IN the lead-up to the general election, people from Cumbria’s LGBT community have offered their thoughts, pitches, and wishes for the next load of MPs who will represent the county.
Many of Cumbria’s parliamentary candidates have spoken much on hot topics like pollution, taxation, immigration, healthcare, and the cost of living, but many who identify as LGBT said they can feel overlooked, despite rights for same-sex couples and transgender people routinely being discussed across the country and in Europe.
With many issues up for discussion, we asked people who work with and for the LGBT community, or who are activists in their circles, what they hope for the future, what they want from the next government, and how they expect their elected representatives to act.
A spokesperson from Cumbria Pride, organisers of the titular annual event in Carlisle, said they ‘envision a future where the UK is a beacon of inclusivity for the LGBT community’, adding that they wants to see ‘comprehensive anti-discrimination laws’ enacted to protect people regardless of gender identity and sexual orientation, ensuring equality at work, in healthcare, and in schools.
READ MORE: Cumbria Pride announce list of events planned this year
They added that they want to see a 'national effort to fight hate crime', easier access to support for transgender people and a 'full ban on conversion therapy' for everyone.
Currently, there is no stated legal ban on conversion therapy for transgender people, an issue raised by international human rights organisation Amnesty International, and Stonewall, a global LGBT rights organisation, as well as many other people and organisations.
Much has been said on how practices known as ‘conversion therapy’ can be damaging psychologically. Human Rights Campaign called the practices ‘dangerous and discredited’, and said they have been ‘rejected by every mainstream medical and mental health organisation for decades’.
They said young people are ‘especially vulnerable’, and the practices can lead to depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness, and suicide.
Cumbria Pride said it expects the county’s elected MPs to ‘behave with respect and empathy towards all constituents, particularly those from marginalised communities’.
They said they’ve received support from all local parties, naming incumbent Tory John Stevenson and Labour candidate Julie Minns as having ‘kindly’ taken time to meet with them and listen to concerns on conversion therapy.
They said the Green Party and Labour Group attended Cumbria Pride last year and joined their Friends of Cumbria Pride scheme, and while the Lib Dems weren’t able to attend, they shared information on Cumbria Pride and supported its march.
Emily Ford, a youth worker at Pride in North Cumbria Arts, which provides art opportunities to LGBT people aged 16 to 25, claimed the Cumbrian LGBT community is overlooked by politicians.
READ MORE: Exhibition exploring alienation of LGBT youth opens in Carlisle
She said: “We need an admittance that we have a queer community (in Cumbria).
“It seems like politicians ignore our existence, yet we thrive and are a big asset to our community.
“Some recognition that queer people live there would be nice, and more investment in the NHS, which is one of the main issues from a queer and trans perspective.”
Ms Ford cited the recently-published Cass Review into healthcare for transgender people as a ‘massive blow’ for the community.
The report, first commissioned in 2020, and published in April this year, concluded that gender care is currently an area of ‘remarkably weak evidence' and young people have been caught up in a ‘stormy social discourse’.
The recommendations have prompted NHS England, which had already stopped puberty blockers being given to under-16s, to announce a review into the use of hormones.
Ms Ford said a fully funded NHS could do clinical trials of puberty blockers which would 'enhance trans healthcare'.
“If we don’t fund our NHS then there is going to be no trans healthcare, and I hope for a future in which these clinical trials can take place, and that these puberty blockers can be prescribed through the NHS,” she said.
On trans topics being discussed more broadly, she said: “Unless politicians are going to make actual positive change with their actions for trans people, then they need to get the word 'trans' out of their mouths.
“If you're not going to help the trans community, you shouldn't be allowed to use them as political pawns.
“The culture war is a huge distraction from the real problems, and young people are being dragged through the news all the time in an effort to gain political points.
“I think politicians should put their money where their mouths are, if they say they support LGBT people, they should act on it.”
This was something echoed by Carlisle-based trans rights campaigner and filmmaker Asa Pegler, who recently helped organise the city’s vigil for Brianna Ghey, after her murder which shook the LGBT community worldwide.
READ MORE: Crowd turns out to pay respects for Brianna Ghey at candlelit vigil
He said there are several issues he hopes to see addressed, but ‘simply having a candidate that support the trans community openly’ would be positive, adding that any support thus far from mainstream parties has been 'muted at best, or attacked at worst'.
Mr Pegler said leadership candidates are ‘scared’ to discuss LGBT rights from either side in order not to alienate voters.
“My wish for the next MP is to back transgender people, and to talk to more LGBT people as a whole.
“Carlisle has a modest gay scene, we’re not a tiny group, so it would be good for them to support us openly.”
He stated that, to his knowledge, of the Carlisle candidates, the Lib Dems’ Brian Wernham is ‘the only candidate I know that has consistently shown his support for LGBT people’, which has been welcomed - despite the pair not agreeing on other political topics.
“His stance is very much 'I want to learn, I want to support' and my wish for anyone going into parliament is to be open-minded and be supportive,” he said.
Ms Minns has voiced her support to ban conversion therapy for trans people, calling the practice 'abhorrent'.
READ MORE: Carlisle's Julie Minns calls on government to ban 'conversion therapy'
On Labour, he said: "The party was built on socialism, equality, human rights, and workers’ rights.
“I don’t believe Kier Starmer supports trans people, and if he does he’s very quiet about it. I hope, if he gets in, his views will change.”
Steven Westgarth, director of the magazine, events, and social organisation Queer Cumbria CIC, said: “Queer Cumbria joins the majority of the population of the county in demanding radical, people-centred, fair and ethical governance.
“We are tired of MPs employing divisive and hate fuelled tactics to cause community conflicts and gain votes.
“Such mechanisms are cheap, tiresome and ultimately dangerous to the safety and wellbeing of Cumbrian people.
“We want to see evidence of intelligent, empathetic and democratic representation, that focuses on the strengths of our communities and seeks to overcome the challenges that unite us all, such as the economic crisis, rising hate crime and shameful environmental degradation of our beloved national park.
“Basically, we are tired of swimming with faeces, both literally and politically!”
Carlisle-based left wing political campaigner Jamie Penquite-Green, who protested against the anti-refugee march last year and attended the vigil for Brianna Ghey in the city, said Pride Month is a ‘recognition of our radical history’, and solidarity with working class people who stand against all discrimination based on identity.
READ MORE: Division in Carlisle as anti-asylum policy demonstrators gather
She claimed it’s 'important to recognise most LGBT people are working class', and therefore are being ‘systematically deprived and exploited under capitalism’. She hopes to hear local candidates' plans to overturn the ‘damages caused by the Tory government' and show solidarity with LGBT people.
She said this would include reversing anti-trade union laws and pushing to implement workplace policies that support LGBT staff, and reducing the LGBT pay gap, citing research from Equality Works Group, which claimed there is a 22 per cent gap, meaning LGBT workers were effectively paid about £6,700 less per year than non-LGBT people.
She also supported greater funding for the NHS to increase access to healthcare for LGBT people, the founding of a national care service and welfare system to alleviate poverty within the LGBT community, and the implementation of a ‘dignified asylum and migration system’ to help LGBT people suffering persecution and violence abroad.
She concluded: “To truly support LGBT people, it is not enough to simply condemn hate crimes and prejudice, or stick a rainbow flag on things - one must commit to an economic and systemic change to eradicate the material conditions that promote and sow division and hate.
“Candidates and political parties must show true solidarity.”
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