LGBTQ+ Lambeth Changemakers: Rob Berkeley

Lambeth has long been the home of radicals, reformers and innovators – people who changed history by campaigning, protesting, making things better in other people’s lives.

After Pride Month, we’re sharing the stories of people from the LGBTQ+ community who have been – and still are – active in helping to make Lambeth a borough of equity and justice.

As a descendant of enslaved people in the Caribbean, the message “each learn one” – a key strategy in the fight against slavery in the 19^th Century America – inspires Rob Berkley in everything he has done within Lambeth’s black queer community.

Sexual health

“Nearly 25 years ago I volunteered with Brixton’s Big Up @GMFA doing culturally appropriate lifesaving HIV/AIDS information, then took that learning to the sexual health charity , Naz Project.

Pride

“In 2005, we organized the first People of Color crowd and stage at London Pride and participated in the first Black Pride in the UK. I worked with the Terrence Higgins Trust and Dennis Carney to amplify black voices on public policy, establishing the Black Gay Men’s Advisory Group (BGMAG) – including a public stance against homophobia in dancehall music.

Making Lambeth ‘home ground’

“By then I was a regular at Queer Nation (SubStation South) and the karaoke scene at my local Southern Pride. I joined the board of Stonewall in 2009 and in 2014 worked with Marc Thompson and Antoine Rogers to set up BLKOUT_UK.

“Brixton has been our ‘home turf’ since the screening Moon’s light TO The Ritzy and intergenerational learning at 198 Galleryto bring ballroom vogue to Brixton Market to celebrate Brixton’s Black queer histories. In 2024 BLKOUT-UK will officially become a co-op, create a new documentary and redesign our online magazine blkoutuk.com and digital app blkouthub.com – each teaching one until we are all free of charge.”