Thirty years on, there remains more work to be done

* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Participants walk past The Stonewall Inn during the 2018 New York City Pride Parade in Manhattan, New York, U.S., June 24, 2018. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

In 2019 Stonewall will celebrate 30 years of being on the frontline of the work to secure the human rights of LGBT people at home in the UK and – increasingly in recent years - globally.  A big birthday is always a time for reflection, and we enter our next decade with a renewed focus on our role in securing basic human rights for LGBT people no matter where they live. It’s a huge, and often daunting challenge: the evidence of the violations of LGBT people’s rights and their exclusion from communities around the globe makes for very grim reading. 

The fact that lesbian, gay, bi and trans people around the world still face discrimination, exclusion and violence on a regular basis is something that should shock us all.  Same-sex relationships are illegal in 72 countries - in some countries a person can be given the death penalty because of who they are and who they love, in others they can be imprisoned for life, subjected to corporal punishment, tortured and ill-treated. Discrimination is rife, with many LGBT people living in fear, being excluded from education, employment, access to health care and forced to live at the margins of society. 

Trans people in particular often face horrific abuse. From the scant information that we can gather, we know that murder is rife, with simply being a trans person enough to guarantee a lifetime of harm and violence – with individuals denied their most basic civil and political rights.  

If the previous two paragraphs paint a bleak picture, it’s because the challenges are huge – too big for one person, one organisation to tackle alone. But we are not starting from a blank sheet of paper, and there are reasons for me, and you, to feel hopeful about what lies ahead.

International human rights standards exist, and safeguard the rights of all people - irrespective of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity. This means that States are obliged to protect individuals from homophobic, biphobic and transphobic violence, to prevent torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, to repeal laws criminalizing homosexuality and transgender people, to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and to safeguard freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly for all LGBT people.

Those legal tools are already in place to advance the protection of LGBT people from violence and discrimination. Now the hard work needs to happen to create a climate where they are backed by political will, by supportive elements of the media, by religious and cultural leaders who are willing to use their power and influence to advance respect for LGBT communities and by public and private organisations who recognize their duties to be inclusive whether as educators, health care providers or employers.   

In an era when many of the world’s governments have committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it needs to be stressed that the SDGs framework is an agenda for everyone. There will be a focus on LGBT people as part of the SDGs programme in the coming years – a hugely positive step forward. This needs to address the fact that if you are LGBT, you have a higher risk of living below the poverty line and that States need to support access to decent work through LGBT inclusive employment practices and the creation of safe environments. The SDGs present a golden opportunity to reduce inequalities by delivering through policy and practice the promise of all human rights. We need to grab this opportunity with both hands.

Organisations like Stonewall can fulfil a vital role by directly supporting LGBT activists and organisations in a range of countries in their work to advance their own rights. We can engage directly with those involved in the administration of justice – the police, the judiciary and prosecutors to make them aware of the issues that affect LGBT people and of their duty to ensure LGBT rights are protected.  We can push for States to be held accountable at the United Nations, regional human rights bodies and through the bilateral relationships that the UK government holds globally.  A very important part of our work has been to work closely with global employers, to support them to become LGBT inclusive themselves and to effectively use their influence to support a rights respecting environment in the countries they operate in. 

It’s a complex picture, with a lot at stake. In many parts of the world, progress feels painfully slow. But what we at Stonewall have learnt over our own 30 years of creating change is that working together will get us there faster. We all have a part to play in advancing LGBT equality – whether as part of a community, in our organisations or as individuals – because lasting change will come when all the key actors in any society start working together, and playing our part. I hope that in whatever way you can, you will step up and be part of that change too.

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