Why Pride is still worth celebrating

Living in the Western world where same-sex marriage is legalised in most countries, gay parents can adopt, and LGBT+ people are protected by anti-discrimination laws it seems like the fight is very nearly over and the angry politicised movement that birthed Pride Month is no longer necessary. Except it isn’t.

62 per cent of LGBTQ+ graduates who are already out to friends and family go back into the closet once they enter the job market. One in five LGBT+ people have experienced a hate crime because of their sexual orientation in the last 12 months. Two in five trans people have experienced a hate crime because of their gender identity in the last 12 months. Four in five anti-LGBT+ hate crimes and incidents go unreported, with younger LGBT+ people particularly reluctant to go to the police. The number of lesbian, gay and bisexual people who have experienced a hate crime or incident in the last year because of their sexual orientation has risen by 78 per cent from nine per cent in 2013 to 16 per cent in 2017.

Most of us have a feeling of these facts already. How many of you can say you would walk confidently hand in and hand with your same-sex partner down a busy city street? Statistically, at least 36 percent of you feel uncomfortable doing so (58 percent if you’re a gay man), but it’s probably higher.

"While legislation can be passed in a matter of days, the underlying attitude that gay people are worth less will take much longer to dissipate."

Pride is still worth celebrating because LGBT+ people still face discrimination on various scales in their daily lives. “The gay rights movement has won numerous legislative victories in this country,” writes Charlie Jones for the Evening Standard, “these are all important and incredible achievements. But while legislation can be passed in a matter of days, the underlying attitude that gay people are worth less will take much longer to dissipate. Gay people are all too aware of this.”

Jones talks to Ellie, 22, who works in finance for a food and drinks company and is pansexual. “I don’t like thinking I’m in the closet because I’ve come out of the closet. But none of my superiors know.”

Ellie isn’t afraid of open discrimination, but rather being passed up for job opportunities or networking events because of underlying homophobia.

“In principle I should be fine, my company encourage diversity and being open about that sort of thing. But it’s always at the back of my head that I wouldn't want to do something or tell someone something that could create discrimination for me, and put myself in a position that isn’t best for my career.

“Through Pride, LGBT history is kept alive, and that encourages communication and talking openly about LGBT issues. It’s a lack of talking that leads to it being stigmatised. I hear colleagues questioning why there needs to be a Pride, and even though I’m not out I can still tell them.”

Joel, a 25-year-old barista, has a similar story. He’s openly gay in his personal life but is afraid of coming out at work in case he loses the respect of the employees he’s training. 

“I was leading the team. I would’ve lost respect from the people I was training,” he says. “People think our generation is forward thinking, but I’m worried people just suppress their bigotry and only let it out when it’s in an acceptable environment.”

“Because they didn't know I was gay, work became an acceptable environment. You’d have gay couples coming up to be served and my colleagues would say ‘I like them, they’re not in your face about it’ or others who were more flamboyant and they’d say ‘he’s a big poof’, which is from the 1970s! If you’re going to be offensive, at least come up with something new.”

Joel says Pride is important, but there could be more done. “To show the huge diversity and an awareness of different people is great. And it’s good that it’s there for people who don’t mix with that crowd. But it’s only for a couple of days, and when it goes down, does it just fade away in people’s minds again?”

"Lots of us go to gay clubs to try and forget that we’re gay...In these types of places, a 'gay kiss' is just a kiss."

Just by being LGBT+ in a heteronormative world you are automatically an outsider, no matter what you do. The importance of gay spaces and celebrations is not only to highlight that outsider status to the straight world – who in their privilege often forget – but to give the LGBT+ community a greater sense of inclusion and a space to be ourselves without worry.

After the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Doulas Robertson pinpointed why the tragedy struck so many gay men and woman across the globe: “We don’t go to 'gay clubs' to feel gay, have gay conversations, drink gay drinks and dance gay dances — lots of us go to gay clubs to try and forget that we’re gay. Someone on Twitter used the word 'haven' to describe Pulse this weekend, which might sound like a strange word to use about a nightclub, but think about it in these terms and perhaps you’ll realise why it’s so apt. In these types of places, a 'gay kiss' is just a kiss. 

Pride is a space to acknowledge this, celebrate it, learn our history, and to be queer without consequence. Of course, for many outside of the Western world, Pride is an entirely different entity. It is an act of rebellion and a desperate claim to be heard.

In 2014, Istanbul’s Pride drew tens of thousands of people, then was banned every year since under the banner of “public safety”. Despite arrests, organisers of the Pride pushed ahead screaming “We are not scared, we are here, we will not change. You are scared, you will change and you will get used to it.”

Moscow has, somewhat comically, banned Pride for a hundred years under their anti-gay propaganda laws. Saudi Arabia, under sharia law, stones those who practice same-sex activity to death. Iran follows sharia law as well and it is estimated that more than 5,000 men and woman have been executed for same-sex activity since 1979. Uganda has seen Pride marches despite gay rights leaders like David Kato being brutally murdered after a local tabloid released his name, picture and address under the headline “hang them”. In Kenya those who engage in same-sex activity are put behind bars for 14 years.

There is a still a lot of fight left to be had for the LGBT+ community, and no matter how you celebrate Pride, through dancing and celebration, or standing up and demanding your rights, it is an important and vital part of being LGBT+.

By Tim Gibson

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