Across the country, there are hundreds of smaller, lesser known LGBT+ charities having a game-changing impact on people’s lives. We want to use Ben and Callum’s wedding as an opportunity to get the word out about one of these smaller LGBT+ organisations doing excellent and important work across the country, and to raise money to help them continue the life-changing work they do. 

Ben and Callum’s story and wedding is important because it gives the opportunity for young people to see LGBT+ characters, living full and rounded lives full of love (and the typical soap opera drama!), and to say ‘these people are just like me’. This is why, to celebrate their wedding episodes, the Ballum fandom has decided to raise money for Just Like Us. 

Just Like Us is a charity for young LGBT+ people, aiming to tackle the fact that growing up LGBT+ is still unacceptably tough. Both of our main characters, Ben and Callum, didn’t come out until adulthood (in Ben’s case, he tentatively came out at fifteen and then went back into the closet for a few years due to the familial and societal pressure), which is indicative of the continuing struggle faced by young LGBT+ people growing up across the country. Just Like Us is trying to change that by empowering young people to champion LGBT+ equality by telling their stories. They run programmes across the UK, including training young ambassadors to run workshops and campaign for understanding and equality in their schools, workplaces and beyond, and School Diversity Week, which empowers staff and pupils across the UK to tackle homophobic, biphobic and tranphobic bullying by celebrating LGBT+ equality in education.

You can find out more about Just Like Us here: https://www.justlikeus.org/ 

School Diversity Week 2021 will be running from 21st-25th June, and you can sign up to take part, as well as finding toolkits, resources, and masterclasses run by LGBT+ speakers (including Ballum fandom’s own Erin, whose masterclass on being queerly autistic and proud will be live streamed on 24th June), here: https://www.justlikeus.org/school-diversity-week. 

Now let’s get out the champagne, find our best wedding hats, and celebrate our boys becoming husbands by helping out with a very worthwhile organisation!