Trans Rights Are Not Controversial
We Fight For LGBTQ+ Equality.
Warning – this isn’t about PR or communications, it’s about people.
In 2015 I drove Sir Ian Mckellen in the Manchester Pride parade – I have mentioned this quite a few times and here is a BBC article confirming it.
Over that weekend I came to understand why the Pride organisation I worked for was so important.
Through the media interviews that I accompanied Sir Ian to, I listened to the story of the life of a national treasure, known to many as Gandalf, who had fought hard to be where he is. A man who is an activist and also one of the greatest actors of our time.
First we went to BBC Breakfast. My favourite memory is Sir Ian trying to galvanise the make-up artists into action to save the BBC. An institution that has supported so many artists.
Later that day – after walking the parade for four hours – he did an interview with the BBC again for Sunday Morning Live. He talked in detail about the prejudice he faced and why he became an activist to fight for his, and other people’s, rights.
The BBC was vital in helping us do the work of Manchester Pride that weekend in celebrating and campaigning for LGBTQ+ rights and equality.
To me the BBC is a bastion of values, a place for education and a beacon for the UK and what we stand for. My Dad wouldn’t let us watch ITV news – it just wasn’t allowed. What’s more BBC World Service is the world’s leading international broadcaster providing programmes and content in English and 27 other languages.
We pay that much debated licence fee because the BBC represents us and it serves us. We have always known that it’s run by middle class cis white men but it has served many voices and it has challenged so much prejudice.
This week’s statements appear to say that the BBC now sees the fight for equality as too controversial.
I have worked with amazing teams from across the organisation, in particular BBC NWT and BBC Radio Manchester, to promote Manchester Pride to the regions for six years. Many of the people within these organisations are LGBTQ+ and they have been proud to be able to support their communities and join the fight.
The immediate reaction across social media was that this must be a mistake but as time goes on it doesn’t appear that this is true.
The BBC is the world’s leading public service broadcaster We’re impartial and independent, and every day we create distinctive, world-class programmes and content which inform, educate and entertain millions of people in the UK and around the world.
I can’t help but feel that the BBC is failing in its commitment to viewers in considering that LGBTQ+ rights are a matter of partiality – they are not.
It’s staggering that no one has spoken out to right this yet from within. ALL LGBTQ+ rights are human rights. How many times do we have to say this? Every year as we handle the PR for the Manchester Pride Festival, Manchester Pride faces the question from media – do we still need Pride – and every year Manchester Pride says YES. And Manchester Pride is right.
Discrimination exists everywhere, sadly even in a great institution like the BBC.
This move not only alienates staff and tells them they can’t be themselves, that they can’t march for equality, but it also makes a very dangerous statement to people who do not value equality. People who believe that an LGBTQ+ person’s right is not equal to their own can see the institution that we have all grown up taking a lead from not valuing it either.
As I have been writing this piece, more information has been released saying that the rules relate to so called controversial protests such as those we have seen recently relating to black lives matter or trans rights.
How can these be seen as controversial? Gay rights were considered to be controversial once, womens rights were controversial once – now we are lucky that they are a fact of life. The world was flat too once you know…
How can the BBC say that its staff cannot fight for the rights of trans people when we are trying to get to a place where trans people are considered to be equal by all – because they are. The BBC is not allowing trans people and their allies the right to protest when we had that right before them and that right was the catalyst for change.
This rule questions the validity of identities. Our company values state that we are authentic, that every member of the DATS team brings their whole self to the table. It’s important for our work but most importantly for our sense of who we are as people. An organisation that cares about its people accepts them for who they are and supports them in that, no matter what, even if that means a fight.
This whole thing stinks of systemic prejudice and fear and wipes out whole selves. We cannot sit back and let it go unchallenged.
To read the opinion of someone a lot more eloquent than me – read this article by Jamie Windust on Gay Times.
*I think it is important to state that I speak for myself here not Manchester Pride which is a client.