Lisa Power

Lisa Power MBE (born 1954) is a British sexual health and LGBT rights campaigner. She was a volunteer for Lesbian & Gay Switchboard[1] and Secretary General of the International Lesbian and Gay Association.[2] She co-founded the Pink Paper and Stonewall,[3] later becoming Policy Director at the Terrence Higgins Trust.[2] She was the first openly LGBT person to speak at the United Nations[4] and continues to work and volunteer as a LGBT+ and sexual health activist in Wales with groups such as Fast Track Cardiff and Vale[5] and Pride Cymru.

Lisa Power
Born1954  (age 67)
OccupationLGBTIQ+ rights activist 

Early life

Power was born in 1954.[6] She came out as lesbian in the 1970s in a time when homosexuality was still controversial in British society.[7] She worked at the Lesbian & Gay Switchboard in London.[8] At the switchboard, she started to take calls about a mystery illness which became known as GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) and later HIV/AIDS. She was an early worker on the National AIDS Helpline and worked for Hackney Council and the Association of London Authorities[9] as HIV policy officer.[10]

Career

Power became Secretary-General of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (now the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) in 1988 and then helped to set up the Pink Paper.[8][11] She co-founded Stonewall in 1989 and subsequently was the policy director of the Terrence Higgins Trust.[8]

In 1991, Power was the first openly LGBT person to speak about gay rights at the United Nations in New York.[7][12] She received the Order of the British Empire in 2011 for her services to the LGBT community and was named on the 2017 Pinc List of leading Welsh LGBT figures.[13][8]

In 2020, she collaborated with National Museum Cardiff and curator Dan Vo on a program called "Queer Tours", which aimed to uncover hidden LGBTQ histories in Cardiff.[14][15] She is also the Organiser for Pride History Month at Pride Cymru, chairperson of the HIV Justice Network and a trustee the planned Queer Britain museum.[11][14] On International Women's Day 2020, Power commented "Women are raised with an inner voice of self doubt; tell yours to shut up and let you have a go".[16]

Selected works
  • Power, Lisa. No bath but plenty of bubbles: An oral history of the Gay Liberation Front, 1970–1973. Cassell. p. 288. ISBN 978-0304332052.

References
  1. "Switchboard: Homophobia, HIV and hoax calls". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2019-06-16. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  2. "Lisa Power MBE". Cumberland Lodge. Archived from the original on 2020-08-06. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  3. "Terrence Higgins Trust's Lisa Power awarded MBE". Pink News. Archived from the original on 2019-08-03. Retrieved 2020-07-18.
  4. "Pink List 2008". Independent. Archived from the original on 2020-02-13. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  5. "The Team". Fast Track Cardiff. Archived from the original on 2020-10-27. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  6. "The Discovery Service". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. The National Archives. Archived from the original on 16 June 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  7. Pollock, India (2019-03-15). "'Huge distance' travelled on LGBT attitudes". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2020-04-09. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  8. "Terrence Higgins Trust's Lisa Power awarded MBE". PinkNews. 9 February 2011. Archived from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  9. "London Councils: history". Wikipedia. Archived from the original on 2020-07-30. Retrieved 2020-10-27.
  10. Warriner, Colin (29 June 2011). "Being honest about HIV: Lisa Power, policy head at Terrence Higgins Trust". So So Gay. Archived from the original on 24 October 2014.
  11. Power, Lisa (26 April 2019). "In 1989, I could legally be fired for being a lesbian. Now, 30 years after I co-founded Stonewall, we're more visible than ever". inews.co.uk. Archived from the original on 8 July 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  12. "Speakers". www.ilga-europe.org. ILGA-Europe. Archived from the original on 13 May 2019. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  13. "Pinc List 2017". Wales Online. 2017-08-19. Archived from the original on 2017-08-20. Retrieved 2017-08-20.
  14. "Wales' first Queer Tours – "Re-interpreting" art like a gay man". InterCardiff. 2020-03-05. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  15. "Tours to reveal museum's LGBT stories". BBC News. 2020-03-15. Archived from the original on 2020-03-16. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  16. Stephens, Lydia (8 March 2020). "International Women's Day- 'what I wish I knew when I was younger'". Wales Online. Archived from the original on 9 March 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
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