Pride For All Its Celebration Is Still a Protest

One evening when I was eighteen years old, in my year out between finishing my A-Levels and starting my degree studies at the University of Aberdeen, my mother asked me if I was gay? In 1987 the world was definitely still very heteronormative – in the UK Clause 28 was about to be enacted prohibiting the ‘…promotion of homosexuality…’ It assumed the gender binary (i.e., that there are only two distinct, opposite genders) and that ‘normal’ sexual and marital relations are between people of the opposite sex.

Coming out is unique to members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) community: it’s the process we go through as we work to accept our sexual orientation or gender identity and share that identity openly with others. Not everyone comes out in the same way, not everyone comes out to everybody in their lives, or comes out to everybody at the same time. As I pondered my response to my mother’s direct question (very like her!), it felt like the Countdown clock was in the background ticking down till I heard myself say: YES!

So, I’ve literally spent all of my adult life being out but coming out is not a one-time thing it is a constant process. Every time an LGBT+ person meets someone new (friends, colleagues, employers, nurses, and doctors, etc.), they have to decide if, when, and how to come out. Only this week Dame Kelly Holmes, Olympic Champion, and former member of the Armed Forces, chose to come out to the wider world: thirty years after she first shared her sexual orientation with her family. She is 52.

I celebrated my 53-birthday last month and I’m now as old as the modern LGBT+ movement: the Stonewall Riots which gave birth to the protest movement happened a month after I was born and the first ever Pride March a year later in June 1970 (the first Pride March in the UK was in July 1972).

In the course of my lifetime, I have seen incredible, positive, and ongoing change. Today we have Civil Partnerships, Equal Marriage and Adoption, out LGBT+ celebrities (including a small but growing number of sports people), LGBT+ characters and representation across every type of media and social channel. Plus of course Clause 28 has been consigned to the legislative dustbin. LGBT+ characters are also no longer just the ‘best friends’ or supporting cast in film and television but they are central to the drama.

The debut season of Heartstopper, an LGBT+ based romance story between two senior schoolboys made it to the Top 10 television programmes in 54 countries across the world. My husband Laurence and I had to limit ourselves to one episode per evening because we found it so emotional: seeing a real representation of our lived experience (I did actually go to an all-boys school and was in love with the Captain of the Rugby Team so it’s very personal!)

Yet at the same time across the world lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are criminalised for who they are and who they love. 71 jurisdictions criminalise private, consensual, same-sex sexual activity and almost half of them are members of the Commonwealth. 11 of these can impose the death penalty and 15 also criminalise the gender identity and/or expression of transgender people.

Sadly, for all the beautiful and open expression of gay love in all its forms, bigotry and hatred is alive and well. Home Office statistics show hate crimes against people based on sexual orientation have doubled in four years. For hate crimes against transgender people, this figure has risen from 1,195 to 2,630 in the same period.

At 18, the same year as I came out, I was the victim of a homophobic attack. So, from the start of my adult life I’ve been aware of the often-violent impact of division. I’m therefore a passionate campaigner for the equal rights of LGBT+ community and I was recently interviewed by Sam Ellis at Gatenby Sanderson about the importance of creating an environment where everyone can be themselves and succeed in both their personal and professional goals: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6943490126354255872

It’s also why Pride Month and the Pride March continue to be as vitally important as ever. Pride for all its celebration is still a protest.

My first memories of Pride go all the way back to 1993 in Brockwell Park and I’ve marched almost every year since. This year I’ll be marching, cheering, laughing, shouting, and celebrating on Saturday 2 July with colleagues from the FSCS and STAND Out: the LGBT+ network for all members of the Regulatory Family, plus of course my incredible husband Laurence – it’s our 20-year anniversary this year.

So, it is worth celebrating that at the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) we’ve all worked together to build something very special as evidenced in our recent People Survey: 91% of us believe the Scheme is a caring and inclusive employer; 87% feel comfortable being themselves at work and 84% of us feel like we truly belong – now that really is something to be proud of!