Sue Sanders

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Sue Sanders, c.2005

Born on 20 March 1947 in London, Sue Sanders has, as an "out and proud" lesbian, been a British LGBT rights activist who has specialized in challenging oppression in the public and voluntary sectors for over thirty years.

After studying at the New College of Speech and Drama, London where she received a teaching diploma, Sue Sanders studied counselling on alcohol related problems as well as gestalt therapy and contribution training. She also holds qualifications on dealing with stress and trauma.

Since 1971, she has been a teacher, tutor and a lecturer on women's studies, drama and homophobia in schools, universities and other organisations both in London and in Sydney, Australia.

Since 1984 she worked as a management consultant and trainer for the public and voluntary sector. She is a member of the LGBT Advisory Group to the Metropolitan Police (since 1999), an independent advisor to the London Criminal Justice Board, a member of the NUT LGBT working party (since 1999), the current vice-chair of the Southwark anti Homophobic Forum (which she joined in 1997) and a consultant to the Crown Prosecution Services, helping them produce national policy on prosecuting homophobic crime effectively.

In 1996, she co-founded Chrysalis with Paul Patrick, a consultancy which delivers training around equal opportunity issues – particularly anti-heterosexism.

In 1998 she researched, wrote and presented The Jane Brown Story for the BBC (Jane Brown was a lesbian headteacher in Hackney who was outed and persecuted by the press and local people in the mid 1990's).

In 2000, she became the co-chair of Schools Out; a group working for the equality of LGBT people in the education system, which she co-founded in 1984.

In 2004, she instituted the first ever LGBT History Month in the UK which, with the help of the Schools Out committee members, was launched in December 2004 at Tate Modern and occurred in February 2005.

Sue Sanders has directed many plays in London's fringe theatres and has been involved in the production of radio programmes for ABC in Sydney.

She is the author of poetry and short stories as well as many articles and brochures on feminist issues, education and homophobia. She regularly appears on TV and radio programmes dealing with equality and LGBT issues and is a key note speaker and workshop leader in many conferences dealing with diversity, homophobia and LGBT issues.

In 2005, she received the Clio's Silver Cup Award from the International Lesbian and Gay Cultural Network for outstanding achievements in documenting and disseminating information about LGBT History.