When a society is given free rein to discriminate against those deemed ‘others’, it leads to dire consequences. Not only does the victim suffer, but extended families, friends, colleagues and ultimately society itself.
Progressive countries recognise this, and ban discrimination. Many other countries do not, and some are regressing.
It is up to us therefore, to use celebratory periods such as LGBTQ+ History Month, Pride Month in June and all the others, to show how damaging it is to society to throw away what we have collectively learned.
But, if we do not value our history enough to shout it from the rooftops, who will? If we do not speak of those who went before us, their names will be filtered out. An ongoing problem is the ‘researcher’s cut’, when someone writes that a person did wonderful things but fails to mention they were LGBTQ+, a discrimination by disinterest as I call it. Wikipedia is the world’s largest encyclopaedia and if this happens on their platform you can take out a free membership and add information to a page, I’ve done this many times, and so can you. Because, not only does the world want to know about people who did wonderful things, we want to know about queer people who did wonderful things.
History is today, it is now, it is yours. You can control it.
President Kennedy famous said in 1961, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” The same is true of history, ask not what history can do for you but what you can do to celebrate those who have gone before, and those of today.
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Almost every month is now a celebratory period. Did you know that February is not only LGBTQ+ History Month it’s also Library Lovers’ Month? In the UK we are in a bizarre situation where it is mandatory to have a library in a prison, but not in a school! Schools need libraries, they are vital hubs that foster literacy, research skills, independence of thought and support when sometimes there is none (LGBTQ+ students are bullied in a higher proportion than heterosexual students). Raise your voice, demand young people have access to queer literature and self-help books.
It’s those small acts, the acorns growing into big trees and the thousand-mile journeys that begin with a single step. Look at what we did for marriage – individual and collective voices calling for equality that led to civil registrations allowing same-sex partners to be ‘blessed,’ which led to civil partnerships with (almost) the same rights as marriage, which led to marriage, which led to heterosexual people having the right to civil partnerships. Ok, so we’re not allowed to get married in church, they still won’t let us in there. But, in Wales we have appointed the only gay archbishop in the world and she supports same-sex blessings in church as does the new Archbishop of Canterbury, so, here’s hoping those steps follows a similar journey.
Why is LGBTQ+ History Month important? Why is Black History Month important? Or all the other diversity celebratory periods? They are important because we are important, we matter, and because we must show the world that we at least have learned, that we refuse to be doomed to repeat the past.
So go celebrate us, celebrate our history – but more importantly, go make history!
Norena Shopland is one of the leading LGBTQ+ historians in Wales.
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