Celebrate Pride...
Hi everyone!
What a week it has been so far! Tomorrow we have the most fun and amazing SMASHcamp there has ever been, and we hope you can make it!
Not only will we have our very own Drag Queen Klamborghini co-hosting, we will also be starting the class 15 minutes earlier at 9:45am as we are joined by our guest speaker - Matthew Hodson. Matthew will be sharing some of his story and offering some top tips as to how we can support LGBTQ+ people around the world, especially those living in countries that have no laws or rights to protect them. We really hope you will join us for this important section of SMASHcamp.
Before we read Matthew's email, let's find out a little more about him so you will understand why we are so thankful to have him join us on Saturday!
Matthew has been a LGBT activist since the mid 1980s, actively involved in protest against Section 28, and a founding member of Outrage. He worked for Gay Times in the early 1990s and in 1999 conceived and co-curated ‘Pride and Prejudice’ at the Museum of London, the first exhibition on LGBT lives at a major UK museum. That same year he joined Gay Men Fighting AIDS, eventually rising to the role of Chief Executive. In 2016 he became Executive Director of NAM, a community-based charity which supports people living with HIV globally by providing accurate and up to date information about HIV/AIDS.
Throughout his working life, Matthew has fought to ensure that the HIV and sexual health needs of gay, bisexual, trans and queer people are addressed. Through his work and his advocacy, he has tackled the ignorance and fear that still surrounds HIV, providing a positive role model of someone who refuses to be shamed about his status and who is surviving and thriving with HIV. He was the overall winner at the Social CEO awards 2017 and was twice listed in the Independent’s list of top 100 LGBT+ people as well as the top 100 most influential people living with HIV in the US Poz Magazine.
As well as his work on HIV and sexual health, Matthew works as a performer in shows including The Chemsex Monologues, Queers and the award-winning webseries The Grass is Always Grindr.
Matthew's words -
This year, the anger of a community, besieged, threatened and attacked by the Police and by others in power, emerged in rage, riot and protest. Those protests have resonated around the world. The parallels with a similar movement 51 years ago this month are striking.
In 1969 the frustration and rage of a community exploded onto the streets of downtown New York City. Lesbians, gay men, trans women and drag queens decided that the perpetual harassment by the police would no longer stand. Bricks were thrown, fires were lit and the police were routed. Stonewall wasn’t a protest, it was a riot.
While there had been LGBT activists before, Stonewall is now taken to mark the birth of the modern LGBT movement. Around much of the globe, June is designated ‘Pride Month’ and marches and celebrations are held to commemorate its anniversary. Stonewall reminds us that great social change can be sparked by those who are most marginalised by society. When gay men started to die of a mysterious illness in the 1980s, Governments were slow to respond. Although AIDS was identified in 1981, it took until the middle of that decade for the President, Ronald Reagan, to even mention the disease. By that time, thousands of Americans had died.
In the UK the Government were faster to produce national HIV campaign materials but, at the same time, the fear of AIDS was mobilised to drive support for Section 28, enshrining in law a second-class status for lesbians and gay men.
AIDS cut a swathe through gay communities. At a time when being open about your sexuality was still unusual, many families had to deal with the dual shock of learning that their son or brother was gay – and also that he was dying.
Some families rallied but stories of men who were abandoned and left to die alone in hospital beds were all too common.
This was the gay community that I grew into. I was younger than the generation which suffered the greatest devastation but old enough to lose count of the friends I lost. I’m thrilled that there’s a whole new generation who’ve never known loss from AIDS. The progress we have made in the last two decades, both in our ability to manage HIV and in LGBT equality has been staggering.
But any gains we have made should not be taken for granted. We have seen a renewed vigour in the attacks on our trans sisters and brothers, with their rights being threatened in the UK by the Government this week. Populist parties in the UK, the US and around the world rumble about withdrawing marriage equality and other hard fought for rights. New politicians deliberately stoke homophobia for electoral advantage and violent crime against LGBT+ communities continues to rise.
When AIDS struck our communities we didn’t just get angry, we got organised. The rights now afforded to LGBT+ people should not be taken for granted. History demonstrates that we are not on a single straight path towards legal equality and social acceptance. Celebrate Pride in whatever way you can but hold on tight to the spirit of Stonewall, we will need that strength in the years to come.
Matthew Hodson is the Executive Director of NAM / aidsmap. Follow Matthew on Twitter at: @Matthew_Hodson.
To Matthew, and everyone around the world who helped create the freedom we enjoy in this country today, thank you. May we continue to stand in solidarity, raise our voices and keep fighting until there is equality for all, everywhere
Sam and Ash
