Many good reasons to celebrate
IT’S been a week for anniversaries, and today the local LGBTQ+ charity Liberate marks its 10th birthday.
That decade has been a period of huge change for equality and a shift in attitudes recognised in legislation, the workplace, and day-to-day life.
We’ve seen same sex marriage introduced, anti-discrimination legislation enacted, and some legal rights equalised.
Behind the scenes, the charity has supported hundreds of LGBTQ individuals, family and friends through its confidential support service, groups and online platforms.
An integral part of its mission is to make sure that LGBTQ people feel included in our community, that they have a ‘place’.
Whenever Liberate has courted controversy, and there have been a few moments, at its core the message has simply been, and remains, that it is okay to be different, and to challenge stereotypes.
As one performer it brought to the island once said: ‘Guernsey you are as gay as anywhere else, and this idea that you are enclosed in a bubble as an island is completely untrue.’
We, and Liberate, are still on a journey. But the fact that the charity’s highest-profile event, the annual Channel Islands Pride in Guernsey or Jersey, has become less of a call for acceptance, and more of a celebration of self, is in itself a reason to celebrate.