“I think it’s been very easy to attack LGBT movements”, says the Equality Network’s Rebecca Don Kennedy, reflecting on how heavily politicised its work has become. “We’re not asking for new and additional human rights that other people don’t have. We’re asking for the bare minimum. We want trans people to have any semblance of dignity and autonomy over their lives. We want people to be able to go to the toilet. We want people to be able to eat and drink and leave the house.
“We are human beings, we vote, and the parties should be aware of that when they’re either representing us or not. Politicians in all parties talk about health, poverty, housing, public life. These are all massive issues for us as human beings. We’re no different.”
She’s speaking at a point when lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex people are feeling vulnerable as they see rights they took for granted being stripped away, making day to day life much more difficult.
“You know, I think we live in really dangerous times when there’s so much global influence and we are seeing a massive lurch not just to the right but to the fascist right. At the same time, the UK and Scottish governments are not stepping up and doing anything about it.”
She shares the widespread disappointment in Scottish Labour’s manifesto, which outlines plans to treat trans people as members of their birth-assigned sex, including in contexts where this would forcibly out them and potentially put them in danger. It’s especially unfortunate, she says, in light of positive conversations that she’s had with people within the party.
Political rhetoric and accountability
“It is a real shame – more than a shame, that’s an understatement – that for several parties there seems to be a race to the bottom in order to gain votes. Sadly this speaks to a shift in the wider public seeming to be less accepting, less progressive, less understanding of marginalised people. There has been a shifting of the Overton window. I think that some people have perhaps always been racist, perhaps have always been homophobic, transphobic, but there has been a license given to people that is now, sadly, in the mainstream. Where parties with these kinds of views used to be the fringe, it’s now become a much more mainstream position to have views like this and to share them. Sadly some parties are in some kind of race to win the votes of people who feel that way. That’s just really heartbreaking to see.
“There is mainstreaming of rhetoric that is deeply harmful to people and is founded on complete disinformation and a warping of narratives. Marginalised people are being used as a political football. We always have been, but it’s becoming even worse. People are now winning votes by actively harming and demonising marginalised communities, and that’s terrifying.”
Despite this, she remains optimistic.
“I have a lot of hope for what might come post election. I think there has been – both in America and down south – evidence that people are actively pushing back and choosing to vote for those that are so clearly progressive, that so clearly value human life and diversity and want to make people’s lives better. So I have hope.
“There’s been a lack of ability for action in Scotland because of issues with devolved and reserved matters. Obviously we saw gender recognition being blocked. We’ve seen back and forth and complete disagreement and lack of clarity around the Supreme Court ruling and the EHRC guidance, and we know that the Scottish government have pushed for better. So I don’t know. I hope that people are going to show up and vote with their feet and say ‘We don’t want to see this. We want to see better’.”
The Equality Network hustings
With this in mind, the Equality Network decided to hold a hustings focused on LGBTQIA+ issues. They were, she admits, a bit nervous beforehand.
“But we did it, and I think it’s really important that we did do it. If we don’t then what we’re saying is we cannot be out in public and visible and having these conversations. I’m glad that as things go, it went pretty well. We had 108 attendees. The questions we asked were shaped around the Scottish LGBTQIA+ sector manifesto themes but they were gathered from the community.
“The biggest issues that people wanted to speak about were trans human rights and trans healthcare, or healthcare more broadly, and young people. We covered them really well but we also covered some of the policy changes we want to see.”
This, she explains, includes a ban on conversion practices, something that politicians from several parties have been talking about doing for years.
As a charity, the Equality Network wanted to make sure that the LGBTQIA+ community could hold all parties looking to gain seats at Holyrood to account. In the end, the only parties in attendance were Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens and the SNP.
“It was powerful”, she says. “There were really some great statements and commitments made, though not by all. It was very powerful to see how that was reacted to in the room
“Some of the things we heard in the hustings I hadn’t heard before. For example, something that Kaukab Stewart said was that they’ve been hearing from constituents that some children are not eating and drinking all day at school because they are terrified to have to use a toilet. That’s horrendous. And those are the things that people need to understand. I would hope to God that any random person that you might pick off the street would go ‘That’s horrible. What are we doing about that?’ And not be militant and obsessed over which toilet a seven-year-old is going to.”
Have politicians been listening?
“Some have completely ignored any approach that we’ve made and others have been really engaged, understand and want to listen. Sometimes it gets missed that as a sector, our organisations exist to hear from and understand the needs and experiences of our community. We don’t just make things up because it’s what we want. We take the real life experiences and suffering and positive things that people tell us and we use that to shape what we ask for.
“The media wants to sensationalise LGBTQIA+ people and they want clickbait and they want to be nasty and whatever, but on the other side of that, people are much more aware of the issues that are faced by our community and other marginalised communities, and awareness is positive. I think over the past few years our work has been to try to help people understand what human rights are, what they mean, how they’re not being met. The duty that people have to meet them and that they can ask for better.
“I think during an election period, that’s the most important thing. People knowing that they can ask for better. In fact, they’re owed better. And as voters, they have a right to ask for more and for better. That’s what the hustings was about: allowing people to hold parties to account and say ‘This is what we want. Why should I vote for you if you don’t give two hoots about me, my life, my circumstances, the fact that I can or can’t go to work, the fact that I can or can’t get a house, or be out in public with my partner, or be out in public with my kids, or use a bathroom, or feel safe on public transport?
“All of these things are mainstream, supposed ‘normal people’, everyday issues. Issues for everyone. Though some seem to forget, that includes us!
“I still find that people say ‘Oh, do you have a hard time doing that in your everyday life? That’s rubbish. I wish that was better for you’. That’s the reality. And I think that’s a Scotland that most of us recognise and most of us want to see in the future: a progressive, accepting, collaborative, empathy-driven Scotland.”
More from Jennie Kermode
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