LGBTQ+ History Month: The struggle for equality
Written by Juan Andres Cuervo, Communications & Campaigns Assistant at Birkbeck Students' Union, with the collaboration of two Officers of the Students' Union: Nicole Durrant, Trans Students' Officer and leader of the Trans' Students Network, and Megan Massey, LGBTQ+ Students' Officer and leader of the LGBTQ+ Network
The members of the LGBTQ+ community have systematically been oppressed. In a world traditionally dominated by the figure of the white heterosexual male, different collectives including women, black communities, gay people or immigrants have been forced to struggle extensively in order to seek equality in the society. For that reason, the history of the gay rights coalesced with the Civil Rights movements in the USA during the 1960s, meaning that these protests influenced each other. Wheres figures like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. became the symbols of the struggle for black liberation, the 1969 Stonewall uprising is considered as one of the moments thad sparked the LGBTQ+ movement.
But even before Stonewall, queer activists were building a movement in New York City, and people like Frank Kameny were organising for gay rights. Moreover, in the 1920s, Henry Gerber founded the Society for Human Rights in Chicago. And during the Cold War, in the age of a conservative anti-communist current implemented by senator McCarthy, groups such as the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis formed chapters in several cities and openly identified as homosexuals at demonstrations and in televised appearances. Despite the threat of arrest, being fired from their jobs, or being disowned by their families, they fought passionately to create social consciousness withn the society, and to provide more equality for a community which had always been vilified.
Origins of the LGBTQ+ History Month
Initially called LGBT History Month, it was founded in 1994 by Missouri high-school history teacher Rodney Wilson. As an annual celebration, LGBTQ+ History Month provides education and insight into the issues that the community faces. The overall aim of this movement is to promote equality and diversity for the benefit of the public.
In the United Kingdom, the LGBTQ+ History Month is celebrated in February, to coincide with the 2003 abolition of Section 28 of the of the Local Government Act 1988. This legislation, implemented under the regime of Margaret Thatcher, had banned local authorities and schools from "promoting homosexuality".
This first LGBTQ+ History Month in the UK took place in February 2005. Created by Schools Out UK, the charity sumarises the aims of this celebration:
- Increasing the visibility of LGBTQ+ people, their history, lives and their experiences in the curriculum and culture of educational and other institutions, and the wider community.
- Raising awareness and advancing education on matters affecting the LGBTQ+ community.
- Working to make educational and other institutions safe spaces for all LGBTQ+ communities.
- Promoting the welfare of LGBTQ+ people, by ensuring that the education system recognises and enables LGBTQ+ people to achieve their full potential, so they contribute fully to society and lead fulfilled lives, thus benefiting society as a whole.
Powerful Deeds and Words: Nicole Durrant and Megan Massey
Nicole Durrant and Megan Massey, are members of the Officer Team at Birkbeck Students' Union and both are heavily involved in the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights. Nicole is the Trans Students' Officer at Birbeck Students' Union and leds the Trans Students' Network, and Megan is the LGBTQ+ Officer and leds the LGBTQ+ Network. Both have written a statement regarding the difficulties faced by the LGBTQ+ people, and have shared their own inishgts and experiences about the current situation of the community.
Nicole Durrant - Trans Students' Officer and leader of the Trans' Students Network
"My experience is just my own so it's naturally biased in terms of my own experience being a transgender woman in the UK, so I’ll sometimes refer to issues as though they are ‘trans related’ when they apply to certain groups of the trans community. But if I had to draw attention to a particular issue, it would be the growing transphobia we’re seeing in the UK and how the NHS is effectively weaponised against trans people."
"I think there’s an issue in the trans community specifically where those who are privileged in some way, whether that be because they conform to the gender binary and/or are economically privileged and able to skip the NHS queues to obtain their necessary treatment where certain people will use the societal acceptance of their conformity to be ‘in the group’ and accept siding with bigots. We also see this occur more broadly in the LGBTQ+ community where those who have already secured greater acceptance in society (being gay, bisexual etc) will very loudly try to distance themselves from the trans community by rejecting the notion trans people exists or otherwise downplaying the severity of their struggles in efforts to better integrate with the 'acceptable' group."
"I think this problem makes a good case for having solidarity not just with those who fall into different identities but with everyone who faces oppression of any kind for any reason because the categories that are created to the end of oppressing you are just that, created."
Megan Massey - LGBTQ+ Students' Officer and leader of the LGBTQ+ Network
"LGBTQ+ History Month is a time for us to nourish our communities and acknowledge the work of our queer ancestors, whilst energising ourselves to continue advocating for our rights in the future. Across the world, LGBTQ+ people are marginalised to varying degrees. Though the law is ever-evolving, queer people still face both legal and social challenges."
"There are many countries where sex between consenting adults of the same sex is criminalised, and even in countries like the UK where same-sex marriage has been legal since 2014, LGBTQ+ people still face legal marginalisation, and are at a higher risk of experiencing violence."
"In our own LGBTQ+ community at Birkbeck, I hope that we can continue to encourage and uplift each other, and provide a safe space for those who might feel unsafe elsewhere. After all, it is ever-important that queer people have a voice in academic spaces. I want to particularly welcome queer people of colour into our community, as I know first-hand that queer spaces can sometimes feel exclusionary. Nobody should feel that they are not ‘queer enough’ to exist in LGBTQ+ spaces, and our diverse community reflects the wide spectrum of queerness."
"Any LGBTQ+ students or allies who want to get involved with our network can sign up on the Union website, or contact me directly: m.massey@bbk.ac.uk. I am always happy to chat to you, whether it’s about LGBTQ+ issues, or just your experience at Birkbeck. We have some events coming up this month in honour of LGBTQ+ History Month, so have a look at our events page and feel free to get involved!"
Why do we have to keep the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights?
Although the contemporary socities seem overall more inclusive than in past decades, the numbers are far from showing an ideal landscape for the spread of Human Rights. According to the report of the International Lesbian and Gay Association published on December 2021, arrests and prosecutions for consensual same-sex sexual acts or for diverse gender expressions continued to take place during that year. In other words, the LGBTQ+ community was forced to fines, arbitrary arrests, prosecutions, corporal punishments, imprisonments and even to the death penalty.
The same organisation had denounced in 2014 that almost 2.8 billion people were living in countries where identifying as gay could lead to imprisonment, corporal punishment or even death. By contrast, only 780 million people were based in countries where same-sex marriage or civil unions were established as a legal right.
In addition to those reports, the Franklin & Marshall Global Barometer of Gay Rights (GBGR), started in 2011, ranks countries based on 29 factors that quantify how much a country protects Human Rights. In 2015, it showed that only 1 country in 10 actively protects the rights of sexual minorities.
And despite that the acceptance of homosexuality has increased in many countries during the last two decades, the reactionary backlash against the increase of rights is threatening to diminish fundamental victories attained after so much struggle and suffering. Judith Butler relates perfectly the current juncture: "The attacks on so-called 'gender ideology' have grown in recent years throughout the world, dominating public debate stoked by electronic networks and backed by extensive rightwing Catholic and evangelical organizations. Although not always in accord, these groups concur that the traditional family is under attack, that children in the classroom are being indoctrinated to become homosexuals, and that 'gender' is a dangerous, if not diabolical, ideology threatening to destroy families, local cultures, civilization, and even 'man' himself."
The aim of these far-right movements is to reverse the progressive legislation won by subaltern movements. In other words, the advances made by feminism, LGBTQ+ movements or Black Lives Matter are being threatened by this wave of neofacism. However, after many decades of international solidarity movements, it seems very hard to wither away the huge levels of social consciousness that have taken root in many societies. That does not mean that we must ignore the real threat of the xenophobic groups that jeopardise our world. On the contrary, we as people must keep organising in the public sphere to preserve and increase the rights for everybody.
It is a grim depiction of the slow process of inclusion that it was not until 2011 that the UN Human Rights Council passed the 'Human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity' resolution, the first to call for an end to sexuality discrimination worldwide. In 2022, the 50th anniversary of the very first Pride March in the UK, the rise of far-right parties across the world, with their patriarchal, homophobic, anti-immigrant rhetoric should be a warning that our democracies are facing a dangerous test. It is up to us to earn a distinction in solidarity, love and inclussion.
