Come back corporate Pride — we didn't know how good we had it
Pride was a protest, I liked to snarkily remind everyone who would listen to an insufferable baby bisexual back in the 2010s. A reminder of the Stonewall Riots of 1969, all we fought for and still fight for. Not a place for companies to pinkwash their reputations. In 2018, our biggest worry felt like British Airways sponsoring Brighton Pride when the airline faced accusations it was helping to deport queer migrants.
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Spectator
a day ago
- Spectator
Pride continues to crumble
In the canteen of the House of Lords last week, a friendly server asked me if I'd like some 'Pride pudding'. This turned out to be a rainbow-coloured crumble created in honour of Pride month. 'Er, no thanks,' I said, and then noticed a large 'Progress Pride' flag behind the counter. Oh dear, I thought. That'll set the cat among the pigeons. Sure enough, a couple of hours later the GC Cons Peers' WhatsApp group erupted. This is made up of those dinosaurs who style themselves 'gender critical' – i.e. they believe sex is biological, binary and immutable. For the uninitiated, the Progress Pride flag features a large, multicoloured chevron superimposed on the standard rainbow layout. The colours correspond to different groups that don't feel adequately represented by the common or garden Pride flag, and include the colours of the trans flag. (Yes, there's one of those, too.) Among the embattled armies facing off on the red benches, this flag is the banner of those who believe that trans women are women and should be granted unfettered access to women's spaces. That's long been an issue of heated debate in the Lords, but it's reached fever pitch following the recent Supreme Court ruling. We GC Cons naively thought this would settle the matter in our favour, but naturally the same progressives who during the Brexit wars condemned those who questioned the wisdom of the Supreme Court justices as rabble-rousing populists are now quick to condemn them as 'bigots' and 'transphobes'. Scarcely a week passes without the two sides locking horns over the judgment, with the LGBTQQIP2SAA Lab Peers arguing that it's meaningless until the Equality and Human Rights Commission has issued official 'guidance' about how to interpret it. Baroness Falkner, the EHRC's chair, is sympathetic to the GC cause, but she's due to step down in November and our opponents' plan is to delay the 'guidance' until they've managed to install a stooge in her place. Meanwhile, they're not about to lower their banner. So for the Progress Pride flag to be planted in the Lords' canteen was, for the GC Cons, a major defeat. The common parts of the House are supposed to be neutral ground. And, of course, another tactic of the pink-haired radicals (even some nonagenarian Labour baronesses have pink hair) is to present their highly contentious views on gender as politically settled, like climate change. In other words, this was a double blow – they'd parked their tanks in the demilitarised zone and succeeded in disguising them as electrically-powered UN peacekeeping vehicles. This could not stand! A tactic of the pink-haired radicals is to present their highly contentious views on gender as politically settled Several GC Cons immediately fired off letters to the Lords' bewigged officials. The doughty Baroness Nicholson was first over the top, quickly followed by Baroness Jenkin – the Boadicea of our tribe – and yours truly. My argument was that under the Equality Act the Lords has an obligation to foster good relations between those who have a particular protected characteristic and those who don't. Believing that sex is real is a protected belief and allowing the banner of those who think sex is 'assigned at birth' to fly in the canteen is hardly fostering good relations. No doubt the same peers who've rejected the Supreme Court ruling would dispute this interpretation of the Act and refer the matter to the EHRC, with judgment delayed until Falkner has gone. But, amazingly, the powers that be appear to have been convinced – not just by my letter, I'm sure – and over the weekend the flag was removed. Pride pudding is still on sale, but that's fine; it was the flying of the trans colours that was the issue, not the celebration of Pride Month. I even said in my letter that I had no problem with the Pride flag, which isn't strictly true. I'd prefer it if public institutions remained impartial when it comes to all political battles, even those the progressive left can justifiably claim to have won. No objection to gay rights obviously, but the Pride flag has come to mean much more than that and I find its ubiquitous presence in June oppressive, as if you're being ordered what to think about a whole cluster of issues. But one battle at a time and for now I'll take the win. In late breaking news, Labour has announced its preferred candidate to succeed Baroness Falkner – Mary-Ann Stephenson – and stone me if she isn't a bit GC herself. Was that a cock-up? I suspect not. My impression is that Sir Keir and his cronies recognise that prolonging this battle is a vote-loser, just as it was for the Democrats in the US election. The GC Cons may think we've succeeded in forcing the trans zealots to lower the Progress Pride flag. But in reality it's Labour that has abandoned this fight.
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
Peter Tatchell on LGBT+ rights being under fresh threat: ‘I might retire from protest when I'm 95'
Few figures are as synonymous with LGBT+ rights as is Peter Tatchell. He was integral to the organisation of Britain's first Pride march, in 1972. 'I've been to every London Pride march since then,' says the 73-year-old. 'This year will be my 54th.' In his six decades of activism and protest, which began as an 'instinctive reaction against injustice' when he was a young teenager, he's been arrested 103 times (at time of writing) and received too many hate letters and threatening phone calls to count. He's been subjected to more than 300 violent assaults and 50 attacks on his flat. Horrifyingly, these vicious acts have included bottles and bricks being thrown through his windows, arson, and even a bullet through his front door. He's previously been under armed police protection, and was even listed as a target for assassination in a foiled plot in the Nineties. He describes these experiences as akin to 'living through a low-level civil war'. Of course, enduring such atrocities has taken its toll. 'It's been terrifying, and for years I've suffered from PTSD,' says Tatchell. Yet he's determined never to give up, and doesn't want to 'let the bigots win'. 'Protest is the lifeblood of democracy,' he says, 'and without it we end up like Putin's Russia.' Tatchell maintains that, as long as he has good health, he'll continue to protest – and 'might consider retiring around the age of 95' – but acknowledges that such freedom of expression is under threat. 'Police are increasingly cracking down on the right to peaceful protest,' he tells me. One of his main campaigns at the Peter Tatchell Foundation, formed in 2011, is #ApologiseNow. It seeks acknowledgement of the indignities previously suffered by the LGBT+ community at the hands of some police officers, including harassment, entrapment, beatings, raids on gay venues, and the public outing of LGBT+ people. He thinks a formal apology would help to rebuild trust. As part of this campaign, Tatchell is appealing to Pride organisers across the country to ban the participation of the police in their marches if they've refused to apologise. Greater Manchester Police plan to march in Manchester's event this year, but have 'point blank refused to apologise', says Tatchell, though he adds that police are welcome to march as individuals in civilian clothes. For Tatchell, it is evident that there are still problems between the police and the LGBT+ community. It's something he still experiences: in May this year, he was forcibly removed from the Birmingham Pride march after West Midlands Police claimed he didn't have permission to march and that organisers had requested his removal. Tatchell says the police stance is 'a complete lie', and the event's organiser later condemned the episode. Tatchell claims that some of 'the most vicious homophobic officers in the country' worked for West Midlands Police in the 1970s and 80s, and that they 'wrecked LGBT+ people's lives'. He thinks his recent treatment only 'reinforces how homophobic they are'. So far, the #ApologiseNow campaign has won apologies from 21 of the UK's 45 forces, including the Metropolitan Police, Merseyside, and Police Scotland. As a direct impact of the Peter Tatchell Foundation's work, there have been systemic changes within some forces, such as the introduction of homophobic hate crime hotlines and the appointment of LGBT+ liaison officers. Other campaigns orchestrated by the foundation include helping more than 200 LGBT+ refugees by supporting them in making asylum claims and putting them in touch with solicitors who can represent them, all without charge. Much has changed since Tatchell began campaigning, including the full decriminalisation of homosexuality and an end to the use of electroconvulsive therapy as a 'cure' for being gay. But now, he says, attitudes are beginning to roll back. 'Until a decade ago, public opinion was shifting towards ever greater acceptance, but now it's gone into reverse,' says Tatchell. 'There's a new demonisation of trans people that echoes that of LGBs in the 1970s and 80s. It's all based on scaremongering and blanket generalisations.' Tatchell attributes this to a 'combination of Conservative government, the rise of Ukip and Brexit, plus Twitter has helped amplify and quasi-legitimised homophobia, biphobia and transphobia'. He doesn't see things improving any time soon, adding: 'I fear anti-LGBT+ sentiment will get worse.' This change in attitudes is being felt on a far wider scale than just within Britain. In March, Hungary passed a draconian law that effectively bans Pride and similar events by outlawing any public assembly that might be considered to involve the promotion of homosexuality. It's a move that critics say is a breach of EU law, and opposes the fundamental values of human dignity, freedom, equality, and respect for human rights enshrined in the EU treaties. In response, Tatchell is organising a Solidarity Pride protest that will be held outside the Hungarian embassy in London on 21 June. 'The aim is to stand with the beleaguered LGBT+ people of Hungary, and to show them people in other countries know and care about their victimisation,' he says. He's calling for pressure to be put on the EU to sanction the regime of Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban in order to prevent the emboldening of other right-wing member states to act similarly. He says some EU countries have been vocal in opposing the Budapest ban, but notes: 'We haven't seen any action yet... We need more than words, we need sanctions.'
Evening Standard
a day ago
- Evening Standard
Come back corporate Pride — we didn't know how good we had it
Pride was a protest, I liked to snarkily remind everyone who would listen to an insufferable baby bisexual back in the 2010s. A reminder of the Stonewall Riots of 1969, all we fought for and still fight for. Not a place for companies to pinkwash their reputations. In 2018, our biggest worry felt like British Airways sponsoring Brighton Pride when the airline faced accusations it was helping to deport queer migrants.
