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the-kennel-blog · 7 years

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On walking London streets with Dickins in mind...

Fair is worth fighting for

It takes me a few days of worrying about my wallet being stolen to realise that I’ve read too much Dickens. It’s not that I don’t seem any crime – a young Korean woman comes distraught towards me on one my first few days in London – £200 straight from the ATM has been stolen from her hand, in sedate Bloomsbury. It’s just that my wallet is safely sitting in the bottom of my backpack, and there’s no sensible reason for the anxiety I feel about it, save exposure to Dicken’s fabulously evocative stories.

Bizarrely, despite seeing homeless people sleeping rough, it’s Dicken’s London that I’d expected and so somehow, I’m surprised not so much by the city’s wealth as the lack of conspicuous poverty. No nineteenth century street urchins here, it seems, at least not in the tourist areas I’m visiting.

I’m wrong, of course, but the magnitude of my ignorance astounds me. Forty per cent of London’s children live in poverty, I learn from Jenny Jones, Green Party Member of the London Assembly. It’s a fact Lewisham Green Party Councillor, Ute Michel, knows too well – Dickens’ London hasn’t gone, she tells me. In Lewisham alone, nearly 10,000 people are out of work.

I start to see what she means a few days later. I’m visiting a drop-in centre for women in street prostitution in Kings Cross. A woman comes in, having just won a run in with the police. She’s clearly had a rough life, and the police aren’t making it any easier. She was heading into the drop-in centre when the police picked her up. She breached her ‘ASBO’, they tell her, using the nasty acronym of a nasty weapon against the poor, Anti-Social Behaviour Orders. Using an ASBO, police can ban someone from entering an area, and they are convinced she’s breached the ban on her coming into this area.

In fact, she hasn’t. The original ASBO would have stopped her coming to the drop-in centre where she could get support – the people who ran it helped her get it amended, so she wouldn’t be even more isolated than she already is. Her explanation didn’t satisfy the police, so they locked her up. She managed to let the drop-in centre know, they got pro bono lawyers down, and, as evidenced by her presence at the drop-in centre a few hours later, she won and they released her. But what if she hadn’t been able to contact the drop-in centre? What if the drop-in centre didn’t have links to lawyers? What is the lawyers hadn’t been free?

Breaching an ASBO is no small thing – a breach can lead to five years in jail. And an ASBO is not the product of a criminal trial – you can get one, reportedly, for noisiness, begging, fare dodging and loitering. They sound like ‘crimes’ of poverty to me.

The person who brought me to the centre is a researcher on violence against women who specialises in sexual slavery and prostitution. They’re using ASBOs to ‘clean up’ London in the lead up to the Olympics, she tells me.

Suddenly London feels a lot more Dickensian. It takes me back to being 22, newly arrived in the Philippines, and standing looking at a monument to Marcos’ Manila, a huge wall built to hide the poor during a papal visit. Of course, my companions then told me, the resources used to build the wall could simply have been used to house the poor.

Poverty reduction is high on the agenda of the Green Party of England and Wales, and it’s one of many reasons that the Green Party of England and Wales is talking about fairness.

It’s slogan in the general elections, expected to be March or May of next year, is ‘Fair is worth fighting for’.

At a time when the UK economy is shot to pieces and thousands are losing their jobs, social justice is an important issue.

One of the key policy positions the Greens will take to the election is what they describe as a ‘real’ living wage, in contrast to the official minimum wages that don’t keep people out of poverty.

Adrian Ramsay is Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales and the first Green Party Councillor to become the Leader of the Opposition on a local authority, in Norwich, where the Greens have 13 seats, just two less than Labour.

He talks about poverty in this way:

“The fact is that the minimum wage is in fact a poverty wage in most areas of the UK. Of children living in poverty across the country, 57% have one or both of their parents in work, but their wages are not enough to support their families because the minimum wage has not kept up with the soaring costs of their household bills, housing and transport.”

Greens nationally have made campaigning for a Living Wage a key priority for action. The London Living Wage is now £7.45 per hour. It is now paid to thousands of workers who were previously receiving the minimum wage, which is just £5.73, thanks to the research work of the London Living Wage Unit, which was brought in by Green Assembly Members four years ago, and the campaigning work of citizens’ groups and Greens across the city. 

In Oxford, Greens have succeeded in passing a motion through the City Council, bringing in a living wage of £7 per hour for council workers. And in Lewisham, the six strong Green Group is proposing paying the London Living Wage to all council employees, and is proposing extending this to all council contractors as well. 

This is just one of the many policies the Greens are pursuing as part of their fairness agenda.

Fair is worth fighting for.

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the-kennel-blog · 7 years

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Lola Phoenix, ‘Queer Herstory’

Lola Phoenix’s talk for Warwick Pride LGBT+ History Month explored the role of trans women of colour in the Stonewall riot but also painted a history of LGBTIQ activism in America, the latter of which is the focus of this blog.

Throughout the 1950s and ‘60s, century-old laws against masquerading were used to target trans and cross-dressing people. Institutions such as the Atescadero State Hospital medically tortured gay and bisexual people.

In this environment, early ‘homophophile’ groups explicitly avoided use of the term ‘sex’ and sought to look ‘normal’ not as ‘freaks’. For example, the Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, disavowed marriage and adoption for conservative reasons. It held peaceful protests called Annual Reminders in a climate where publicly coming out was risky, but protestors deliberately dressed conservatively.

Gays were refused service or policed at bars and late night eateries, which led to a number of protests and riots, including: - 1959 Cooper’s Donuts riots - 1966 Julius Bar ‘sip in’ (which resulted in a change in practice) - 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria riots (of which a memorial plaque was erected in 2006) - 1967 Black Cat Tavern protests (which led to the publication of Advocate magazine)

The most famous, however, is the 1969 Stonewall riots.

The Mafia opened the Stonewall Inn (an answer to the question ‘Why dd the Mafia own the bar?’ is here). Police had issues with the mob, which may have led to the raid that triggered the riot.

Immediate reaction to the riots was negative, with the Village Voice, condemning the riots as too radical. At the same time, the Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists Alliance formed against conservative groups that did not use the term ‘gay’ (e.g. the Mattachine Society) and adopted explicitly anti-capitalist rhetoric. The Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries also formed to provide support to trans homeless people (in a building donated by a mob figure). The riots also led to the Christopher Street Day parade (so named because of the location of Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street), a precursor to the modern-day pride marches.

The competing debates about conservative v radical approaches polarised the 1970s; for example, Sylvia Rivera’s address at the 1973 Christopher Street Day parade about the role of gender non-conforming people in the gay liberation movement. These debates, and the impact of ‘respectability’ politics, continue to today.

Phoenix’s talk was a reminder that there are all sorts of ways to fight for rights. In many ways, it feels like the cycle of history is repeating.

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the-kennel-blog · 7 years

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Uma Kotwal, ‘Turfing out the TERFs’

Uma Kotwals’s recent talk for Warwick Pride LGBT+ History Month explored the conflict between trans erasing radical feminism (TERF) and trans women.

Debunking the myths

Many radical feminists are not transphobic; many are themselves trans. However, there is some radical feminists regard trans women as a threat to feminism. Kotwal explored this trope through certain themes.

Gender essentialism

Radical or gender critical feminists often argue for reframing activism beyond the heteronormative gender system (sometimes referred to as gender nihilism). Some see in trans women a form of gender essentialism and reinforcement of gender roles.

Kotwal acknowledged that some trans women are reinforcing gender roles, but so are cisgender women. Gender still has a bearing on our lives. Trans women may have to perform femininity in order to access medical treatment, legal recognition and social recognition.

Much TERF ideology reinforces binary concepts of gender and is itself gender essentialist. For example, some radical feminists have argued against anti-discrimination protections based on gender identity in favour of anti-discrimination protections based only on sex. Some have expressed discomfort with the term ‘cisgender’, arguing that as gender is entwined with sex it is a moot term. However, Kotwal argues that this risks reducing womanhood to sex characteristics and reinforcing binary gender roles.

Coercion of children

Against the argument that gender (role) non-conforming children are being coerced into identifying as trans, Kotwal argued that trans children are often coerced to act according to their sex assigned at birth.

Male privilege

Against arguments that trans women experience male privilege by virtue of often being born with a penis, Kotwal argued that the experience of trans women is different to that cisgender men. Trans women are often very disempowered in society and experience higher rates of violence.

The penis is not inherently male or masculine; people of all genders have penises. Male power or domination does not arise from the penis, it is socially constructed. Women’s oppression is not based on sex characteristics but on gender.

Lesbian and bi women

Capitalism/nationalism

Lesbian and bi relationships are sometimes seen as a threat to the nuclear family. The reason the nuclear family structure is privileged under capitalism is because, as Christine Thomas writes, “Capitalists also required a workforce that was disciplined, obedient and deferential to authority. The patriarchal family, in which men had control over women and children, including through the use of physical violence, was a useful institution for instilling these values and for promoting appropriate gender roles.”

Furthermore, as Cheshire Calhoun writes, “The construction of gay men and lesbians as highly stigmatized outsiders to the family who engage in family disrupting behavior allays anxieties about the potential failure of the heterosexual nuclear family by externalizing the threat to the family. As a result, anxiety about the possibility that the family is disintegrating from within can be displaced on to the specter of the hostile outsider to the family.”

(However, I would argue that the emergence of rainbow families suggests that lesbian and bi women have a new utility to the capitalist state. This phenomenon has sometimes been referred to as homonationalism.Related to this are nationalist colonial discourses that portray non-Western LGBT+ women as disadvantaged. These discourses ignore the fact that non-binary women are recognised in some non-Western countries.)

Predatory behaviour

Pointing to the trope of ‘queer woman converts younger heterosexual woman’, which appears in novels and films of lesbianism, Ruby Lott-Lavigna argues that “converting the straight girl... is cinema’s idea of how the lesbian relationship functions.” This effectively portrays lesbian and bi women as coercive when, in reality, lesbian and bi women are often frightened of pursuing other women and can be subjected to homophobia or biphobia in shared women’s spaces.

Lesbian and bi TERFs

However, Kotwal noted that some cisgender lesbian and bi women are also TERFs and do use anti-phallus rhetoric against trans women. Lesbian and bi trans women can experience exclusion from other lesbian and bi women and spaces. As Avory Faucette writes, “You’re confused about what it means to be a lesbian, or a woman. I don’t care what your physical preferences are or what gender identity you prefer. I do care that you confuse those two things, and thereby insult trans women. I care that you don’t bother to interrogate the origins of your phallus-based distaste for trans women, and think about whether it’s actually a dislike of the organ that’s happening here or whether transphobia and a refusal to view trans women as women is involved.”

Re-thinking terminology

In an effort to be inclusive of trans and non-binary people, some organisations have started to use the term ‘non-men’ in the place of ‘women’. Some feminists have argued that this is effectively erasing women.

Kotwal argued for a language of womanhood that is not based on sex characteristics, and for a social rather than biological definition of (female) gender. She did acknowledge, however, that female sex characteristics do affect many women - they experience periods and experience discrimination on the basis of their sex characteristics (President Trump’s “grab her by the pussy” remarks being a case in point) - but should not be the sole definitional point for womanhood.

Ways forward

There are, unfortunately, transphobic academics and public intellectuals, including at University of Warwick. There are also, however, risks in no platforming or protesting TERFs as this is commonly raised as an attack on free speech.

Kotwal argued for the importance of talking about and understanding the everyday experiences and issues of trans women. The Museum of Transology is one example of this. Trans women need feminism and feminist spaces due to the misogyny they face. Trans women played and important role in Stonewall and continue to play an important role in the ensuing now global pride festivals; this should be recognised.

It is our responsibility to make feminist activist spaces and language explicitly welcoming to LGBT+ women.

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the-kennel-blog · 7 years

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Paul Desson-Baxter, ‘How did we criminalise homosexuality?’

Paul Desson-Baxter’s recent talk at Coventry Pride LGBT+ History Month explored the history of criminalisation and decriminalisation of inter-male sex in England.

The Romans invaded England in 55BC and England took on the Roman legal system. Roman law outlawed adultery and made certain sex acts on a freeborn male minor a crime. In 342AD, receptive anal sex was made a crime; then, in 390AD, all inter-male sex was made a crime.

There was Church anti-sodomy propaganda throughout the following period, but no known reason why the Church was taking an oppositional stance. However, anti-sodomy propaganda was mostly quiet until the Tudor times when there was an on again, off again relationship with criminalising inter-male sex.

In 1533, Henry VIII passed the Buggery Act 1533, introducing death punishment for anal sex and sexual acts with an animal. Prosecutions were potentially used a tool to take away lands and assets from convicts. The Act was re-enacted three times and, in 1541, for perpetuity. In 1543, the Act was extended to Wales.

In 1547, Edward VI repealed the Buggery Act along with all laws of Henry VIII. In 1548, the Buggery Act was re-enacted with amendments to protect the property of those convicted.

In 1553, Mary I repealed the Buggery Act along with all laws of Edward VI.

In 1558, Elizabeth I reinstated the Buggery Act, but without the 1548 amendments to protect property rights.

Throughout the following period, there was debate about homosexuality. This increased in response to the trial of Captain Edwards for sodomy of a thirteen year old boy. Decriminalisation was first argued by Jeremy Bentham in 1785 in his treatise Offences Against One’s Self.

In 1828, the Buggery Act was repealed and replaced with the Offences Against the Person Act, which included a death penalty for inter-male sex.

In 1835, the last execution for inter-male sex occurred.

In 1861, the death penalty for inter-male sex was repealed and replaced with two years hard labour.

In 1885, Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act removed the proof requirement for sodomy offences.

In 1921, there was an attempt to criminalise inter-female sex through a Criminal Law Amendment Bill but this was defeated in the House of Lords due to concerns that the law would promote lesbianism.

In 1957, the Wolfenden Report was handed down. It advised the Government that inter-male sex should not be illegal.

In 1958, the Homosexual Law Reform Society was founded to campaign to make inter-male sex legal.

In 1967, following considerable debate, the Sexual Offences Act decriminalised inter-male sex for men aged over twenty-one years in England and Wales. The age of consent for other forms of sex was 16.

In 1980, Scotland passed a similar Act.

In 1994, the age of consent was reduced to eighteen.

In 1997 and 1998, various attempts to equalise the age of consent were blocked by the House of Lords.

In 1999, a Bill to equalise the age of consent was introduced and passed using provisions of the Parliament Act which prevent the House of Lords from blocking a Bill three times.

In 2001, the equal age of consent law came into effect.

In 2017, a Bill was introduced to remove inter-male sex as grounds for dismissal from the crew of merchant navy ships. This is believed to be one of the last laws that discriminate against people for having inter-male sex.

Sadly, the impacts of laws criminalising inter-male sex are still being felt in Commonwealth jurisdictions today.

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the-kennel-blog · 7 years

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I am told that when you were admitted, your brother Russell sent you a congratulatory telegram, as people did in those days: “Dear sister, welcome to the acting profession”, to which you replied “Thank you, dear brother, but we write our own lines.”

Attorney-General Brandis, Ceremonial Sitting on the Occasion of the Swearing-in of the Chief Justice the Honourable Susan Mary Kiefel AC [2017] HCATrans 7 (30 January 2017). (via shitjudgessay)

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the-kennel-blog · 7 years

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“What about you? Are you an open book?”

“Perhaps, although I think I keep losing the page.”

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the-kennel-blog · 7 years

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Lana Tatour, ‘Homocolonialism and queer organising in Palestine’

Lana Tatour’s recent public lecture at Warwick University explored the concepts of homonationalism, homocolonialism and how we can effectively advance - and (re)conceptualise - queer rights in Palestine. This talk was particularly pertinent given the increased focus by media outlets and activist groups on alleged ‘pinkwashing’ by Israel.

Homonationalism

Tatour’s talk began with exploring Jasbir Puar’s idea of homonationalism that suggests, broadly speaking, that the recent advance of gay rights is about incorporating queer people into the state. Marriage and, in particular, new technologies of reproduction such as surrogacy and assisted reproductive technologies are means of making queers reproductive parts of the nation through, inter alia, increasing its birth rate.

As queers become a part of the state, their ability to question the state diminishes and the advancement of queer rights can disguise, sanction and produce other coercive elements of the state. In ‘Rethinking Homonationalism’, Paur argues that “homonationalism is fundamentally a deep critique of lesbian and gay liberal rights discourses and how those rights discourses produce narratives of progress and modernity that continue to accord some populations access to citizenship—cultural and legal—at the expense of the delimitation and expulsion of other populations. The narrative of progress for gay rights is thus built on the back of racialized others.”

Homocolonialism

Tatour builds on Paur’s idea of homonationalism to advance the concept of homocolonialism which suggests, essentially, that colonisers justify colonial actions as a grounds of advancing queer rights on ‘primitive’ cultures. Tatour describes this as an “encounter of alienation” where colonisers impose certain values on another culture in an exploitative manner.

Pinkwashing

Tatour’s thesis is that the advancement and promotion of queer rights in Israel is a form of pinkwashing to distract from Israeli actions against Palestinians and imposing colonial conceptions of queer rights on Palestinians. Her thesis rests on two elements: the temporal connection between the two elements and alleged Israeli state propaganda.

Tatour argues that two processes - the increasing rights of queer Israelis and the promotion thereof against the declining treatment of Palestinians - are occurring at the same time and therefore must be connected and, from this, the promotion of Israel is queer-friendly is a form of pinkwashing to disguise its actions against Palestinians.

A counter argument could be that there are many other reasons for the advancement and promotion of queer rights in Israel that are disconnected to the situation with Palestine. For example, there could be an economic imperative in Israel promoting its advancement of queer rights as a may to attract tourism dollars. Pitching Israel as a “fun place, cool place”, as Tatour describes it, could be a way of reconciling the traumatising history of conflict that Israelis and Jews have experienced. Finally, Israel could simply be advancing and promoting queer rights as it believes it is the right thing to do. The processes may not be connected but for time.

Tatour argues, however, that propaganda that is (officially or implicitly) state-sanctioned displays the nexus between the two. In her presentation, she pointed a number of printed materials highlighting Israel’s queer rights agenda and contrasting the poor treatment of queer people in Muslim (and, implicitly, Palestinian) territories. She also referenced an address by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu where he contrasts Israel’s standing up for queer rights against Muslim states (and, implicitly, a Palestinian state) that criminalise same-sex sexual relations. Tatour contends that this painting of Israel as queer-friendly and Palestine as anti-queer is deliberate. The advancement of queer rights in Israel, the critique of Palestine’s stance on queer rights and Isreal’s actions against Palestinians are not merely temporarily colocated but the same phenomenon: pinkwashing.

Tatour further argues that Israel’s concern for queer rights is not genuine as it has a record of refusing refugee claims by queer Palestinians arguing that they fear persecution on the basis of their sexual orientation; it is still yet to legislate for marriage equality (though it recognises overseas same-sex marriages); and there have been acts of violence against queers at Israeli pride events.

What do we do?

My question to Tatour at the conclusion of her presentation was: how do we effectively advance queer rights abroad without falling into the trap of homocolonialisation and an ‘encounter of alienation’? My unspoken thought was: could Israel’s aggressive promotion of its queer rights record (even if conceived of as pinkwashing) effectively place pressure on Palestine and neighbouring Muslim states to improve their human rights record in regards to queer rights?

During her presentation, Tatour highlighted the “commitment of the UN to gay rights as human rights” as an example of homocolonialisation or imposing a Western script and “particular models of sexual emancipation” on cultures which do not recognise this.

Tatour’s argument throughout her presentation was that we should instead look to Palestinian queer self-organising groups and what they are communicating to the West, which is a need to call out Israel’s pinkwashing efforts and support strategies such as boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israel. However, there are some significant critiques of that thesis.

Miriam Elman criticises this position as a form of ‘reverse pinkwashing’: “seeking to… deny the truth about Israel’s gay rights record in order to wash away the violent and pervasive persecution of LGBT individuals in Palestinian society”, including the execution of queer men in Gaza and the lack of anti-discrimination protections in the West Bank. Tatour acknowledged that those queer self organising groups communicating to the West through attendance at various international fora have a mobility and thus a platform that many Palestinian queers may not have and, by implication, may not represent that views of all queer Palestinians - but can any group be wholly representative?

For all their efforts, it appears that Palestinian queer self-organising has not made any real advancements in regards to queer rights. Tatour’s example of queer Palestinians seeking asylum in Israel because of alleged persecution on the basis of their sexual orientation is evidence that there are queer Palestinians that live in fear. Tatour also, in answer to my question, acknowledged that there is homophobia in Palestinian society, but that the homophobia in Palestine is affected by the context of colonialism in which Palestinians live.

It is noteworthy that queer rights are going backwards in some non-Western countries in reaction against a Western ‘gay agenda’ that, to use Tatour’s quote, is seen as a means to “impose particular models of sexual emancipation” on non-Western states. Tatour argued that “there are no gays in the Muslim world” at least in the sense in which we conceive of sexual orientation as an identity; that the gay identity has been manufactured and has “been universalised on different parts of the world”; and that the liberal project of gay rights, espoused by the UN and states such as Israel, cannot accommodate differences.

It is here where Tatour contended that queer politics - as opposed to gay politics - is a radical project that refuses centring of the state. By association, we should not judge Palestine on its record on gay rights given that gay rights are culturally relative but should adopt a more radical queer critique that rejects homonationalism and the homocolonialism of Israel and direct our activism that way.

Conclusions

Homonationalism and associated homocolonialism pose real challenges for the queer rights movement. How can we advocate for increased rights for queer people and incorporation in to state institutions such as marriage but maintain a criticism of the state’s exclusion of others (queer refugees, for example)? Should we be seeking incorporation or acceptance? Is queer politics a viable way forward?

Are gay rights culturally relative? It could certainly be argued that marriage and adoption are culturally relative, but what of criminalisation and the state-sanctioned killing of gay people? To my mind, these are universal values - the right to life and to not face persecution because of one’s sexual orientation. To argue that we should not intervene to advance gay rights for fear of imposing liberal Western ideals on different parts of the world ignores our duty as global citizens to act when faced with the persecution of queer people. To suggest that it should be up to queer self-organising groups in the countries concerned to define the means of engagement imposes an unrealistic burden on queer people in countries some of which have ‘gay propaganda' laws restricting their ability to mobilise and others which have a culture of persecution of queers. How we can intervene or engage in an effective way that does not perpetuate alienation is a question that requires further thought and discussion.

What of the thesis that Israel is pinkwashing? Throughout her presentation, Tatour highlighted that Israel has made significant and positive advancements on gay rights. That should be applauded and Israel is right to promote its record on gay rights even if there is still more work to be done to advance gay rights and end homophobia in Israel. Whilst Tatour contends that this promotion of its record is a form of pinkwashing and pointed to evidence for this thesis, she failed to consider the alternative thesis that Israel is promoting its queer rights record and calling out persecution in neighbouring states to place pressure on these states to improve their human rights protections for queer people and that this is a form of (albeit blunt) diplomacy.

The lecture radically challenged ideas of queer rights and aspirations in Palestinian territories and Muslim states. It also challenged ideas of the universality of queer rights and the effects of a rights-based, identity-framed discourse on others. The appropriate response to the persecution of queers overseas, which should be a concern for us all, is something that requires considerably more discussion and debate, especially in a climate where the increasing number of queer refugees suggests that anti-queer persecution is on the rise.

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the-kennel-blog · 7 years

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#ULGBT16 - Campaigning

The second day of conference also included discussion and debate of motions on campaigning for LGBT workers.

Trans equality

UNISON and other trade unions provided a submission to the Select Committee inquiry into trans equality. The committee report, published in January, included welcome recommendations, including a legal category for non-binary people; gender recognition based on self-declaration; and protected attributes reframed from ‘gender reassignment’ and ‘transsexual’ to ‘gender identity’. The government response rejected changing the protected attributed language and promised only future reviews on other recommendations.

The Victorian Government has introduced a Bill to provide for gender recognition based on self-declaration and a legal category for non-binary people. However, the Government has not taken action to provide non-discrimination protection for non-binary people. Victorian unions have not campaigned on this issue despite the need for better anti-discrimination protections for non-binary workers.

UNISON has also committed support the work carried out by Trans Media Watch to campaign for a more positive portrayal of trans people in the media.

Reports have documented the ‘terrifying’ experience of trans women in men’s prisons. UNISON has committed to promote the need for good practice guidance on recording the recording the number of trans prisoners, undertaking risk assessment and for those working in the prisons.

The effect of public spending cuts on LGBT people and services

UNISON released a report, ‘Implications of reductions to public spending for LGBT people and services’, which showed: - cuts in funding for LGBT services particularly at local government level meant that services had to reduce opening hours and narrow the range of services on offer - the lack of social support for LGBT people meant that some LGBT people had turned to negative coping mechanisms such as self harm, substance misuse and, at its most extreme, suicide - some voluntary sector service providers were torn between providing services and securing funding in an increasingly competition environment, and were more reliant on volunteers to do so - a loss of experienced and knowledgeable staff through redundancies led to a loss of experience and wider contacts which affected the ability of providers to respond to clients' needs - staff and volunteers were going 'above and beyond' paid hours to meet demand which led to low morale, high levels of sickness and staff 'burnout' - local governments were doing no or very little work directed at LGBT populations

LGBT hate crimes

There has been a marked increase in the reporting of LGBT hate crimes post-Brexit, with reports of homophobic hate crimes up 147% and transphobic hate crimes up 170%. There is also hate and abuse on social media.

The Victorian Anti-Violence Project provides online reporting mechanisms for LGBT hate crime, modelled on similar schemes in the US. UK charity Galop also provide support for LGBT people experiencing hate crimes, sexual violence of domestic abuse. Victorian unions have not campaigned on this issue.

UNISON has committed to publish step by step guidance on how to report a hate crime including third party reporting options and what follow up actions to expect.

PrEP

2014 saw the highest level of new diagnoses of HIV in the UK yet. Nevertheless, the NHS has argued that it does not have an obligation to fund PrEP. UNISON has committed to directly lobby the UK and Scottish government, and the Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies to make PrEP available for those individuals at highest risk of HIV infection.

Activists in Australia are pushing for PrEP to be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme to increase access to the drug and reduce HIV transmissions. Victorian unions have not campaigned on this issue.

Sex workers organising

Significant developments internationally have strengthened the links between LGBT organising and sex worker organising. Some have argued that LGBT and sex worker rights go hand-in-hand.

GMB has a sex workers branch which is affiliated with the International Union of Sex Workers. The Australian Sex Workers Union formed in 2009, according to one report, “remains more of an idea than a reality.”

Older LGBT people

A recent report on end of life care for LGBT people showed that many LGBT people have significant fears about palliative and end of life care services. Another report on LGBT people experiencing dementia found that LGBT people had negative experiences with health and social care professionals. UNISON has committed to publicising call for further research into the needs of older LGBT people and their loved ones, and to raise awareness of the specific issues facing older LGBT people.

Transgender Victoria provides LGBTI aged care sector training, funded by the Australian Government. Victorian unions have not campaigned on this issue.

Homelessness in the LGBT community

Research by the Albert Kennedy Trust has found that just 2.6% of UK housing providers have targeted LGBT services despite the high rate of LGBT homelessness. This is despite recent decisions from the UK Supreme Court that have strengthened the duties of housing providers to consider vulnerable groups affected by homelessness. UNISON has committed to campaign for specialist LGBT housing services in every local authority.

alsorts, run by the Family Access Network, is the only LGBTI specific housing program in the state. Victorian unions have not campaigned on this issue.

Expungement of LGBT criminal convictions

UNISON has committed to engaging with the Scottish Government to support the creation of an expungement scheme to remove historic convictions and cautions for consensual gay sex from criminal records. A similar scheme was introduced in England in 2012.

Victoria’s expungement scheme came into effect in 2015. Again, despite this issue affecting the employment prospects of gay and bisexual men, Victorian unions did not campaign on this issue.

The Equality Act

UNISON has committed to continue to campaign to protect the Equality Act and for the introduction of a public sector duty to give due regard to socioeconomic disadvantage (the socioeconomic duty) and a prohibition of intersectional discrimination, as recommended by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Under Victorian law, public authorities have a duty under the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act to give proper consider to human rights when making a decision. A report by the Human Rights Law Centre suggested that the Charter has encouraged and enabled public authorities to undertake organisational and cultural change to embed the principles of freedom, respect, equality and dignity in their work.

LGBT inclusive education

25% of LGBTI Scottish school students attempt suicide at least once. UNISON has committed to support the campaign for at least one teacher in every school to be fully trained in LGBTI issues, so that students know there is someone to go to.

In Australia, there has been constant debate over Safe Schools, with the Australian Education Union strongly supporting the LGBTI anti-bullying program.

LGBT financial capability

A report by OUTreach Liverpool noted that a significant number of LGBT clients struggled with financial planning and goal setting. UNISON has committed to establishing the need for detailed, specific research into LGBT financial capability.

LGBT discrimination in the Isle of Man

LGBT people on the Isle of Man are not protected from unfair treatment and discrimination in the workplace and in access to public and private service. There are no legal protections for LGBT people in the form of anti-discrimination laws relating to specifically to sexual orientation or gender and there is no counterpart to the all-encompassing Equality Act in place in England, Wales and Scotland.

In June 2016, the Island's Legislative Council completed the drafting of an Equality Bill. The Bill is now ready for any future Manx Government to pass into law. The concern, however, is that the next Manx Government may not consider the Bill with a view to enactment and if considered there may be opposition within the House of Keys and Legislative Council. The financial costs to the State and the business community have been used as excuses for why it has not yet been implemented and many politicians believe an Equality Act to be unnecessary or a threat to freedom of religion. There is popular complacency, and some opposition, surrounding the adoption of an Equality Act and without popular political pressure, it is feared that the Bill will be ignored.

Discrimination of LGBT people in the Isle of Man is very real. A recent high-profile instance was in 2013 when a lesbian couple were denied rental of a property with no recourse to legal action and there are continuing reports of humiliating behaviour taken by employers against young trans people.

UNISON has committed to lobby the Manx Government, calling on them to pass the Bill into law.

Marriage equality in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom and the Island of Ireland where same sex couples are not able to access equality. This is despite the most recent Assembly vote where the majority of members of the Legislative Assembly supported it as well as polls indicating that 70% of the population would not oppose it. UNISON is involved with the Love Equality campaign to achieve marriage equality in Northern Ireland.

— These are my personal notes from the UNISON 2016 LGBT Conference, which I attended as a guest of the union.

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the-kennel-blog · 7 years

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#ULGBT16 - Bargaining, recruiting and organising

The second day of conference included discussion and debate of motions on bargaining for, recruiting and organising LGBT workers.

Bargaining

Bargaining for LGBT equality is not usually headline news. It often consists of quiet wins in countless negotiations across a myriad of workplaces. Nevertheless, UNISON has an array of LGBT bargaining tools, including for: - LGBT workers - trans workers - intersex workers - LGBT workers abroad - LGBT families (coming soon)

UNISON also has a factsheet on bisexual workers.

The only one such guide from Australian union is the LGBTI+Q Workplace Toolkit from the Civil Service Association Western Australia's CSA Rainbow group.

Most LGBT employment guides are instead produced by employer organisations such as Pride in Diversity, including this world-first employers’ guide to intersex inclusion. The Victorian Equality Opportunity and Human Rights Commission also has guidelines on developing a policy and transition plan for trans people at work.

UNISON have been continuing to push same sex partner pension equality as a bargaining issue. They also use the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index (similar to the Australian Workplace Equality Index) to push workplace change though, as TUC have pointed out, it is not inclusive of trans workers or engagement with trade unions.

A major issue affecting bargaining is the contracting out of government services, limiting protections for LGBTI workers. There is also no protection under the Equality Act 2010 for intersex workers. These are also issues in Victoria, with no protection in the state’s anti-discrimination laws for intersex Victorians and limited protection for LGBT people working for religious organisations, which may be recipients of government contracts.

Recruiting and organising

UNISON place great importance on recruiting, activating and retaining LGBT members.

UNISON have a national LGBT committee, each of its regions have an LGBT group, and branches are encouraged to have an LGBT group sometimes as cluster branch groups. There are also national sub-groups for bi, trans, black, disabled and young LGBT members.

Apart of the aforementioned CSA Rainbow group, other Australian unions with LGBT networks include the Australian Services Union’s GLAM caucus, the National Tertiary Education Union’s QUTE caucus and the Australian Education Union (Victoria)’s LGBTI Network. QUTE is about to hold the first ever Australian union LGBT conference.

UNISON offers training for LGBT branch officers and has an online organising space with a new LGBT area, as a way for members to network and share best practice. UNISON also collects data on members’ sexual orientation and gender identity, and promotes the inclusion of non-binary genders across the union’s and affiliates’ forms and practices and through its support of the #AskMyPronouns campaign.

UNSON has a guide to pride organising, with regional groups attending as many pride events as possible. UNISON also has an effective external communications strategy, publicising the benefits of LGBT people joining trade unions through social media and in LGBT media.

Australian unions regularly participate in pride events, with Unions NSW just launching its Union Pride group and the Victorian Trades Hall Council’s United for Marriage Equality campaign.

— These are my personal notes from the UNISON 2016 LGBT Conference, which I attended as a guest of the union.

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the-kennel-blog · 7 years

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#ULGBT16 - Local Government

The opening day of conference included a talk from Heather Wakefield, UNISON’s head of local government.

The economic outlook for local government is grim. £12.5 million has been cut from local government since 2010; 700,000 jobs gone. The Scottish National Party has imposed a council tax freeze as has the UK government (and as has the Victorian state government). Local government will be funded almost entirely through council tax by 2020, mostly business taxes; therefore, business is increasingly seeking to influence local councils. The social dimension of local government could be squeezed by these savings cuts, restrictions on revenue-raising and job losses.

On a more positive note, UNISON’s ethical care charter has been effective in linking decent employment pay and conditions to good quality care. Councils are adopting the charter and some are bringing services in-house for economic reasons. The union is having an input into outsourcing contracts across the sector. A report is being produced on the charter’s effectiveness.

There is an absence of quality data on employment as data is not collected, but every council has an underrepresentation of black workers and only 1% of employees in local schools are black men (some local councils run local schools). Equal pay legislation for women has led to a levelling down of pay. There has also been a cap on staff exit payments (or redundancies), and questions raised over the ethical investment of pension funds (or superannuation) and the impacts of salary sacrifice schemes on pension funds.

Industrial action legislation means that unions can only take action against an employer, making it difficult to undertake national action, but there can be effective local action. There is poor organisation and lower density in the outsourced aspects of local government. It was acknowledged that there is a need to resource organising and recruiting in order to build national presence. This suggests that outsourcing is a tool for reducing union power in the workplace.

Wakefield reminded conference that you don’t mount industrial action if you don’t have a good chance of winning. Strike action is effective but not always the answer for everything. Wakefield also reminded delegates to not focus attention on the centre - “why aren’t you doing this or that” - but focus attention on what you can do locally. This was an inspiring call to action in our own delegates committees for, through that, we can achieve strong outcomes for our colleagues and drive change nationally.

— These are my personal notes from the UNISON 2016 LGBT Conference, which I attended as a guest of the union.

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the-kennel-blog · 7 years

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Drucilla Cornell, ’Derrida’s method as technique of liberation’

Drucilla Cornell’s recent public lecture at the Social Theory Centre in the University of Warwick explored the ethical dimensions of Derrida’s method of deconstruction, and in particular his notion of negotiation, as a technique of liberation. The talk was particularly pertinent given - and to some extent shaped by - recent political events concluding in the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency.

Cornell commenced her lecture with Marx’s maxim that, ‘The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.’ Arguing that the challenge presented by Derrida’s method of deconstruction is ethical, Cornell suggests that negotiation and organisation is the only way to action.

Deconstruction as a technique of liberation

Cornell posited Derrida’s notion of negotiation as a technique of liberation. Focussing on Derrida’s theory that ‘deconstruction is justice’, Cornell discussed on the interpretive practice of judges (recalling Dworkin’s theory of law as interpretation), arguing that the judge is heading a call to justice as well as the demand to negotiate, which is integral to the technique of liberation and in turn leads to institutional demands. Cornell describes the process of deconstruction, similar to that of judgment, as affirmation leading to position leading to what she variously termed organisation, institution, action or negotiation. One cannot affirm and just sit back and one cannot take a position without taking action. The position we take refers back to our location in a particular time and place and our experiences. The final step, negotiation, is a way of accepting values, bringing in perspectives of others and opening oneself to these perspectives in a very practical sense, but it requires fight and, I would suggest, compromise. In this sense, negotiation is very much connected with organisation and institution-building.

The importance of institutions to liberation

Cornell posited that the Left denies the importance of institutions and governmentality based on a nihilistic reading of Foucault and a politics of purity, but that most of this view are financially secure and not reliant on institutions. By contrast, liberation is crucially reliant on the building of institutions, as has been the case with feminism and LGBT rights activism. This is a difficult process and always imperfect, as while institutions effectively defend people in the long-term, they are not alway perfect and do need change, but Cornell suggests we need to face imperfection when we negotiate. Cornell was also critical of spontaneous actions that do not carry an institutional demand, concluding that resistance is not enough, revolution and institutional change is needed.

Alternative institutions of justice

In something of a detour, Cornell then discussed African Ubuntu philosophy regarding affective fields and connections and their relation to justice. Critiquing retributivist models of justice, she argued that vengeance unleashes violence into the affective field and there is no cure for it. Her alternative model was not about forgiveness but recreating an affective field - often through ritual - as we can only individuate in a field where others are flourishing. A model of therapeutic or affective justice perhaps? However, she also questioned whether to do so was to creolise aboriginal justice.

Conclusions

The lecture was, in my view, a radical reconcepulatism of liberation as reliant on institutionalism, when most activists would seek liberation from - not within - institutions. The term negotiation was throughout the lecture used interchangeably with organisation or institution-building, suggesting that deconstruction requires negotiation and that negotiation is essential to achieving liberation and building effective institutions. The discussion at the end of the lecture canvassed alternative institutions of justice and the possibility that negotiation might offer increased understanding of other perspectives.

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