Will Young becomes patron of LGBT mental health charity PACE
By Sam Rigby
Will Young
has been announced as the new patron of LGBT mental health charity PACE.
The Friday’s Child singer said that it is “an absolute pleasure” to work with the organisation, which aims to improve the emotional well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people in London.
Will said: “Every LGBT person should be granted the right to freedom of expression and personal fulfilment without prejudice.”
He added: “Here at PACE we support LGBT people and allow them to grow by listening, advising and most importantly allowing people to be themselves. It’s an absolute pleasure to become a patron of PACE; being able to listen to and learn from lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people about their experiences of developing better mental health is a privilege.”
Will has already been working with the charity for a number of months and recently took part in a Q&A with young LGBT people, speaking about his experiences as a gay man.
PACE Chief Executive Margaret Unwin said: “It’s fantastic to have Will Young working with PACE. We know that lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people experience higher levels of mental ill health and we believe this to be unjust. Will’s involvement will really help us to create more public discussion about the importance of better mental health for all LGBT people.”
Last month, Will – who guest-edited an issue of Attitude in November 2009 – teamed up with Stonewall to launch a new campaign tackling the use of homophobic language in schools.
Watch Will debate the use of the word ‘gay’ in schools on Newsnight below:
[youtube height=”315″ width=”560″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNbdEw-SgM4[/youtube]