Various Pride events are taking place across the world at this time of year; in which we commemorate, celebrate and uplift LGBTQ+ people and causes. The events once again look a little different this year but they remain vitally important as it seems like we’re taking a step backwards on social progress at the moment, particularly on trans rights.
Here in the UK Liz Truss, the Equalities Minister has been pushing for all government departments to withdraw from Stonewall’s employment scheme following a row over transgender rights. Ofcom, the communications regulator recently withdrew from Stonewall’s ‘Diversity Champions’ scheme for similar reasons.
The entire community should be worried about this, Stonewall are the biggest LGBTQ+ organisation in the UK, they are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing and the government doesn’t like it.
This isn’t about individual stripes in the rainbow, this is about all all of us coming together to fight the turning back of the clock and ensuring that we continue to march towards a better tomorrow for everyone.
We have power as well as pride.
In an attempt to help out in whatever small way we can we’ve made this illustration depicting LGBTQ+ power available to download as a wallpaper for your smartphone.
It’s completely free but we would appreciate if you donated just £1 to Stonewall to help them continue to drive positive change in public attitudes and public policy.
To be clear we are not looking to ‘all lives matter’ this issue.
Trans people are fielding a lot of the enemy fire in the culture war at the moment. Whether it’s fights over single sex-spaces, access to healthcare, a greater risk of poverty, isolation and loneliness, general stigma, harassment and discrimination or straight up being the victims of violence and murder at disproportionate rates, it’s a tough time to be trans or gender-nonconforming.
So we decided to try and do a little bit more (we know it’s a little) and adapted the illustration to fit the colours of the transgender pride flag.
Again, this is completely free to download but we’d really appreciate if you could spare just £1 to donate to Mermaids.
Mermaids is a UK based charity that supports transgender kids, young people and their families. They also seek to educate and inform wider society on gender identity by helping professionals accommodate and reassure gender-diverse young people.
The LGBTQ+ community that came before us didn’t have it easy and we haven’t always had a particularly great time either, but let’s try and make sure that the next generation gets the best possible start.
