Yesterday Erika Hilton (she/her) in São Paulo and Duda Salabert (she/her) in Minas Gerais won their elections to the Brazilian Congress, making them the first trans people ever elected to Congress in the country’s history. Despite ongoing anti-LGBTQ hate perpetuated by the Bolsonaro administration, a record number of out LGBTQ people ran for Congress this year in Brazil – over 300 – including a record number of trans people. With yesterday’s results, LGBTQ representation in Brazil will double from 9 to 18 elected officials, 16 of whom are women.
Alhelí Partida, Director of Global Programs at LGBTQ Victory Institute, released the following statement about the election:
“Brazil’s LGBTQ community – and trans community in particular – has never had equitable representation in government. But with a record number of LGBTQ candidates running this year, it is clear that LGBTQ leaders are stepping up to make change from within the halls of power. Erika and Duda showed true courage in their campaigns for Congress, running during a time of increased homophobia and transphobia at the hands of President Bolsonaro and his followers. Their success is not just a sharp rebuke to these bigots, but a beacon of hope to Brazil’s vibrant LGBTQ community.
“While we hope their success is a sign of better days, Brazil remains an incredibly tough place to engage as an out leader – where homophobia, transphobia, death threats and worse are common. In 2018, we lost one of our own, Rio de Janeiro Councilwoman Marielle Franco, assassinated by anti-LGBTQ and anti-women attackers. While her loss continues to be devastating, she has become an icon and the fuel needed to inspire more courageous LGBTQ Brazilians to raise their voices.”
In preparation for the 2022 election cycle in Brazil, LGBTQ Victory Institute and #VoteLGBT held two trainings to support LGBTQ candidates. In total, there were 63 participants, 28 of whom ran for office this year – including three trans women who ran for Congress. #VoteLGBT, Victory Institute, Equal Rights in Action Fund and Google also released “The State of Brazilian LGBT+ Politics: Between Power and Obliteration” this year, the first analysis of LGBTQ politics and political power in Brazil.
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LGBTQ Victory Institute
LGBTQ Victory Institute’s Global Programs work to increase the political participation of LGBTQ people to advance equality across the globe. This work includes training LGBTQ leaders and aspiring candidates, implementing voter education and civic engagement initiatives, and conducting research on the climate of LGBTQ political participation.
In 1994, a Missouri high school teacher named Rodney Wilson – the first out public school teacher in the state – wanted to give students better access to LGBTQ history as well as more role models with whom they could identify.
He established a planning committee with LGBTQ leaders from around the country, and from there, Gay and Lesbian History Month was born.
The group selected October for what would ultimately become LGBTQ History Month because school would be in session. October is also when we celebrate National Coming Out Day (on the 11). The two LGBTQ marches on Washington in 1979 and 1987 also took place in October.
After its founding, organizations like the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, GLAAD, and the Human Rights Campaign endorsed Gay and Lesbian History Month, and in 1995, the National Education Association passed a resolution officially recognizing it as a commemorative month.
In 2006, the civil rights organization Equality Forum became the official organizer and promoter of the month. Each year, Equality Forum selects 31 icons to honor, one for each day.
Today, as conservatives continue their widespread attacks on the rights of LGBTQ students, LGBTQ History Month feels more important than ever, serving to remind LGBTQ young people that they are part of a long, storied history of strength, resilience, and bravery.
What is LGBTQ History Month?
LGBTQ History Month is celebrated both nationally and internationally and has become a crucial tool in ensuring that queer history is shared, taught, and celebrated, as it is rarely included in school curricula.
Thus, LGBTQ students are often unaware of the fact that many figures they study in school were in fact LGBTQ. They also miss out on learning about the LGBTQ rights movement and the many figures who have fought heroically for LGBTQ equality.
LGBTQ History Month is a way to encourage schools, media, and other institutions devoted to sharing knowledge to amplify the important stories of the LGBTQ community.
When is LGBTQ History Month Celebrated?
In the United States, LGBTQ History Month is celebrated every October. Canada and Australia also celebrate it this month. It is also recognized in the United Kingdom (in February), Hungary (in February), Finland (in November), and Berlin (in June).
And this past year in May, Cuba became the first country in Latin America to celebrate it. Italy also celebrated its first one this year in April.
LGBTQ History Month vs. Pride Month
LGBTQ History Month focuses on the achievements of the LGBTQ community. Pride Month in June, on the other hand, originated with the 1969 Stonewall Uprising and is about uplifting the LGBTQ rights movement.
Pride is more focused on rebellion and the continued fight for LGBTQ rights, whereas LGBTQ History Month focuses on honoring the past.
Pride is a protest, a battle cry, whereas History Month is a celebration.
How to Celebrate LGBTQ History Month
Celebrating LGBTQ History Month can take many forms, including:
Visit Equality Forum’s website dedicated to honoring queer icons and search their database of almost 500 LGBTQ people who have made history.
Help spread awareness and share stories on your social media pages that celebrate LGBTQ role models.
Find out if LGBTQ history is taught in your local public schools, and if not, advocate for change.
Make a donation to a worthy LGBTQ cause.
Iconic Queer Figures to Honor
There are endless LGBTQ figures to honor this month, but here a few icons to start with:
Bayard Rustin, who organized the March on Washington in 1963, where Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech took place
Bisexual Swedish geneticist Svante Paabo won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday.
The 67-year-old helped found the study of paleogenetics, a field that investigates ancient humans and other species using very old genetic materials. Using this science, Paabo successfully reconstructed the genome of Neanderthals, the closest ancient relative to homo sapiens, the modern human species. Scientists think that Neanderthals genetically diverged from homo sapiens nearly 500,000 to 650,000 years ago.
Paabo’s reconstruction of the Neanderthal genome was particularly impressive considering that his team only had DNA evidence that had severely degraded over nearly half a million years.
He and his team also helped discover a new human species called the Denisovans by successfully extracting DNA from a small finger bone fragment found in a Siberian cave. The discovery helped scientists understand how humans migrated across Asia.
Paabo’s work isn’t just about the past. Paleogenetics can help modern scientists understand how both the human mind and body evolved, particularly in response to illnesses.
For instance, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Paabo found that people with greater amounts of Neanderthal DNA were more likely to become severely ill. Scientists used this information to understand more about how best to respond to newly infected individuals.
“Trying to understand the implications of [ancient DNA] for health is something that will be with us for the rest of…our time as a species,” David Reich, a population geneticist at Harvard Medical School in Boston told The National News when speaking of Paabo’s work.
Paabo’s Nobel prize came with a $900,000 reward. Upon hearing about his win, his teammates celebrated by throwing him into a pool of water near the institute where he works.
Paabo publicly came out as bisexual in his autobiographical 2014 nonfiction book, Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes.
He reportedly wrote that he thought he was gay until he met his wife, U.S. primatologist and geneticist Linda Vigilant, and fell for her “boyish charms.”
They are now raising a son and a daughter in Leipzig, Germany. There, Paabo founded the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, where he now works.
Paabo’s father, Sune Bergstrom, also won the Nobel prize in medicine in 1982.
“The biggest influence in my life was for sure my mother, with whom I grew up,” Paabo said in his Nobel interview. “And in some sense, it makes me a bit sad that she can’t experience this day. She sort of was very much into science, and very much stimulated and encouraged me through the years.”
Paabo is also an adjunct professor at Japan’s Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology.
Iceland has published its action plan on LGBTQ+ issues for the years 2022 to 2025, which includes an end to discrimination for queer blood donors, training in LGBTQ+ issues for police, “appropriate and unbiased” healthcare for trans people, and more.
The country’s parliament is also pledging 40 million Icelandic Króna (around £250,000) to support ministries’ LGBTQ+ projects within that time period.
The UK used to have an LGBTQ+ action plan, established in 2018 under Theresa May’s Conservative government, which included meaningful reform of the Gender Recognition Act and the banning of conversion therapy in all its forms.
Iceland, which already has strong LGBTQ+ protections in place, and in 2017 was found to be the least homophobic country in the list of members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), pushed forward the 21 progressive measures in June.
A statement about the programme says it is the “first one that focuses solely on LGBTI matters”.
“The purpose of the action should be to abolish the discrimination which blood donors have been subject to on account of their sexual orientation,” the plan reads.
Particular focus was made on wellbeing in the action plan, with steps to help ensure the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ youth, elderly people, and disabled people, as well as tackling LGBTQ+ domestic violence.
The plan states: “The well-being and situation of this group [LGBTI disabled people and LGBTI elders] in society should be considered in terms of isolation and expression.”
It added that it would also study the “well-being of LGBTI people in regions outside the capital area… should be given special consideration, where people are in proximity to a great extent and economic life tends to be undiversified.”
‘All of our people are accepted’
Ahead of a visit from the UN’s independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity on 26 September, Ambassador Bergdís Ellertsdóttir said: “Human rights are a key priority in Iceland’s foreign policy, and LGBTQ+ rights are a particular focus at home where, as a society, we ensure that all of our people are accepted and enjoy full rights.”
Iceland remains high up on Europe’s “Rainbow Map” of LGBTQ+ friendly countries in 2022, however it was beaten to the top spot by Malta and Denmark, with ILGA Europe noting that Denmark is “taking the lead in filling in anti-discrimination gaps in current legislation”.
The triumph of a right-wing alliance in Italy’s election has raised concern among LGBTQ advocates, who fear nationalist leader Giorgia Meloni could adopt anti-gay policies as prime minister and set back their efforts to boost equality.
Meloni, who is set to become Italy’s first woman premier at the head of its most right-wing government since World War Two, fiercely denounced what she calls “gender ideology” and “the LGBT lobby” just months before Sunday’s vote.
But she has also played down her party’s post-fascist roots and portrays it as a mainstream group like Britain’s Conservatives.
So what would her leadership of Italy’s new government mean for the LGBTQ community?
What is Meloni’s stance on LGBTQ rights?
Meloni, a Christian, has sprinkled speeches with anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and conservative statements on family-related issues.
“Yes to natural families, no to the LGBT lobby, yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology, yes to the culture of life, no to the abyss of death,” she said as she addressed supporters of Spain’s rightist Vox party in the southern Spanish city of Marbella in June.
But in the past few weeks, Meloni has repeatedly denied suggestions she might roll back legislation on abortion or LGBTQ rights, while reaffirming her opposition to adoptions and surrogacy for same-sex couples.
Days before the election, however, a senior member of her Brothers of Italy (FdI) group suggested same-sex parenting was not normal.
Federico Mollicone, culture spokesman for the FdI, reiterated his criticism of an episode of the children’s cartoon “Peppa Pig” that featured a polar bear with two mothers.
He said further that “in Italy homosexual couples are not legal, are not allowed” — despite the country having legalized same-sex civil unions in 2016, a reform the FdI opposed in parliament.
FdI does not mention LGBTQ rights specifically in its election manifesto, but calls for “support for childbearing and the family.”
In a Facebook message to an LGBTQ activist who confronted her earlier this month, Meloni said: “I believe a child has the right to grow up with a father and a mother.”
What is the state of LGBTQ rights in Italy?
Italy ranks 23rd in the 27-member European Union when it comes to legal protections for LGBTQ people, according to advocacy group ILGA-Europe.
It is the only major country in Western Europe that has not legalized same-sex marriage, though some microstates such as Monaco and San Marino have also not done so.
Italy has legalized same-sex civil unions, but these do not grant gay couples the same rights as married heterosexual couples, particularly when it comes to parenting. Joint adoption is not available for same-sex couples.
“Even if she doesn’t introduce any anti-LGBT laws, she will not speed up what we’re trying to do to improve the current situation,” Roberto Muzzetta, a board member at Italy’s biggest gay LGBTQ group Arcigay, said from Milan.
“In fact, she will slow it down, or do nothing about it, even though we’re already lagging behind our neighbors.”
Last October, the Italian Senate voted to block debate over a bill that would make violence against women and LGBTQ people a hate crime, effectively killing off a proposal previously approved by the lower house of parliament.
The bill, championed by the center-left Democratic Party (PD), triggered fierce discussion in Italy, with the Vatican saying that it could restrict the religious freedom of the Roman Catholic Church.
Arcigay said it records more than 100 hate crime and discrimination cases a year.
Despite lagging most of its EU neighbors on LGBTQ rights, a 2020 study by the U.S.-based Pew Research Center found 75% of Italians think homosexuality should be accepted.
“Still, Meloni’s opponents were just not able … to make these issues more meaningful (and) promote a different, more progressive vision of society,” political analyst Martina Carone at Torino-based consultancy firm Agenzia Quorum said
What are ordinary LGBTQ Italians concerned about?
Some gay, bisexual and transgender people fear Meloni’s nationalist stance could increase discrimination against LGBTQ people in Italy.
“This morning, when I woke up, I had a feeling of strong discomfort. I felt a great uncertainty, as if I had become aware that things could change for me and my safety,” said Cristian Cristalli, a 34-year-old trans man based in the northern city of Bologna.
“I wondered if I didn’t deserve a future elsewhere, perhaps in a country worthy of our lives,” Cristalli added.
In the northern city of Verona, Stefano Ambrosini, a gay 28-year-old PhD student, said he feared Meloni’s election triumph could lead to an increase in homophobic violence.
“A lot of the people who voted for her are the ones who are already perpetuating violence and discrimination against the community,” he said.
“Now that she has won, these people will feel empowered and definitely safe in doing the terrible things that they want to do to our community.”
Activist Muzzetta said a clear majority in parliament could pave the way for the right-wing alliance to introduce anti-LGBTQ policies that have already been discussed in some regions or municipalities, such as LGBTQ-related books and events bans.
But both Cristalli and Ambrosini said they are determined to defend their rights.
“Let’s see how it goes. I’m ready to fight back,” Ambrosini said.
Cubans have approved a sweeping “family law” code that would allow same-sex couples to marry and adopt as well as redefining rights for children and grandparents, officials said Monday, though opposition in the national referendum was unusually strong on the Communist Party-governed island.
The measure — which contains more than 400 articles — was approved by 66.9% to 33.1%, the president of the National Electoral Council, Alina Balseiro Gutiérrez, told official news media, though returns from a few places remained to be counted.
The reforms had met unusually strong open resistance from the growing evangelical movement in Cuba — and many other Cubans — despite an extensive government campaign in favor of the measure, including thousands of informative meetings across the country and extensive media coverage backing it.
Cuban elections — in which no party other than the Communist is allowed — routinely produce victory margins of more than 90% — as did a referendum on a major constitutional reform in 2019.
The code would allow surrogate pregnancies, broader rights for grandparents in regard to grandchildren, protection of the elderly and measures against gender violence.
President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who has promoted the law acknowledged questions about the measure as he voted on Sunday.
“Most of our people will vote in favor of the code, but it still has issues that our society as a whole does not understand,” he said.
The measure had been approved by Cuba’s Parliament, the National Assembly, after years of debate about such reforms.
A major supporter of the measure was Mariela Castro, director of the National Center for Sex Education, a promoter of rights for same-sex couples, daughter of former President Raul Castro and niece of his brother Fidel.
But there is a strong strain of social conservatism in Cuba and several religious leaders have expressed concern or opposition to the law., worrying it could weaken nuclear families.
While Cuba was officially — and often militantly — atheist for decades after the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro — Raul’s brother — it has become more tolerant of religions over the past quarter century. That has meant a greater opening not only the once-dominant Roman Catholic Church, but also to Afro-Cuban religions, protestants and Muslims.
Some of those churches took advantage of the opening in 2018 and 2019 to campaign against another plebiscite which would have rewritten the constitution in a way to allow gay marriage.
Opposition was strong enough that the government at that time backed away.
The British government has committed to a 10-year strategy to end discrimination against “female same-sex couples” seeking fertility services.
The first ever Women’s Health Strategy For England, published by the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care, includes language supporting reproductive rights for lesbian, bisexual and queer (LBQ+) women. It commits the government’s health department to improving transparency and removing discriminatory policies to ensure “female same-sex couples are able to access [National Health Service] NHS-funded fertility services in a more equitable way.”
In October, 2021, campaigners Megan and Whitney Bacon-Evanslaunched a legal case against their local NHS board, stating that its fertility policy discriminated against lesbians. In their postcode, same-sex female couples seeking one cycle of NHS-funded in vitro fertilization (IVF) are required to prove infertility by self-funding 12 rounds of artificial insemination, including 6 in a clinical setting, costing approximately £26,000. For heterosexual couples, the requirement to prove infertility is attestation of two years of unprotected sex.
The new strategy removes the requirement for self-funding, and states that female same-sex couples can expect NHS coverage to start with 6 cycles of artificial insemination.
Still, there is little clarity as to when the strategy will take effect. “Some queer couples told us this week they have already been put on fertility waiting lists for 2023, others were told they still don’t qualify,” Bacon-Evans told Human Rights Watch.
Also, the strategy is silent on “single women who want to start a family,” an issue highlighted by experts who submitted to the strategy process, which could potentially discriminate against both heterosexual and queer single women. As the strategy commits the department to administer care for women regardless of non-clinical factors, such as relationship status, single women should be covered.
The strategy also does not define “same-sex” or “couple.” It remains unclear if partners must be married or in a civil partnership, and if treatment will be available to LBQ+ couples in which one or both partners are transgender, non-binary, or gender non-conforming.
Authorities should extend non-discriminatory access to fertility treatment to single women and all LBQ+ couples, regardless of gender identity or expression. They should also be protected from non-clinical barriers to fertility services. One immediate opportunity comes as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence updates its fertility assessment and treatment guidelines.
The 25-year-old translator by day and trans drag performer by night felt overwhelming panic and anxiety when several thousand demonstrators gathered and marched Sunday in Turkey to demand a ban on what they consider gay propaganda and to outlaw LGBTQ organizations.
The Big Family Gathering march in the conservative heart of Istanbul attracted parents with children, nationalists, hard-line Islamists and conspiracy theorists. Turkey’s media watchdog gave the event the government’s blessing by including a promotional video that called LGBTQ people a “virus” in its list of public service announcements for broadcasters.
“We need to make all our defense against this LGBT. We need to get rid of it,” said construction worker Mehmet Yalcin, 21, who attended the event wearing a black headband printed with Islam’s testimony of faith. “We are sick of and truly uncomfortable that our children are being encouraged and pulled to this.”
Seeing images from the gathering terrified Willie Ray, the drag performer who is nonbinary, and Willie Ray’s mother, who was in tears after talking to her child. The fear wasn’t misplaced. The Europe branch of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association ranked Turkey second to last, ahead of only Azerbaijan, in its most recent 49-country legal equality index, saying LGBTQ people endured “countless hate crimes.”
“I feel like I can be publicly lynched,” Willie Ray said, describing the daily sense of dread that comes with living in Istanbul. The performer recalls leaving a nightclub still in makeup on New Year’s Eve and hurrying to get to a taxi as strangers on the street called out slurs and “tried to hunt me, basically.”
Sunday’s march was the biggest anti-LGBTQ demonstration of its kind in Turkey, where civil rights for a community more commonly referred to here as LGBTI+ — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and other gender identities and sexual orientations — have been under assault in the years since an estimated 100,000 people celebrated Pride in Istanbul in 2014.
Turkish demonstrators holding Turkish flags attend an anti-LGBTQ+ protest in Istanbul on Sept. 18, 2022.Khalil Hamra / AP
In a visible sign of the shift, the anti-LGBTQ march went ahead without any police interference. Conversely, LGBTQ groups have had their freedom to assemble severely curtailed since 2015, with officials citing both security and morality grounds.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s views also have grown more stridently anti-LGBTQ over time. Before the 2002 election that brought the Justice and Development Party (AKP) he co-founded to power, a younger Erdogan said at a televised campaign event that he found mistreatment of gay people inhumane and legal protections for them in Turkey a “must.”
“And now, 20 years into this, you have an entirely different president that seems to be mobilizing based on these dehumanizing, criminal approaches to the LGBTQ movement itself,” said Mine Eder, a political science professor at Bogazici University in Istanbul.
The country could become more unwelcoming for the LGBTQ community. The Unity in Ideas and Struggle Platform, the organizer of Sunday’s event, said it plans to push for a law that would ban the alleged LGBTQ “propaganda” that the group maintains is pervasive on Netflix and social media, as well as in arts and sports.
The platform’s website states it also favors a ban on LGBTQ organizations.
“We are a Muslim country and we say no to this. Our statesmen and the other parties should all support this,” said Betul Colak, who attended Sunday’s gathering wearing a scarf with the Turkish flag.
Haunted by “the feeling that you can be attacked anytime,” Willie Ray thinks it would be a “total catastrophe” if a ban on the LGBTQ organizations that provide visibility, psychological support and safe spaces were enacted.
Eder, the professor, said it would be “simply illegal” to close down LGBTQ civil society based on ideological, Islamic and conservative norms — even if Turkey’s norms have indeed shifted to “using violent language, violent strategies and legalizing them.”
The Social Policy, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Studies Association, a nongovernmental LGBTQ advocacy and outreach organization in Istanbul commonly known as SPoD, is among the LGBTQ groups that stopped posting their addresses online after receiving threatening calls.
“It’s easy for a maniac to try and hurt us after all the hate speech from state officials,” said SPoD lobbyist Ogulcan Yediveren, 27. “But these security concerns, this atmosphere of fear, doesn’t stop us from work and instead reminds us every time how much we need to work.”
Ogulcan Yediveren in his office in Istanbul on Sept. 19, 2022.Khalil Hamra / AP
Gay activist Umut Rojda Yildirim, who works as SPoD’s lawyer, thinks the anti-LGBTQ sentiments on view Sunday aren’t dominant across Turkish society, but that the minority expressing them seem “louder when they have government funds, when they’re supported by the government watchdog.”
“You can just shut down an office, but I’m not going to disappear. My other colleagues aren’t going to disappear. We’ll be here no matter what,” Yildirim said.
An anti-LGBTQ group marched Sunday in Istanbul, demanding that LGBTQ associations be shuttered and their activities banned, in the largest demonstration of its kind in Turkey.
Several thousand people joined the demonstration dubbed “The Big Family Gathering.” Kursat Mican, a speaker for the organizers, said they had gathered more than 150,000 signatures to demand a new law from Turkey’s parliament that would ban what they called LGBTQ propaganda, which they say pervades Netflix, social media, arts and sports.
Hatice Muge, who works as a nanny, came to the gathering from Bursa province.
“People are here despite the rain for their children, for future generations,” she said, urging the Turkish government to take action. “They should save the family, they should save the children from this filth.”
The group held banners that read: “Protecting the family is a national security issue.”
LGBTQ parades have not been allowed in Turkey since 2015.
Ahead of Sunday’s demonstration, the organizers circulated a video using images from past LGBTQ Pride marches in Turkey. The video was included in the public service announcement list of Turkey’s media watchdog.
The video and the demonstration prompted an outcry from LGBTQ associations and other rights groups. The organizers of Istanbul Pride called on the governor’s office to ban the event and authorities to take down the video, arguing both were hateful.
ILGA Europe, which works for LGBTQ equality, tweeted it was extremely concerned about the risks of violence.
“The Turkish state needs to uphold its constitutional obligation to protect all its citizens against hate and violence,” it said.
Amnesty International’s Turkey office said public service announcements listing the event violated Turkey’s equality and non-discrimination principles.
Top Turkish officials have called LGBTQ people “perverts” who aim to hurt traditional family values.
In July 2022, Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi sparked fears of a return to Section 28 when he promised to “protect” children from “radical activists”.
The former education secretary, currently serving as equalities minister in Liz Truss’ cabinet, made his comments while launching a failed leadership bid to become PM.
For LGBTQ+ people, alarm bells rang.
Zahawi’s suggestion that children are being subjected to “damaging and inappropriate nonsense” sounded a lot like Margaret Thatcher’s infamous 1987 speech in which she said kids were being taught they had an “inalienable right” to be gay.
Section 28, which came into effect in 1988, banned the “promotion of homosexuality” by local authorities. It gave rise to a culture of fear that stopped teachers from talking to kids about LGBTQ+ issues, and the scars run deep for queer people who grew up under its shadow.
It was repealed in Scotland in 2000, and in England and Wales in 2003.
More than 30 years on, a culture of hostility for LGBTQ+ people is threatening to boil over. Anti-trans sentiment is at an all-time high, with hit pieces appearing in the right wing press almost daily.
Comments from senior Tories such as Zahawi, Suella Braverman and Liz Truss herself have led some to question whether there could be a new version of Section 28, this time focused on trans issues, right around the corner.
UK government could ‘create an atmosphere’ that discourages LGBTQ+ inclusion
Sue Sanders is chair of Schools OUT UK, an organisation that works to eliminate prejudice from schools. She doesn’t think the Tories would be “foolish enough” to enact a new version of Section 28 – but is concerned the government might introduce guidance that could make schools a cold environment for LGBTQ+ youth.
“I think they’ll do it through producing the sort of language we’ve seen from the likes of Suella Braverman,” Sanders tells PinkNews.
LGBTQ+ advocates have called on Liz Truss to “build bridges” with the queer community after she was elected the new Conservative Party leader. (Getty)
“They’ll make statements which will cause an atmosphere and will then promote self-censorship in teachers unless we give them the resources and the confidence to say, look, you’re still legally able to do this stuff,” Sanders says.
“It’s the stirring of the atmosphere that the media and right-wing politicians do which then makes the atmosphere very unsupportive.”
‘Section 28 had a profound effect on kids and teachers’
Reflecting on Section 28, Sanders says it was “horrendous”.
It created a culture that forced teachers back into the closet and starved children of LGBTQ+ representation and discussion in the classroom.
“The trauma that both teachers and kids went through is something that some of them have not in any way recovered from,” Sanders says.
“It would have had a profound effect on kids and teachers alike… I’m sure we had suicides because of it.
“What’s needed is our teachers’ unions to be very clear and to keep sending out guidance and clarity on where they stand legally.”
Tories want to ‘cement their power’
Drag Race UK star Divina De Campo grew up under Section 28. She says the UK was “incredibly homophobic” during the ’80s and ’90s, and Thatcher’s government was quick to capitalise on that.
What’s happening today around trans rights and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment isn’t dissimilar to what happened then, de Campo says – the Conservative Party has targeted Muslims, migrants and, most recently, the trans community.
“Section 28 created a hostile environment, which is exactly what the Tory party have done again but for other people,” de Campo tells PinkNews.
She points out that the government instructed schools to not use materialsfrom organisations that oppose capitalism in 2020 – for de Campo, that suggests they could do the same with LGBTQ+ issues.
“They’ll do exactly like they did in the ’80s and they’ll use [us] to try and cement their power,” de Campo says.
Drag Race’s Divina De Campo. (Santiago Felipe/Getty)
The media and political figures are driving a moral panic about trans people because it pays to do so, de Campo says. The media is trying to create an “emotional reaction”, whereas the government is listening to the wrong people.
“Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have both said, ‘Is a trans woman a woman? No.’ They very clearly said that.
“For 20 years we’ve operated under a system where trans women are women so there’s plenty of data about whether trans people are a danger to society in the way they’re being painted and the fact is, no, and we’ve got plenty of evidence about whether self-ID is a danger to women and the answer is no.”
‘Show solidarity, just like we did with the miners’
De Campo says the solution is solidarity – people from marginalised backgrounds need to come together and fight the oppression that’s coming from government. It’s the best way to avoid a repeat of Section 28 in the future.
“If we’re not going to see it get as bad as it was then, now is the time for us to organise,.
“We need to do exactly like we did before. It becomes about solidarity with other groups – showing solidarity with the Muslim community, with the Jewish community, with working class people who are all going to be struggling a lot through the winter and through next year.”
She continues: “It’s going to become about writing to your MP, showing solidarity, just like we did with the miners – just like how it worked before. That’s what we’ve got to do.”
Few have confidence in Truss
It’s vital we avoid a new version of Section 28 because its effects were so far-reaching, according to LGBTQ+ rights activist Peter Tatchell. It had a “devastating effect” on LGBTQ+ teenagers and caused many to suffer from anxiety, depression and self-harm.
The problem is that avoiding Section 28-like policies could be difficult under a government that’s decidedly right-wing.
LGBTQ+ activist Peter Tatchell. (Karwai Tang/WireImage)
“The Tories have shifted to the right under Liz Truss,” Tatchell tells PinkNews.
“They are waging a culture war against our community and see political mileage in appealing to their conservative bases.”
He says the future for LGBTQ+ rights in the UK right now is “gloomy”.
“Regression seems more likely than progress. We’ve already witnessed more than four years of delay in banning conversion therapy and trans people will not be protected if the legislation finally gets tabled. Reform of the Gender Recognition Act has been kicked into the long grass, despite a majority of those who responded to the public consultation urging change.
“The government wants to deport LGBTs and other refugees to Rwanda, even though it is not safe. There are rising levels of anti-LGBT+ hate crime and no serious government action to remedy it.”
Tatchell has “no trust or confidence” that anything will improve for LGBTQ+ people under Truss’ rule.
“She’s appointed a cabinet dominated by homophobes, including some who oppose marriage equality and trans rights.”
Much is uncertain for LGBTQ+ people right now, but one thing is certain: queer people are facing into a dark period, and they’re going to have to fight hard to protect their hard-won rights.
