Today is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia and the day that LGBT+ organisation, ILGA-Europe, publish their annual Rainbow Map.
The Rainbow Map, ranks all 49 European countries on a scale between 0% (gross violations of human rights, discrimination) and 100% (respect of human rights, full equality). The past 12 months have marked an unprecedented year in the Map’s 12-year history, with almost no positive legislative change for LGBTI people in Europe.
Among the broad findings from this year’s Rainbow Europe Map are:
- Against a background of hardly any positive change at all, countries such as Albania, Finland and Portugal have moved up in the ranking, but only because of very small changes implemented.
- Despite clear commitments on rainbow family recognition, not one country has moved on partnership or parenthood recognition.
- After reporting positive changes in bodily integrity or legal gender recognition for many years, there is no change this year for intersex and trans rights apart from Iceland.
- On a positive note, some countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia) now have points on freedom of assembly, reflecting improvements of safety for public LGBTI events
Read the full findings from the Rainbow Map here.
Show your support for the LGBT+ community
- Educate and Empower yourself
- Doing some research, reading up online and learning a little more about the LGBT+ community is a great place to start. Even if you’re part of the community, find out about people whose orientation or gender identity differs to your own. Getting the language right can sometimes feel intimidating, so why not start with Stonewall’s glossary of terms?
Be curious and confront your own assumptions, prejudices, and biases. Google, YouTube and the LGBT+ media are your friends – save Openly (an impartial LGBT+ newsite) as a bookmark to stay up to date and watch some of these movies, documentaries and TV programmes that spotlight key moments from the LGBT+ community.
- Listen & Learn
- As allies, and colleagues who Respect and Protect one another; we have to be able to Listen and Learn, ask how someone is doing and be aware that other people’s lives and experiences will be completely different to our own, especially in terms of discrimination and prejudice. Remember that just because someone has come out to you, they might not be out to everyone. Be respectful of each other and enjoy learning about all the differences and diversity in the communities around us.
- Share your pronouns
- Gender pronouns are how we identify ourselves and how we refer to others, for example ‘they’, ‘he’ or ‘she’. By an ally by sharing your pronouns, and recognising the pronouns of your colleagues. Even if you are cisgender (cis) – your gender identity matches your sex assigned at birth – we need your support to start normalising the practice of sharing pronouns. By doing this you’ll help others accept that everyone is unique, and we should never make the default assumption that someone uses a ‘she’ or ‘he’ pronoun. Find out more about pronouns here.
It’s really important though, to remember that sharing pronouns is a personal choice and we must respect the decision of colleagues who choose not to do so.
- Be visible and Speak Up
- Be loud, visible and proud. We want as many positive messages out there as possible. When you hear people making negative comments or using hurtful or abusive language towards LGBT+ people, Speak Up and challenge it, if safe to do so. If it’s online, report it. You might not always have all the answers or know exactly what to say and that’s OK. Here are some tips to think about:
– Keep calm and explain why bullying is wrong
– Try saying something like, ‘Stop, this is wrong’ and explain why
– Make sure you stay safe and don’t put yourself in danger
– Check the person being bullied is OK
– Encourage them to report it
- Out and proud? Support your community
- If you are part of the LGBT+ community and you have the privilege to be ‘out and proud’, reflect on that privilege and how you can support others in the community that do not have it. Reflect on how you can help give them a voice and make their experience better.
Join the LGBT+ conversation
- Become a member of Spectrum’s facebook group: ‘Spectrum @ Carnival UK’
- Contact Spectrum directly via email: LGBTnetwork@carnivalukgroup.com