This post was updated on July 6, 2021, to include the murder of Samuel Luiz in Galicia.
In the UK, the new £50 note featuring Alan Turing enters circulation today. Alan Turing was a scientist, war hero and one of the most famous humanists in the history of the UK. He was also a gay man, and despite his contribution to world peace and to the Allied victory of World War II he was convicted for being gay and forced to undergo chemical castration. 67 years after his death, this seems like a token commemoration that only highlights how our governments are capable of the most horrible actions against human rights, to the point of targeting those who have contributed to humanity the most.
We no longer live in a world as the one Turing knew, but we still live in a very homophobic world. If you don't believe me, just think that I am a gay man living in a major city in the global north in the XXI century, who cannot go out on the street holding hands or kissing another man. Something that any straight couple would do naturally and worry-free it is not available to me. You could argue in favour or against public demonstrations of affection for any type of couple, but that's not the point here. The argument here is that in the year 2021 I am still not free to walk the streets of the city I live in without fear. Just because I am a man who loves another man. That is just one of the ways in which everyday homophobia manifests itself these days. And that is just one of the reasons why we still need to celebrate Pride every year.
52 years ago, on June 28, 1969, the New York Police raided the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in New York's Greenwich Village. Police raids in gay venues were common those days because engaging in gay behaviour in public was illegal. But that day, the Stonewall Inn's patrons and the neighbours from the surrounding areas stood up to the police fed up with the abuse that had gone on for far too long. That clash with the police led to six days of riots, which have become a symbol for the LGBTQ+ liberation movement worldwide. June 28, 1969, marks the day in which those brave LGBTQ+ people that came before us started paving the way for the rights that we enjoy today.
We have come a long way in terms of human rights for the LGBTQ+ community, but I'm here to report that things are not as happy under the rainbow as they seem. Sure, I can get married to another man, I could adopt children if I wanted to, and the majority of us in the UK (excluding religious communities) don't have to conceal our sexual orientation anymore. Still, Conversion Therapy has not been fully banned in the UK yet (it's pending "consultation") and homophobic attacks (typified as hate crimes in the UK) have increased by 20% over the last year in the country.
This comes as no surprise, particularly because the British Empire, the one that so many English nationalists are so proud of despite the atrocities committed in the colonies, was responsible for spreading homophobia throughout the planet. As someone who was one of the lucky ones who was able to escape from conversion therapy, but who has been a victim of acts of homophobia throughout his life, I can attest that we still don't live in an LGBTQ+ safe world.
In the EU, it is not safer to be LGBTQ+ than it is in the UK. In Spain, on the night of July 3, 2021, a young gay man from Galicia called Samuel Luiz was brutally murdered by a group of straight men who beat him to death while calling him a faggot.
Being born LGBTQ+ in countries like Hungary and Poland means living under constant government and societal hostility. In other countries where religion also has a huge influence like in the case of Italy, the Catholic Church is using its power to restrict the protections that the government offers to LGBTQ+ people.
Also in Spain, where football is another type of religion, an openly gay referee had to quit his job due to homophobia. In Germany, the UEFA made a political statement by trying to avoid making a political statement in Munich when it refused to light Munich stadium in rainbow colours for Germany-Hungary match. And outside of Europe, but still speaking of football, Mexico's football team was recently sanctioned due to the homophobic chants of its fans.
Staying on that side of the pond, and in a country that is considered liberal and progressive, the State of Florida in the US just passed homophobic legislation that takes away rights and protections to trans people.
Leaving the liberal world, if we now talk about countries like Uganda or Nigeria, considered one of the worst countries for LGBTQ+ people in the world, or Russia or Chechnya, the situation is even direr. The world is still not a safe place to be born LGBTQ+.
So when we see every year a parade organised by the LGBTQ+ community and its allies, no one should wonder why we still need to have a day to commemorate our Pride. June 28 is not only a date to celebrate how far we've come and to honour the members of our community who came before us and who we must be grateful to for the few rights that we are able to enjoy today.
It is also a day in which we send a message to the LGBTQ+ people around the world who still live in fear of prosecution or even death where we tell them that we got their back. That not a day goes by that we don't do everything within our power to combat homophobia and make this world a safer space for the current and the future LGBTQ+ generations to come.
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