What does signing up mean?
It means we will send you our regular newsletter and information about our activities so that you can keep up-to-date with what’s going on and decide what to get involved with. Below you can find more details about the information that we ask you for and how we protect it and keep it secure.
Why should I give you the information requested?
We know that LGBT people can sometimes be reluctant to give information in forms because they believe that it’s no-one else’s business or because they worry that it will be used to unfairly discriminate. We understand these concerns. But it is very important to us and very helpful if you can give as much information as possible in the sign-up form. It takes just a few minutes to complete and asks for some very basic information.
Why is it important?
LGBT HIP is for all local LGBT people. We need to know some of the characteristics of who is getting involved so that we can be confident we are reaching all those we want to. Our funders also expect us to be able to show that we are involving a diverse group of LGBT people. After all, that is what they are funding us for! If we can’t demonstrate this, it puts our sustainability as a project at risk because we can’t show that we are involving and engaging a wide range of LGBT people. We can only do this by asking you a little about yourself. Stonewall have written a really useful guide for LGBT people on why it’s important that LGBT people give what’s called ‘monitoring information’. You might like to read this too.
What do you do with the information collected?
We try to send you only information that you will be interested in. So, for example, we won’t send you information on our survey for lesbians wanting to be parents if you are 70-year-old gay man. We also collate statistics so that we can find out which groups are getting involved in LGBT HIP and who isn’t. If we find any groups missing, we do something about it and try to extend our reach. We use the data to demonstrate to our funders that we are reaching the groups that we want to – this helps our funders to feel confident that they are spending the public money they give us wisely.
How can I trust that you will handle my information properly?
We make you our five-point promise:
- We will handle your information in accordance with the law on data protection and information handling.
- We will treat your information as confidential and store it securely.
- We will not use your information in any way for the purposes of unfairly or unlawfully discriminating against you (or your organisation).
- We will not bombard you with spam.
- We will not pass on your details to any other individual or organisation without your express permission. But we have to inform you that in accordance with the law, there are exceptional circumstances when we would have to do this.
What are the circumstances?
It is extremely unlikely that we would ever be approached by anyone asking for information about you. However, we have to make you aware that according to the Data Protection Act, we would be required to pass on the minimum amount of information necessary for:
- The prevention or detection of crime.
- The capture or prosecution of offenders.
- The assessment or collection of tax or duty.
If approached by the appropriate authorities in accordance with the law, we would have to comply or face prosecution. This applies to every organisation collecting information about you – the difference with us is that we make it transparent so that you can make an informed choice.
At LGBT HIP your privacy and the security of your information is our primary concern. If you have any queries about how we handle your information, please email us at [email protected] for more information.
Now that we’ve explained why we ask and how we use the information, please help us out and take a few minutes to register using one of the links above. Then, we can keep you posted and make sure that LGBT HIP is a project that is diverse and open to all local LGBT people.
Thanks.