The Pandemic and its impact on LBGTQ+ people - shedding light on domestic abuse.
In May of this year, the LGBT Foundation conducted its most extensive research to date, into the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on LGBT communities in the United Kingdom. What they uncovered was a wide range of profound effects that the pandemic has had on the lives of LGBT people, most notably in areas such as mental health, eating disorders, substance abuse, homelessness, access to support, and unsafe living environments.
Since social distancing measures were introduced, there has been a shocking rise in domestic abuse in the UK. The lack of support for both trans women and men affected by domestic abuse was cited as one of the biggest struggles by LGBT victims. This lack of support has a massive impact on those of the LGBT community, as with no real recognition of domestic abuse that occurs outside of the opposite-sex relationships, it hinders their ability to see themselves as victims and to get the support they need due to the lack of services on offer.
During this isolation period, abuse and discrimination towards the LGBT community has meant that people have chosen to go back into the closet or avoid coming out entirely to those with whom they live as they find themselves living in LGBT-phobic households.
The inability and freedom to express one’s identity only adds to the stress, anxiety, and isolation that they feel. In extreme circumstances, reports have found that some LGBT have been made homeless during the crisis after their families have found out that they are LGBT.
Hatred at home and in the street.
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While Covid19 has certainly taken centre stage on every news report so far in 2020, it is not the only thing to affect Pride month. The untimely death of Floyd, the Black man who died at the hands of a white cop after he kneeled on his neck, has led to massive protests from the LGBT community over racism and unjust police brutality.
We must not forget that the very existence of the LGBTQ+ and rights movement is thanks to riots that were led by people of colour, and so now, more than ever, we must honour that.
The continuing conversation about the LGBTQ+ and its issues in America today is down to radical acts of change spurred by protests that were led by women of colour like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. Protests and riots, such as the one that took place on June 28, 1969. Police raided the Stonewall Inn, a meeting place for LGBTQ+ New Yorkers. When they demanded to do sex verification checks on trans women, a spontaneous protest broke out.
Pride itself owes its very existence to these riots.
LGBTQ+ issues and racial issues are not mutually exclusive as LGBTQ+ people of colour find themselves navigating a complicated network of injustice and oppression from all sides. With intersectionality being at the core of activism, you cannot be in support of everyone in one community without leaving the other out.
The violence and racism the Black community faces daily, whist fighting the systems currently in place that discriminate against them, gives us another reason to be proud, this Pride.