As LGBTQ+ History Month is ending, it’s a great time to reflect on why this month is needed.
As LGBTQ+ History Month is coming to a close, it’s a great time to reflect on why this month is needed, especially as some students responded saying they didn’t see the necessity of it in a University of Derby Poll “What would you like us to do more of for LGBT+ History month?”.
Throughout history, LGBTQ+ people have been treated harshly and unfairly compared to non-LGBTQ+ people, (source) despite being prominent figures in helping overcome issues, such as war. For those who don’t know, Alan Turing led a team of mathematicians to create the first computer and crack the code provided the allies information that led to winning the second world war. Yet, because he was gay, he was chemically castrated and later took his own life. Many people, maybe unwittingly, carry around a symbol of remembrance of Turing and his influence over creating the steppingstone to modern technology, with the Apple logo, which was said to be the way he took his own life, injecting cyanide into an apple and taking a bite out of it.
Photo of Alan Turing
More recently, the Football World Cup has been hosted in Qatar, a place that is renowned for their poor treatment of LGBTQ+. Their efforts to not show LGBTQ+ people existence during the Football World Cup, outright banning teams and spectators using anything rainbow related, saw protests from Governments around the world. The country is so anti-LGBTQ+ that in 2021, the country was said to be monitoring web traffic of those they speculated to be gay. And, even worse, in 2019 shared that under their laws “technically it is possible for men to be put to death for same-sex sexual behaviours”. (source)
However, during the Football World Cup, members of the University LGBTQ+ EDI network released a statement showing their support for the England Football Team and that they condemn the way Qatar treats LGBTQ+ people. They then finished it off showing all of the local charities that the University supports, such as Derbyshire LGBTQ+.
Meanwhile in the UK, the Government has blocked the Scottish Government’s efforts to make it easier for Trans people to change their legal gender. Trans rights have been a prominent political point over the last few years, with statistics showing how Trans people have higher death rates compared to cis gender peers (Source).
Photo from Scimex ”Transgender people have higher death rates than their cis gender peers”
Trans people have been increasingly affected by policies and social views, with rates of being physically targeted going up (source). The extent to this has been shown most recently with Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old trans girl who was stabbed to death in the UK on Saturday 11th Feb 2023. Although the individuals have been taken in for questioning, a life has still been taken and shows the necessity for trans people to be treated as equally as everyone else and to live peaceful lives.
Photo of Brianna Ghey
These are just some of the more recent examples of why LGBTQ+ History month is important and I hope these topical issues will provide more knowledge about the issues that the LGBTQ+ community still faces.