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LGBT equality: are we there yet?
Over the last few months, British LGBT activists have had cause to organise protests outside
the embassies of Russia, Uganda, Nigeria, and Lithuania (and that’s just the ones I’ve been
able to attend) to protest against hostile laws that make the lives of LGBT people there
difficult and dangerous. Recently, Brunei has decreed that homosexuals and adulterers will be
stoned to death. Barbarism knows few limits in the twenty first century (and please remember
to boycott the sultan’s Dorchester hotel).
On the face of it, the contrast with the “enlightened” west is vast: equal marriage in France,
in Britain, and in much of the USA has all happened over the last year. Those who predicted
that this would bring about the end of the world have (so far!) been shown to be wrong – but
the issue has not only brought our cause much more publicity than ever before, it has also
exposed the depth of prejudice, ignorance and simple hatred that being visibly LGB and T
can generate: and not just in the still hostile half of the planet.
Vladimir Putin can reinforce his standing at home by appealing to reactionary “family
values” apparently cherished in “mother Russia” against the degenerate values
being promoted by the decadent west, but Pussy Riot and the many LGBT groups
struggling to campaign in Russia show that there is not unanimous backing for
his views and give us hope that the same turn around in public – and therefore
political – attitudes will eventually happen there as they did in
Britain, which forty years ago had similar levels of intolerance.
The message from trade unionists is: the battle has not
been won at home either. Just over the last few months,
there has been plenty of evidence of this. January saw the
publication of the largest ever workplace survey
of attitudes to LGB people, carried out by the
Manchester Business School. Covering all
sectors of employment, it found that lesbian,
gay and bisexual workers are more than twice
as likely to be bullied and discriminated against
than heterosexual colleagues. This statistic was
linked to a significantly higher level of ill health,
and especially mental ill health. Perhaps even
more shocking was the level of ignorance and
stereotyping among heterosexual workers whose
views were surveyed for the first time. Managers
were found to be largely ignorant, too, of how
to respond, even in employers with clear equal
opportunities policies. A large hospital delivered
one of the worst results.
This survey confirms that although a large
majority of people (in the British Social Attitudes
survey) now accept LGB and T people as equals,
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