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Stonewall’s 2008 Equality Dinner raises £320,000
This year, Stonewall’s tenth star-studded Equality Dinner saw actors, singers and ministers all rub shoulders at the Dorchester Hotel. The event, sponsored by UBS for the third year, raised £320,000 for Stonewall’s campaigning work.
Sir Ian McKellen, a co-founder of Stonewall, gave a rousing keynote speech about the charity’s ‘tireless work for equality’, paying tribute to Stonewall’s ‘fantastic team’. He recalled: ‘We were part of a historic initiative, that little group in which gay men and women took things into their own hands.’ He shared with the 540 dinner guests that he had visited Tony Blair on behalf of Stonewall three months before his election as Prime Minister. ‘I reeled off Stonewall’s demands, and he nodded, wrote them down and put a tick by them all. Then he said we will do all that.’
The dinner was hosted by Amy Lamé. Guests included author Sarah Waters, actress Michelle Collins, Radio 2 DJ Paul Gambaccini, prospective London Mayoral candidate Brian Paddick, artist Maggi Hambling and many supportive ministers, MPs and peers.
The auction, expertly handled by ‘King of the Jungle’ Christopher Biggins, offered a fantastic range of items including art by Kobi Israel, the award-winning photographer, a civil partnership reception and dinner at Cliveden, one of the world’s finest hotels, and dinner with Ian McKellen himself, hosted by Jamie Oliver. The opportunity to have tea with Tony Blair raised an astonishing £20,000 alone. By the end of the evening a record-breaking £320,000 had been raised to go towards Stonewall campaigns such as Education for All, tackling homophobic bullying from Britain’s schools.
Tickets for the Stonewall Equality Dinner 2009 will go on sale in November.
Photographs (right) courtesy of Piers Allardyce
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