Welcome to our podcast Hearts & Histories, hosted by Ryan Kennedy and brought to you by the Shropshire Rainbow Film Festival and EMBRACE A Culture of Inclusion.

During this five episode series, older and old LGBT+ people who live in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin reflect on how their lives and experiences have made them the person they are today.

This episode’s guest is Mike Southern. Mike is a gay man who lives in Shrewsbury. He was born in 1937, and is currently 87 years old.

During this conversation, Mike shared memories of his childhood, including the dual discrimination he suffered being both an illegitimate child and homosexual.

He spoke of being arrested for cottaging when he was younger, but also about how he found a community of LGBT+ people when he moved to Shrewsbury.

If this episode has inspired to you to make your own provision more inclusive to LGBT+ people, then head to www.lgbtsand.com to see more of our resources.

These resources have been split into beginner, intermediate and advanced; and each resource includes an indication of how much time you need in order to get value from it.

So whatever stage of the inclusion journey you’re on, and however long you’ve got, these resources can help you to EMBRACE A Culture of Inclusion.