Peter Kingham

Peter Kingham was born in 1972. He grew up in Moulsoe, where his father was a farmer, and now lives in Wolverton, where he enjoys the great sense of community. He now works for the Foreign Office, at Hanslope Park, where he runs LGBT network.

As a gay man, Peter has been a part of Q: Alliance for about 25 years, he was in its early days, chair of the organisation. He talks about how Q:Alliance was founded from two other organisations: the Lesbian & Gay Link, which was mostly telephone helplines, and the Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Youth Line (where Peter was a trustee). He says that finding funding for these organisations was challenging in the early days, and they experienced quite a lot of homophobia from the council (then Bucks County Council) but they had some success, and also some Lottery funding. He deliberately takes an active role in the community as he didn’t have those opportunities or support when he was growing up, although he had a positive experience of coming out, first to friends and then to family.

He talks about going to Pink Punters in its earliest days, when it was just one room with a sofa in the corner, and a cat. He says their current success as an LGBT venue that now appeals to a wider crowd is down to it being an incredibly safe space to go, where women felt safe. He doesn’t mind straight people being there as long as it remains a safe environment for the LGBTQ+ community. He was part of the group which set up Celebrate MK as a kind of Pride, with a parade around the city. He now works at the Q:Alliance stand at Pride every year. He also worked on a project called Safer Spaces, where big shops or organisations could display a sticker so that if somebody felt threatened they could walk into these spaces and there would be trained staff to support them. He has also created social events such as Q:coffee at various venues, and was part of wider movements such as Citizens: MK.

He enjoys green spaces in MK, such as the Flood Plain Forest in Wolverton; as a keen biker he also regularly uses the redways; he recognises that not everyone would find them as safe as he does, particularly in the evenings.

He enjoyed growing up in rural Moulsoe with its sense of community and safety; he has mixed feelings about the development happening there.