Queer Self-Defence
📅 Saturday 19th September
📍 St. Margaret’s House
⏰ Doors 10:45 AM, start 11:00 AM SHARP, 90 min
🎟 Free Entry
♿ Step-free access and accessible toilet facilities
⚠️⚠️⚠️ IMPORTANT ⚠️⚠️⚠️
Plans changed? Let us know or cancel your ticket. No-shows aren’t sexy and stop others from joining. Repeat no-shows won’t get future bookings.
Want to feel more confident and empowered in your body? Bender Defenders bring a holistic, trauma-informed self-defence workshop tailored specifically for queer and trans folks.
In this practical and supportive session, facilitators will guide you through fun warm-up games, key de-escalation strategies, and simple, effective physical techniques to build your confidence both on and off the street. Grounded in empowerment and community strength, this workshop is designed for all body types, fitness levels, and experience levels, creating a safer space to practice, connect, and reclaim space together.
Please wear comfortable clothes you can easily move in and bring a bottle of water with you. If you have any access needs, health conditions, or injuries, please let the facilitators know before the workshop starts so they can adapt the exercises for you. Come along to move, learn, and build collective strength with community!
This event is part of Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest and Love Hub – two festivals collaborating to create one big queer East London celebration from 11th - 20th September.
📽 Explore the full Fringe! Queer Film & Arts Fest programme here
🌈 Discover the full Love Hub programme here
Our House Rules (and Why They Matter)
The Love Hub is brought to you by The Love Tank, a non-profit organisation promoting the health and well-being of underserved communities.
We’re a lived experience organisation: we’re queer, pro-trans, and believe that migrants make our worlds richer and more joyful. We’re proudly anti-racist and believe access to health care - including abortion - is a human right. We stand for bodily autonomy, including reproductive justice, the decriminalisation of drug use and sex work, and access to gender-affirming care.
A lot of our work focuses on sexual health, so please expect conversations that include sex and sexual well-being.
If you’ve just discovered The Love Tank and are thinking of booking a Love Hub ticket, but find our values challenging, this is a great moment to ask yourself: “Is this space right for me?”
Some sessions will have an official photographer present. If you do not wish to be photographed, please let us know when you arrive at a session. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, photography, video, or audio recording of panel members or audience members is not permitted. Anyone who records or photographs without consent will be asked to leave the session.
Our events are fun, joyful, and supportive. It takes courage for presenters and facilitators to get up and share their work, so please be respectful: clap in the right places, don’t heckle, and help create a welcoming environment. If our values don’t align with yours, that’s okay - please don’t attend. We won’t mind.
Stay Connected:
Follow us on Instagram @thelovetankcic for updates on this event and other exciting free projects and events you can be a part of!
About our FREE events
💜 Our events are free to ensure they remain accessible to our communities. However, organising them comes with costs. If you'd like to support our work, please consider donating via this link.
💜 To make sure as many people as possible can attend, we ask that you cancel your ticket if you can no longer make it. Failing to show up without prior cancellation takes a spot from someone else and wastes resources, including food and venue costs. We track attendance, and individuals who miss three events without cancelling will be unable to register for our future events. Please be considerate and let us know if you can’t attend.
💜 To ensure a smooth and respectful experience for everyone, please arrive on time. Our events are not drop-in sessions, meaning attendees must arrive at the start time and stay for the duration. We allow a 10-minute grace period for late arrivals - after that, entry will not be permitted as it can be disruptive to the group. Additionally, the entrance is not monitored after the grace period, so there will be no one available to let latecomers in. The event hours are clearly stated in the description, so please plan accordingly. Thank you for understanding and helping us create a welcoming space for all!
💜 Alongside this, we appreciate it if you could respond to any communication by the given response deadline so we can make the necessary arrangements for the event.
💜 By signing up to this event, you accept being added to The Love Tank’s newsletter. You can opt out at any time.