Chatting to people home for Christmas from England at Passion the other week, it was instantly obvious to see that things have really changed in the lives of the local LGB and T community compared to a few years ago. Sometimes it just takes someone from the outside looking in to point this out to you!

When people who went away from Newry because it wasn’t a comfortable place to be for them, tell you that it has changed so much for the better and that it’s in no small way due to the efforts of the Newry Rainbow Community maybe it is time to sit and reflect on how far we have come in a few short years.

While the NRC certainly couldn’t claim all the glory in a society that is changing as a whole it is good to think that, yes what we are trying to achieve over the years is actually making a difference on the ground and goes a long way towards banishing the bad days of uncertainty we all have had over the years.

2011 in the NRC wasn’t that much different from the year most organisations or businesses had – mixed, but while not forgetting the difficult parts it’s more important to build from the positives and yes there were quite a few.

Who could forget the Music session in Grounded for International Day Against Homophobia with Mickey Doran playing his Castrol GTX Guitar accompanied by Fergal O’Brien and David Cunningham, or Newry’s first Pride Concert complete with Bulgarian Band and Dancers. Together with Dundalk Outcomers we jointly won the prize for the Best Float at Dublin Pride in our first year competing and our Victorian themed Belfast Pride float certainly couldn’t have been missed, mind you I don’t think many of us could fit in to those bathing costumes just now!

It was also the year the NRC Youth Group was started and the year that our counselling services in conjunction with the Rainbow Project got up and running at the NRC Centre and we joined up on walking trips in the Mournes with the Belfast based Out and About Group.

2012 will bring lots more challenges and hopefully opportunities. The NRC are acutely aware that for some people it feels like nothing has changed. If you feel like this, make this the year YOU start to change that – Come and join us along the way.

To contact the NRC call in to our Drop in Centre at 82a Hill Street between 7pm and 10pm Monday to Friday or 2pm to 6pm on Saturdays. You can also phone our info line on 028 3025 0528 or surf to www.gaynewry.com