to work with local services and planners in implementing the strategy and to provide infrastructure and community development support for the LGBT community. Its aim was to act as an independent voice, negotiating the rights of LGBT people locally with a specific focus on the needs of marginalised sections of the LGBT community. A second study, Count Me in Too!, published its 'Initial findings Reports' in 2007, in partnership between the University of Brighton and Spectrum. The second study aimed to identify gaps in the original research and update the strategy. A free magazine is distributed in the city: Gscene, which describes itself as "the gay and lesbian lifestyle, listings and community magazine for Brighton and Hove". Brighton has a gay and lesbian sports society called BLAGSS which offers a range of 17 sports or activities to its 600+ members. The city also has LGBTQ+ sports clubs such as Brighton & Hove Sea Serpents RFC, a branch of the international Frontrunners : Brighton & Hove Frontrunners: Formed in 2018. Holding an annual rainbow run 5k the day before Brighton Pride and a branch of the LGBTQ+ aquatics Out to swim (Out to swim Brighton), plus many more. There are also two congregations of the Metropolitan Community Church. Historical Events An early recording of the LGBT community in Brighton was in August 1822, when George Wilson, a servant from Newcastle upon Tyne, was accused by a guardsman he had met in the Duke of Wellington public house in Pool Valley of having offered him a sovereign and two shillings to go with him onto the beach to "commit an unnatural crime". Another early story of the LGBT community in the area is that of philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906), a friend of both Charles Dickens and the Duke of Wellington, who spent part of each year at the Royal Albion Hotel with her companion Hannah. The couple were devoted to each other, socially recognised as a pair, and even sent joint Christmas cards. When Hannah died in 1878, Baroness Burdett-Coutts said she was utterly crushed by the loss of "my poor darling, the companion and sunshine of my life for 52 years". A walking tour 'Piers & Queers' explores the historical sites and characters of LGBT interest. References External links BLAGSS - Brighton Lesbian and Gay Sports Society MindOut - LGBT mental health project Clare Project - a self-supporting group open to