The Saturday Scene: Happy Pride Month

Time flies. It is hard to believe it is already June. Didn't we just celebrate New Year's a few weeks ago?

I am looking forward to everything this month brings: the events, the energy, and the many Pride celebrations stretching through July and August. Pride Month invites celebration, but it also invites everyone to pause and reflect on where we stand as LGBTQ+ communities, what is happening to us, and what is happening around us.

The backdrop to this year's Pride Month is a difficult one, particularly for trans and non-binary people. And yet the action being taken by brilliant LGBTQ+ organisations and community leaders is more than inspiring. It is a reminder of what this community is made of.

This Pride Month arrives at the same moment that campaigners, among them the Trans+ Solidarity Alliance, are fighting to stop the EHRC's draft guidance from becoming the settled law of the land. If politicians want to demonstrate genuine allyship this June, they would be well advised to listen to the communities urging them to go back to the drawing board and produce guidance that does not treat exclusion as the default.

The UK can do better. I know that, because we used to.