WLQP founder Aubrey Crawley invited to a Buckingham Palace garden party

Image: Aubrey Crawley at the Buckingham Palace garden party on Tuesday 20 May

Recognition of the work done by WLQP

Aubrey Crawley, citizen of Chiswick, was at a Buckingham Palace garden party last week. Aubrey was invited in recognition of his work he does with the West London Queer Project, which he set up five years ago.

There are now three people working to run LGBT events of all sorts – socials, including Queer bingo, cinema and drag nights, sport, support sessions and charity events. They are working with four west London councils – Hounslow, Hillingdon, Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham.

The experience of working with councils is different with each of them, he told The Chiswick Calendar. With Hounslow he mainly works with the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion department (EDI), whereas with Ealing they liaise with the events department and in Hillingdon they work with a social worker whose remit it is to offer specialised support.

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Last week he was meeting Hounslow’s EDI department to discuss the provision of non-gendered, individual toilet cubicles and the Council gave permission for them to use Homefields recreation ground beside Chiswick Lane for touch rugby training. This week he is meeting with police about the upturn of homophobic abuse they have experienced.

Image: The Princess of Wales, guarded by “polite but stern” security

“A surreal experience”

Going to the garden party was a “surreal experience,” he told The Chiswick Calendar.

“As a South African, growing up I was always fascinated by the royal family.”

There was strict security among the thousands of guests, as you might expect.

“They were very nice and polite, but quite stern.”

The Prince and Princess of Wales appeared on the palace balcony to a fanfare and then came down to the gardens and mingled.

“They didn’t just say ‘hello’ and move on, when they stopped to chat with people they talked to them for about five minutes. I was struck by how beautiful Kate is when you see her standing there in front of you.”

It was interesting to see the manoeuvring going on amongst the guests to try and position themselves in the royal couple’s eye line, he said.

Aubrey and his lifelong friend Carolyne Beck, who he chose to accompany him for the occasion, were not amongst those they stopped and talked to, but they tucked into “delicious” sandwiches and cakes from the buffet and had a very pleasant day.

Image: Aubrey and friend Caroline Beck at the garden party

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