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| 1950s: LGBT individuals march for equal rights in the USA |
Last week over coffee, a friend of mine expressed that the last bastion of LGBT rights is bullying in schools. At the time I had been pondering the irony that on the same night, the month long celebrations in Brighton of LGBT History culminated in the LGBT Green Party Manifesto Launch and the Lavender Lounge, a recreation of a 1950s Queer Drinking Club by OurStory. At the Manifesto Launch, the Green Party speakers spoke about their six cornerstone policies covering four core areas - community, safety, health and education; that would bring a 'Gold Standard' for LGBT people that we are still denied. These are:
- Open up civil marriages and partnerships to both same-sex and opposite sex couples. (A separate law is not an equal law-ed)
- All police forces to have LGBTIQ Liaison Officers with paid time allocated to tackle homophobic and transphobic hate crime.
- End the lifetime ban on gay an bisexual blood donors.
- Amend the Equality Act to provide explicit protection against harassmnt to LGBTQI people.
- Refuse visa and work permits to ‘murder music’ singers and others who incite homo and transphobic violence.
- Ensure safe haven and refugee status or LGBTQI people fleeing persecution.
I left the meeting with our inequalities reverberating through my ears and Caroline Lucas' parting words of 'Fairness is worth fighting for'. Moving onto the recreated 1950s Drinking Club, it left me wondering about what LGBT people of then, would have identified as their cornerstone policies?
Can LGBT people assume, that with the historic gains already made, all the other discriminations will eventually evaporate? Is bullying in schools really our last fight? Are we right to be that complacent?
After all, we still have a ban on same sex marriage. I understand that not everyone wants us to have achieved marriage rights, with some viewing it as an archaic institution, but civil partnerships are not equality. A separate law is not an equal law. One law for straights and a separate law for queers. Are we happy to accept this as our equality?
There's still a blanket lifetime ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood. This is a homophobic policy based on homophobic assumptions. This policy is now being reviewed thanks to the endeavours and campaigning by Outrage, the NUS and others. If it was not for their petitions, the protests, the criticism, would this be getting reviewed?
There's still double standards in the decisions that the Government make. Successive Home Secretaries have given reggae artists such as Beenie Man and Bounty Killer visa's and work permits to come here to perform, freedom to incite the murder of LGBT people, without any fear of prosecution. I feel lucky to not live within a community, within the UK, where this music is bought and listened to. Equally, there are clerics of the Muslim faith that have been granted visa's to visit, despite preaching hate towards us. Just because it does not effect me, should I be accepting these double standards by the Government that are putting lives at risk?
There is a 'mythology' that there is 'acceptance' of LGBT people and their lives, especially here in Brighton, where I find it easy and accepting of me being lesbian. Yet subtle homophobia permeates our society through the media but is seen as acceptable and rarely challenged by the Press Complaints Commission or by the British Broadcasting Standards. Hate crime is on the increase and we've seen that with the violent murders and attacks across the country over the last 12 months, including attacks in Brighton. Should I feel as safe as I do?
Will the Equality Bill give us full protection? Not as it stands. It actually has written under certain clauses, that protections against harassment will not apply on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender reassignment. Will religious organisations be granted the opt-out that they seek?
For me, those two events held on the same evening was quite a poignant message in itself. Just as in the 1950s LGBT people would have been fighting for acceptance and acknowledgment of being allowed to live their lives as who they are, so too, are we in 2010. We have come a long way in attaining the equality we have, but I won't be getting complacent just yet.
