As I set out last week, I'm a big believer in the student movement. This week's focus on National Student Pride has been a striking one.
The volunteer not-for-profit organisation run largely by students (and a team of graduate mentors) faced boycott calls from Queers For Palestine for sponsorship of brands connected to Israel and the war in Palestine.
Protest won out this week, as the Student Pride team listened to concerns and dropped all the sponsors with connections to Israel, including Airbus, HSBC and L'Oreal.
It follows protests against the British LGBT+ Awards and the PinkNews awards. But it’s really part of a much bigger conversation about how community events, particularly Pride - rooted in activism and radical acts - are funded.
Wherever you sit on this week's matter, National Student Pride did what it does best. As a pride of conversation, panels and debates, the team listened and made a reasoned and swift response. QueerAF began as a National Student Pride-funded podcast, and we're proud to be a media partner for the organisation’s year-round work supporting students - particularly after the way they've responded to an incredibly tricky week in their event week.
But now we need to consider the ripple effect this will have - not only on for-profit events, but crucially on the whole LGBTQIA+ third sector, including charities and community interest companies like us.
Our ability to generate funding from charitable grants has been hampered by unfair media attention on trans charities. The already small pool of available sponsors dropped dramatically during last year’s co-ordinated actions against pride campaigns. This week, because of the current international context, that pool got smaller again.
Running an LGBTQIA+ anything just got a lot trickier, and I'm worried about what that means for queer charities right across the UK.
But it’s also a reminder of just how important it is to come together as a community for important, difficult conversations. How we need journalism, media and spaces that can enable us. To not create divisions between us. All at an acute time of political attacks against all of us.
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QueerAF is written by Jamie Wareham, and another queer creative each week.
💬 This week:
- Lesbian Bars. New plans for a 'trans-exclusionary' lesbian bar are overshadowed by the overwhelming show of support for a trans-inclusive one - we take a look at the bigger picture.
- General Medical Council. As the UK celebrates a LGBT+ History Month focused on medicine the General Medical Counil makes a historic apology - we explore.
- Dr Cecil Belfield Clarke. This week's Queer Gaze celebrates the last in our series of special history stories in the Queer Gaze with School's Out - with a look at queer Caribean hero Dr Clarke.
Skip the doomscrolling and support queer creatives instead. We are QueerAF – and so are you.
Can a proposed new Lesbian club 'legally' exclude trans people?
TL;DR: A new private members club that plans to "legally restrict" transgender people from attending has announced plans to open. But whether its plans are legal is a complex question. Meanwhile, they’ve been overshadowed by a huge community welcome for a new trans-inclusive lesbian bar La Camionera.
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