New from us at @londonfriend.bsky.social and @lgbthero.org.uk today, looking at the experience if LGBTQ+ people accessing support for alcohol, drugs and chemsex, and of healthcare professionals providing this.

Life after chemsex In the UK, substance-fuelled orgies are thriving and ambulances are dispatched daily for GHB and meth overdoses. A small contingent of frontliners are…

New article on chemsex in The Face magazine. I got to contribute to this along with some of the incredible colleagues and partners we work with.

Get me in your lug holes! I spoke to the fabulous queer history podcast The Log Books for their latest episode reminiscing on my time as a volunteer with @switchboard.bsky.social

pod.link/1483782744/e...

Where was he last year? That was truly dreadful, KAJ aside. This years was miles better.

I don't hate it, and I'm very glad we're not playing it "safe", but I'm not convinced yet. It needs to work live, and from all the whacky contraptions featuring in the teaser clips I'm a little worried he's just going to look like a bit of a tit.

I used to get these in the Irish-run hard currency shop in Moscow when I lived in the USSR (we travelled 12 hours overnight on the train to get there) and they were a life line! Agree with your score 💯

Huge props to the ever-wonderful @dudepoints.fun who has done a stellar job with the @escinsight.com updates from #Sanremo all week. Meticulously researched and informative (and lovely, sometimes spicier personal takes on their own account too, how do you find the time?). Bravo! Fantastic job! ❤️ 👏

ALLORA! The big local crowd pleaser wins #Sanremo2026! But will it go to #Eurovision I can’t see it working quite as well as with the local crowd, though I LOVE it! So endearing! ❤️ #Sanremo

I started after UMK and am almost live now 🤣

I am pleased to see that the #Sanremo running order provided for journalists to follow the show contains not just information on who’s performing next but also when the presenter is due to change her frock 👗 #Sanremo2026

Congratulations to Kate Bush (and thanks in part to Emerald Fennell’s new film adaptation) as Wuthering Heights returns to the UK top 40 for the first time since its release in 1978. ❤️

Qui senza di me, really.

Her sing last year was criminally underrated. What a banger!

“In Sanremo, Remo - the shows will all exhaust you, might be finished by half two…” #Sanremo

Very much enjoying this celebration of Italian Winter Olympians during #Sanremo2026 🇮🇹

I missed the first night of #Sanremo2026 yesterday as I was flying back from Bangkok so all the approximately 79 hours of interstitial content per show is still a fresh novelty to me this evening. How long it survives the jet lag though…

Absolutely phenomenal telly, the whole series, right down to the closing moments. Astonishing. Bravo. Just give it the #BAFTA now. #TheTraitors 👏👏👏

I keep thinking I'd so love to play this game and then they pull a task like this final one and, nope, just murder me now. #TheTraitors

Growing sense of embarrassment at Fifa over Donald Trump peace prize There is a growing sense of embarrassment among mid-level and senior officials within Fifa over the awarding of the peace prize to Donald Trump

G(r)ifter's remorse.

Two girls one cup Part 2. The revenge. 💩

Some of my lovely team at work at one of our conferences today. I feel like such a proud dad!

New data on mortality by sexual orientation makes sobering reading - London Friend We deliver services to improve the health and wellbeing of the LGBTQ+ community in London. We also run Antidote, the LGBTQ+ drug & alcohol project.

You can read our full response to this new data here: londonfriend.org.uk/new-data-on-...

LGB+ people in England and Wales ‘much’ more likely to die by suicide than straight people ONS analysis also shows LGB+ people more likely to die from drug overdoses and alcohol-related disease

New data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) looks for the first time at mortality analysed by sexual orientation and makes sobering reading. As we’ve long suspected lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB+) people are more likely to take their own lives or die through alcohol or drug use.

These data, available because we now ask about sexual orientation in the Census data, show the importance of monitoring characteristics that enable such detailed analysis. It’s vital that ONS now analyse by trans identity too. 6/6

LGBTQ+ people face stigma and barriers when trying to access support, and these data show us how vital it is to be able to access services that are welcoming, understanding, and appropriate for our needs. 5/6

If today’s data are shocking, then perhaps it’s even more shocking, even shameful, that we must search for existing data that should be readily available and informing policy, commissioning of services, and support. 4/6

ONS data already available show much higher rates of drug use by LGBTQ+ people so we know this is a disproportionate issue – yet that data is buried in an embedded spreadsheet in a webpage that makes no reference to such starkly higher figures. 3/6

It’s always difficult to accurately identify causality but the difference here is stark. The figures are set against a backdrop where LGBTQ+ people are living with additional societal pressures related to their identity and exacerbated by intolerance and hate. 2/6

LGB+ people in England and Wales ‘much’ more likely to die by suicide than straight people ONS analysis also shows LGB+ people more likely to die from drug overdoses and alcohol-related disease

This new data released today looks for the first time at mortality analysed by sexual orientation and is sobering reading. As we’ve long suspected LGB+ people are more likely to take their own lives or die through alcohol or drug use. 1/6

We're on at @londonfriend.bsky.social although we haven't got into the habit of using it that much yet. Hopefully more orgs coming across will help it gain more traction.