Today is all about…April 2022

I have been a little lacklustre of late, I wanted to try and get April up before the end of May but failed!

In my defence, I’ve been swamped that I’ve not had time to sit down and give the effort to this as I would have liked. Especially with the monthly thought posts, which take more brain cells that I just don’t have spare.

So this monthly thought has been quickly put together.

The monthly thought: UK LGBT+ rights

While this topic is not far off the original one in mind, I know that there is more to say, so I will probably re-look at this later. However, LGBT+ rights are being challenged at the moment, and I can only see it getting worse.

The government have spent years rainbow-washing the country, promoting that they’ve changed since Section 28 days, but the fact is they really haven’t. And it’s not gone unnoticed.

They have spent years promising to ban conversion therapy toward the LGBT+. And then they were organising a ‘Safe to be me’ conference to show the world how inclusive we are.

From outside the LGBT+ community, they were saying and looking to be doing the right stuff. People were smelling the roses. However, those that could see through this, could only smell the chicken shit!

April has proved how backwards the government still are, and that will never change.

It’s obvious that their ‘promise’ was going to be broken when they left prominent LGBT+ charities out of the conversation, but relied on the advice of a hate group masquerading as a charity.

After three years of promising a ban on conversion therapy, the government made the decision to scrap this law, which said ‘charity’ said that they supported the full supported this decision.

The next day, the government did a u-turn on the decision, but instead of proceeding with the full conversion therapy as promised, trans people were going to be excluded.

However, regardless of how much damage control they did, the LGBT+ community wasn’t accepting this.

In return over 120 LGBT+ & HIV groups pulled out of the upcoming ‘Safe to be me’. Which placed the last nail in the coffin for the conference, which was a poorly veiled attempt to show how pro-equality this country was.

When it comes to LGBT+ rights in the EU, for the third year running we’ve dropped in placement.

In 2015, we topped the board, but we’re now placed 14th! The ongoing anti-trans sentiment and our equality body (EHRC) not doing what is set out in the their mandate are being cited as the reasons.

I’ve said this before, and I will say it again. The problems currently being experienced have nothing to do with trans rights. This is a cover for LGBT+ rights as a whole.

And we’re seeing it come across now, with the police being threatened to be taken to court if they are in any pride events. Where an author sets their hyenas of people, which includes homophobic abuse. Where hate groups are promoting homophobic practices. Or gay people openly being called paedophiles/groomers.

With hate crimes towards the LGBT+ continuing to increase year on year, when will straightsville wake up and realise what the fuck is going on?

There is definitely a lot more that I want to say on this, but I need more time, full research and thinking behind it.

This month’s talking points

Buddies

My social life is a little bit different since lockdown, and it feels a little weird. I’m doing the out out as much as I used to, instead, I am using the buddy time doing other things.

Our ChippyTuesday™ are back up and running, and it’s great that we’ve had some repeat appearances, as well as some new ones too.

We also got invited to an Easter BBQ, a housewarming and some wedding celebrations.

It seemed like the social butterfly was on full flow in April, and I I was seeing a lot of peeps that I hadn’t seen for ages.

Beauty and the Beast

The husby surprised me one day and said he bought tickets to go and see Beauty and the Beast.

To be honest, he really wanted to go see the show himself, but who am I to complain?

It feels like an age since we had been to the theatre. We last saw Death Drop (October) and Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (September) last year.

The husby and I love the theatre, and would love to go on a regular basis. However, the price of the tickets means that I need to choose between eating for the month or going to watch a show!

I prefer to go to the theatre rather than a cinema. There are many reasons, but one of them is that I feel like a theatre production has something more personal feel about it. So it is always nice to come across a promo, which means that we can go.

As for the show, I loved it. It ticked all the gay boxes: was Disney, a musical and a theatre production!

It was definitely worth going for a watch!

Bury Pride

April saw the Gay City Bowlers had a stall at Bury Pride, so the husby and I decided that we would pop down to see them and show our support.

I’ve know that Bury Pride has been running for a few years, but I’ve never been before. Even though I spent over 12 years being brought up in the town.

So here I was, at the end of The Rock surrealy watching a parade going through the street. Once the GCB lot saw us, before we knew it we were part of the parade. Which, to be fair, was more a pride walk than a commercialised parade.

I won’t lie, I was dreading/feeling this pride event differently. I move away from Bury over 20 years ago because of my sexuality!

After coming out, I had never felt so alone. My friends had other plans, and eventually I was ommited from them!

Feeling isolated, I decided that I needed to move away and find me. So, I gave up the house and started house-sharing in Manchester. And I have never looked back.

While I regularly visit Bury to see family, I’ve never really felt comfortable there since.

But now, I’m looking around and seeing how different it is. How the younger generation are embracing, and enjoying being themselves.

Got gawd’s sake, Bury even has a gay bar now. It has a fucking gay bar! Things have definitely changed since I moved away.

After the parade, which was basically a loop-de-loop of the town centre, we ended up back to the main area based as the Castle Armoury, which from the outside looks like a prison.

The room was split in two, with the main stage taking up the largest of the area. The rest was tables nfor charities, shops and organisations, include GCB. Oh and obviously there was a bar.

Outside there was a smaller (but busier) stage and bar, for the House of Bridget. Said gay bar!

It was nice for a few other GCBers to come adn show their support, and there was a lot of people that stopped by to see the stall to see what we were all about.

So, I’ve attended my first pride session of 2022. It’s official, pride season has started!

‘Today is all about…’ photos