQ+ health and wellbeing charity, LGBT Foundation.

Key leadership lessons

1. Personal experience as a catalyst

Paul’s leadership journey began with personal adversity – being disowned by his parents after coming out as gay during university. Rather than being defeated, he channelled this experience into community action, starting as a volunteer at Manchester’s gay centre and eventually founding Healthy Gay Manchester in 1993/94.

2. Making change through small actions

Throughout his career, Paul demonstrated that significant change often comes through seemingly small, bureaucratic victories:

• Changing flag protocol policies to allow rainbow flags on public buildings
• Fighting for sexual orientation monitoring in public services
• Getting LGBTQ+ questions included in the 2021 census for the first time

As Paul notes: “If you’re not counted, you don’t count.”

3. Building professional credibility

Paul emphasised the importance of “putting a professional face” on community needs:

• Conducting evidence-based research (like the 1993 survey of 972 men)
• Creating professional structures and systems
• Working with allies in councils and health authorities
• Developing manifestos for elections

He outlined his leadership journey in three phases:

1. Founder phase: Identifying needs and starting services
2. Consolidation phase: Building structures and professionalizing operations
3. Growth phase: Scaling services and ensuring sustainability

One of Paul’s most powerful leadership strategies was turning critics into allies. He invited his biggest critic (who had written complaint letters about the merger creating LGBT Foundation) to join his board, demonstrating the importance of not personalising opposition.

Historical Context and Progress

The Switchboard Legacy (1975-2000)

The Manchester Switchboard was founded on January 2, 1975, by a small group of lesbians and gay men who recognised the need for an information line. Operating from a house in Hulme, volunteers courageously published their personal telephone numbers in local papers, answering calls from halfway up the stairs where the phone was located. As the second or third oldest helpline in the UK, Switchboard became the foundation for many of Manchester’s LGBTQ+ organisations, including George House Trust (celebrating its 40th anniversary) and eventually LGBT Foundation itself.

The 1980s-90s challenges

The 1980s brought unprecedented challenges with the HIV crisis creating what Paul describes as “hysteria” and Margaret Thatcher’s Section 28 legislation banning the “promotion of homosexuality” in schools. During this period, Paul began his work developing innovative HIV prevention programmes, including his famous “eroticising safer sex” workshops. He attracted gay men to these events with creative marketing, offering “free poppers” (which turned out to be party poppers). Despite the hostile environment, this era saw unprecedented mobilisation of the LGBTQ+ community, with lesbians, gay men, and trans people coming together to support those affected by HIV.

Building LGBT Foundation (2000-present)

The merger of Switchboard and Healthy Gay Manchester in 2000 created the Lesbian and Gay Foundation (later LGBT Foundation in 2015), though not without controversy. Paul describes mapping out the new organisation’s structure on the back of a cigarette packet during an evening night with Jackie Cross, Switchboard’s chair. Despite opposition and what Paul calls the equivalent of a social media “pile on” (two letters in Pink Paper), they persevered. Today, LGBT Foundation serves over 45,000 people annually through its helpline, domestic abuse services, mental health support, and drug and alcohol services. The organisation has grown from a single part-time administrator at Switchboard to become the UK’s largest LGBTQ+ health and wellbeing charity.

Current challenges and call to action

Paul addressed the current hostile environment facing LGBTQ+ people, particularly trans and non-binary individuals, including the morning’s Supreme Court decision on the Scottish gender representation case. His advice for staying positive and leading through difficult times includes:

1. Support your team: Recognise the emotional impact on staff and community members
2. Take the long view: Remember that progress is never linear – “two steps forward, one step back”
3. Stand as allies: Particularly important to support trans people who are “in the eye of the storm”
4. Get involved:
   • Join LGBTQ+ staff networks at work
   • Become a trustee for an LGBTQ+ organisation
   • Mentor others through programmes like Pride in Leadership
   • Donate to LGBTQ+ charities
   • Participate in community action networks

Final thoughts

Paul’s journey demonstrates that leadership in the LGBTQ+ community comes in many forms – from answering helpline calls to changing national policies. His message is clear: “Don’t expect or rely on other people to stand up for your rights. You’ve got to be present. You’ve got to be counted. You’ve got to do something.”

The event concluded with Paul’s powerful statement about protecting hard-won rights: “No one is taking away my right to be married to my husband… I think we have to be really clear when we say enough is enough.”

 

Speaker biography

Dr Paul Martin OBE (he/him) | Chief Executive of LGBT Foundation

Paul has been actively involved in championing the rights of LGBTQ+ people to live happy, healthy lives for over 30 years. Paul is a founding member of Healthy Gay Manchester. Through his determination 25 years ago, Manchester’s condom & lube distribution scheme for gay & bisexual men was established, now widely recognised as one of the longest-running and most highly regarded schemes in the UK.

In 2000, Healthy Gay Manchester merged with the Manchester Gay and Lesbian Switchboard to become the UK’s largest health and wellbeing charity for LGBTQ+ communities – now LGBT Foundation. The same spirit that fuelled our beginnings still drives us today. LGBT Foundation celebrates, supports and empowers LGBTQ+ people, so together we can realise our full potential.

Paul is a key contributor to the National LGBTQ+ Health Strategy which drives for meaningful, evidence-based change towards equitable healthcare. Paul is a member of LGBT Consortium’s Strategic Group, a national partnership of LGBTQ+ organisations, and sits on the NHS Partners Council.

Paul was awarded an OBE in 2011. In 2021, Paul was presented with an honorary Doctorate of Social Sciences by the University of Bolton for his outstanding contribution to the community. LGBT Foundation won Charity of the Year 2022 at the British LGBT Awards.

Outside of the LGBT Foundation, Paul sits on the Board of Salix Homes. He is happily married to his husband Pete and lives in Stockport.