LGBT History Month and the Trade Unions

Last night SERTUC (South East Region Trades Union Council) which represents the trade unions in London and South East England organised a 'Pride in our legacy' event at Congress House. This is the second year that SERTUC had done this and the event has been a huge success. It is meant to coincide with Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender History Month, which is February, and brings LGBT trade unionists, together with their partners and friends together. So Congress House goes pink for the evening and there are generous offerings of free food and drink. Some prominent (and not so prominent) LGBT performers take to the stage but there is also a serious side to the event and the festivities are punctuated by speakers representing both the trade union movement and various aspects of the worldwide campaign for LGBT rights.

This year Anna Eagle MP, who last year celebrated a civil partnership with her partner who is a trade union activist, spoke about the important rights which have been gained in the UK over the last ten years but also pointed out that there are still some elements of resistance to progress on LGBT rights in the House of Lords. There was also a speaker from the Sex Workers Union, who are campaigning hard against the Policing and Crime Bill, which would have the effect of criminalising the clients of sex workers. The Green Party is opposed to this and believes that the best way of tackling prostitution and sex work is to legalise it and to have licensed brothels where sex workers can work safely and legally, with proper medical and social resources to hand. The Sex Workers Union agrees with this and the speaker introduced himself as "a prostitute, whore, sex worker and provider of sexual services." He argued forcefully that by criminalising either sex workers or their clients, the industry would be driven underground with all sorts of dangerous consequences. The issue of sex trafficing is a completely different issue and the problem is that the two are often conflated. By legalising prostitution and allowing sex workers to join a recognised trade union, they would be protected from exploitation and able to be represented by the union movement in the way that any other group of workers can be.

But by far the most interesting speaker last night came from Latvia and was introduced by a speaker from Amnesty International. He is a very brave gay man who started organising Pride marches in Riga in 2005. He described how only 25 people had marched in the first Pride and how at the time it had been illegal, and there had been several hundred police sent to protect the marchers. The campaigners persisted and now the Pride is legal but there are still huge counter demonstrations which often spill over into violence. Many LGBT activists from across Europe have gone to support the Latvians and this has helped a great deal. He described the level of homophobia he encountered in Latvia as being terrible and finally after he was forced out of four jobs, he came to work in London. The job he now has in a coffee shop in Soho only pays 30% of what he earned in Latvia, but he pointed out that for the first time in his life he felt "truly free."
The ironic thing is that he is a Lutheran pastor and was excommunicated by his church in Latvia because of his sexuality. He commented that religion should be about joy and if it is not, then there is something wrong with it. Both he and the Amnesty speaker appealed for LGBT people from across Europe to attend Baltic Pride this year, where the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian LGBT groups will come together to march through the streets of Riga. It is really shameful that in 2009 the citizens of a EU member state are treated in such a shameful fashion because of hatred and intolerance. And we should never forget that progress has only been made because of the brave actions of people such as this Latvian campaigner.

I spoke to him afterwards and introduced myself as a gay European Parliamentary candidate for the Green Party in London and congratulated him on his courage. It turns out that he lives in the same area of London as me (Camberwell) and he is interested in speaking at a fringe meeting I am organising at the Green Party spring conference next month on 'Homophobia in Eastern Europe and the Green Response'. I really hope he comes and that we can give him a big welcome.

In the interim, I will campaign for the rights of the many LGBT Eastern Europeans living in London who are refugees here from the bigotry of their own countries and hope that together we can create a better and more progressive Europe with more pro-LGBT Green MEPs such as Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert.