Lisa Power

Power was born in 1954.{{cite web |title=The Discovery Service |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F75663 |website=discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk |publisher=The National Archives |accessdate=18 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200616132050/https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F75663 |archive-date=16 June 2020 |url-status=live }} She came out as lesbian in the 1970s in a time when homosexuality was still controversial in British society. She volunteered at the Lesbian & Gay Switchboard in London. 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 Local Authority as HIV policy officer.{{cite news |last1=Warriner |first1=Colin |title=Being honest about HIV: Lisa Power, policy head at Terrence Higgins Trust |url=http://sosogay.co.uk/2011/being-honest-about-hiv-terrence-higgins-trust-lisa-power/ |work=So So Gay |date=29 June 2011 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141024024344/http://sosogay.co.uk/2011/being-honest-about-hiv-terrence-higgins-trust-lisa-power/ |archivedate=24 October 2014}}

Power became Secretary-General of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (now the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association) in 1988 after helping to set up the Pink Paper.{{cite news |last1=Power |first1=Lisa |title=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 |url=https://inews.co.uk/opinion/comment/30-years-after-i-co-founded-stonewall-lesbians-are-more-visible-than-ever-284218 |accessdate=18 July 2020 |work=inews.co.uk |date=26 April 2019 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200708024600/https://inews.co.uk/opinion/comment/30-years-after-i-co-founded-stonewall-lesbians-are-more-visible-than-ever-284218 |archive-date=8 July 2020 |url-status=live }} She co-founded Stonewall in 1989 in direct response to Section 28 and subsequently was the policy director of the Terrence Higgins Trust.{{Cite news |url=http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/02/09/terrence-higgins-trusts-lisa-power-awarded-mbe/ |title=Terrence Higgins Trust's Lisa Power awarded MBE |work=PinkNews |date=9 February 2011 |access-date=18 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803143940/https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/02/09/terrence-higgins-trusts-lisa-power-awarded-mbe/ |archive-date=3 August 2019 |url-status=live }}

In 1991, Power was the first openly LGBT person to speak about gay rights at the United Nations in New York.{{Cite news|last=Pollock|first=India|date=2019-03-15|title='Huge distance' travelled on LGBT attitudes|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-47569273|access-date=2020-06-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200409221011/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-47569273|archive-date=2020-04-09|url-status=live}}{{cite web |title=Speakers |url=https://www.ilga-europe.org/conference/warsaw-2017/speakers |website=www.ilga-europe.org |publisher=ILGA-Europe |accessdate=18 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513060422/https://www.ilga-europe.org/conference/warsaw-2017/speakers |archive-date=13 May 2019 |url-status=live }} She was subsequently sainted by the Order of Perpetual Indulgence as St Lisa Potestatis for her services to queer life and her saint's day is New Year's Eve. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours, "for services to sexual health and to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community"{{London Gazette|issue=59647|date=31 December 2010|page=21|supp=1}} and was named on the 2022 Pinc List as that year's most influential LGBT figure in Wales.{{cite web | url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/gallery/pinc-list-2022-wales-most-24666819 | title=Pinc List 2022: Wales' most influential LGBT+ people | date=20 August 2022 }}

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.{{Cite web|date=2020-03-05|title=Wales' first Queer Tours – "Re-interpreting" art like a gay man|url=https://www.jomec.co.uk/intercardiff/art/wales-first-queer-tours-re-interpreting-art-like-a-gay-man|access-date=2020-06-10|website=InterCardiff|language=en-US}}{{Cite news|date=2020-03-15|title=Tours to reveal museum's LGBT stories|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-51839437|access-date=2020-06-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200316134037/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-51839437|archive-date=2020-03-16|url-status=live}} She was for several years the Organiser for LGBT History Month at Pride Cymru and Chair of the HIV Justice Network. She was Historical Consultant for the ground breaking Russell T Davies Channel 4 series "It's A Sin", has appeared in a number of HIV and LGBT modern history programmes and is a Founding Trustee of the Queer Britain museum. 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".{{cite news |last1=Stephens |first1=Lydia |title=International Women's Day- 'what I wish I knew when I was younger' |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/international-womens-day-advice-career-17869994 |accessdate=18 July 2020 |work=Wales Online |date=8 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200309153649/https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/international-womens-day-advice-career-17869994 |archive-date=9 March 2020 |url-status=live }}

• {{cite book |last1=Power |first1=Lisa |title=No bath but plenty of bubbles: An oral history of the Gay Liberation Front, 1970–1973 |year=1995 |publisher=Cassell |isbn=978-0-304-33205-2 |pages=288}}

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• {{Twitter}}
• [http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=8600&inst_id=1 Listing of Lisa Power's papers on AIM25] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192554/http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=8600&inst_id=1 |date=4 March 2016 }}

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Category:1954 births

Category:Living people

Category:British LGBTQ rights activists

Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire

Category:British HIV/AIDS activists

Category:Welsh women activists

Category:20th-century Welsh women writers

Category:21st-century Welsh women writers

Category:21st-century Welsh writers

Category:Lesbian feminists

Category:British women civil rights activists

Category:21st-century Welsh LGBTQ people