Queer people need your support consistently – not just in June

A photo of my friends, partner, and I at Essex Pride 2021

Today marks the beginning of Pride Month, which means it’s the beginning of my entire social media feed becomes emblazoned with rainbows, #LoveIsLove tweets, and so many different companies I follow talking of how they stand with the LGBTQ+ community. Of course, this is just the onslaught of rainbow capitalism, and for a couple of years I have shared a post sent to me by a good friend from back home (shown below).

A post sent to me by a friend back in June 2020

Indeed, Pride didn’t come about from cis white gays dancing to Lady Gaga. It came from fighting, from protesting, from rebelling. Look at any account of how the Stonewall riots started and it becomes clear that we were never going to make demonstrative progress from simply signing petitions or peacefully asking for rights. Matthew Todd’s book ‘Pride’ puts it best, I believe:
 
"What is in no doubt is that a community of brave, pissed off and oppressed people [at Stonewall] said that enough was enough and took action, knowing that if they didn’t, then nobody would."
 
(I also wholeheartedly recommend you read ‘Pride’ and ‘Straight Jacket’ by Matthew Todd. I hosted him as part of an LGBTQ+ History Month talk at my university back in February 2021, and he spoke so brilliantly.)
 
Alas in 2022, we’re still pissed off. We’re still oppressed. Enough is enough, and we need you to stand with us. Why? Well, let’s break down everything in 2022 that’s still wrong.

Conversion therapy isn't being fully banned

The government’s plans to ban conversion therapy aren’t representative of a ban at all. The plans have, since they were first drawn up, included exemptions based on religion and free speech. Additionally, the plans seem to allow “consenting” people to undergo such an abhorrent experience. This isn’t a ban. It’s not even close to a ban. “Free speech” is of course used as a blanket ‘argument’ for allowing many abhorrent things, so it’s unsurprising that such an ‘argument’ is being used to allow conversion therapy to happen in some form.

Non-binary isn't a legally recognised gender

Non-binary isn’t a legally recognised genderAs drag artist Bimini Bon Boulash so eloquently put it in RuPaul’s Drag Race UK 2021: “Non-binary isn't a new thing, it's just a new term”. Indeed, so many celebrities have come out as non-binary: Demi Lovato, Sam Smith, Olly Alexander, Ezra Miller. But in the UK, their gender isn’t legally recognised. There is an upcoming parliamentary debate about making non-binary a legally recognised gender, yet the people who are to decide the outcome of this are all cisgender. So, not only is there no recognition for non-binary people, but there are also no non-binary representatives to stand up for them.

The Gender Recognition Act is outdated and needs reform

The Gender Recognition Act needs serious reformCurrently, the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA) is in dire need of reforming. It is not fit for purpose in 2022; it has so much red tape and so many flaws. For example: a person is required to live “permanently” (for at least one year) as their gender before they can obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). Even then, it requires someone to be scrutinised by a tribunal panel of people they will have never met before. To top it all off, it costs money to obtain a GRC – it’s a lot less than before, but still: nobody should have to pay to be recognised as their true selves.

Both mainstream political parties don't care about us

This is a very broad, sweeping statement, but no - The Conservative Party and the Labour Party don’t care about LGBTQ+ people. Whether it’s the Minister for Women and Equalities disbanding the LGBT advisory panel or the Leader of the Opposition being vehemently defended by his party for visiting a homophobic, pro conversion therapy church, neither party truly cares about the LGBTQ+ community. If that were the case, then perhaps the Labour Party MPs who have spouted homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic slurs would have had the whip removed and, for the party of government, enough can be said given the fact the Prime Minister once referred to queer men as “tank-topped bum boys”.

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So, what next? Simply put, we need those who proudly claim to be allies of the LGBTQ+ community to stand with us. It’s not enough to just post “Happy Pride!” on Instagram and be done with it, we need you signing petitions; we need you with us at protests; we need you donating to crowd funders; we need you to stand up for us unequivocally. Right now, there are very eerily accurate comparisons being made between now and the 1980s, particularly in the context of Section 28, and it’s terrifying to think we could be heading backwards. So, in Pride Month 2022, this is what I want all allies to do: wholeheartedly stand with us, because we need you.