Blog

This Saturday is Pride in London and there are similar events coinciding across the world. What is Pride all about? It started out as Gay Liberation or Gay Freedom and was focussed on the struggle for human rights. Historically it was celebratory AND serious; participants remembered the Stonewall Riots, friends they'd lost to AIDS and the victims of homophobic assaults, all whilst kitted out in the cocktail of colours that have come to symbolise Pride. These marches and the vocal opposition to inequality were a huge catalyst towards legislative change and increased visibility for LGBT people.

Sometimes when we push for equality, we get criticised for drawing attention to ourselves, banging on about the same old thing (aren't-things-better-for-you-lot-now-anyway), flying flags, being trouble makers or worst of all, pushing the gay agenda.

After speaking at a staff meeting on the importance of including LGBT topics in primary schools, I was invited to spend a day in one discussing different families. It was a timely reminder, in amongst all the charity red tape & future fundraising, as to how worthwhile all this is.

Last month Nadine Dorries had an abstinence bill passed which asks for all 13 -16 year old girls to be given additional sex education on how to 'say no'. We've all been lying awake at night trying to figure out how we can teach only girls to say no to underage sex, when clearly sex involves girls AND boys. Surely Mrs Dorries isn't suggesting that boys are just pistol-pocketed demons who seek only to de-flower our innocent, rosy-cheeked maidens - mute maidens, who have little or no ability to articulate the word 'no'?  Can it be possible that in 2011, people are still encouraging the view that sexual desire is owned by men and that poor, sexless women are on a backwards treadmill, trying to avoid their lecherous and uncontrollable advances. That if only teenage girls would say 'no' to pressure to put out, learn to dress appropriately and make sure they're home in their floral nightgowns by 9pm, those nasty boys wouldn't be able to impregnate them.

Cons:

• Not being invited to family events. Or being invited while your 'friend', with whom you have a house, a business and six children, is not, due to it being for 'close family only' (although your brother turns up with a girl he pulled at the village barn dance the night before).