A PARTNERSHIP between Forest drag artist Miss Felicia and Magnums Nightclub in Coleford will result in a monthly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) night to offer a safe environment for the LGBTQ community to meet in the area.

Ashley Putland, who performs at the club as Miss Felicia, said: “I’ve been involved with Magnums at the Angel Hotel for around 15 months and began chatting to them about the idea of creating a safe space for this diverse community in the Forest as we currently don’t have that.

“I’ve never found the Forest to be a hostile place, but in a city there are plenty of places to meet like-minded people and we wanted somewhere safe for younger people here to meet too. My mission is to help individuals in coming out and being who they are meant to be.”

Landlord of the Angel Hotel in Coleford, Richard Oldfield added: “I’ve known Ashley for a while and we’ve become good friends. He’s an all round nice bloke and when he suggested this it seemed like a great idea.

“We already hold rock nights and hard core dance events so this fits in well. We’ll aim to hold one LGBTQ event each month. Magnums is already an LGBTQ safe venue as we won’t tolerate any discriminatory behaviour. We feel strongly that this should be a safe place to be and that we want to be supportive of this community.”

The first LGBTQ event takes place at Magnums this Friday, December 9 from 10pm.