The UK champions its LGBT+ communities and is continually learning and striving to do better, while London’s Pride celebrations provide a beacon of representation beyond its boundaries. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t still space to do more when it comes to inclusion, visibility and change.
While much progress in equality can be marked over the decades, the past year has seen what feels like a tirade of attacks on the LGBT+ community. From the government’s continually stalled progress on a conversion therapy ban and the men’s Fifa World Cup hosted in Qatar, a country with staunch anti-LGBT+ laws (which also saw the ban of OneLove armbands), to a terrifying rising level of anti-LGBT+ violence across the UK and, most recently, the fresh threat against LGBT+ lives after Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni approved barbaric anti-gay laws.
These actions all take their physical and mental toll, and charity Stonewall says that half of those who identify as LGBT+ have previously experienced depression. Adding to that, a third of LGBT+ Britons feel isolated due to not hearing stories about anyone like them, according to new research from StoryTerrace, the nation’s leading biographer.
The events and revelations of the past 12 months underscore why Pride is still critically important for recognition in Britain, making now a pivotal time to fully support the LGBT+ community. That’s why, to mark its partnership with Pride in London 2023, The Independent is relaunching its Pride List of 50 LGBT+ change-makers to celebrate their contribution to modern life.
It was first instigated in 2000 under the editorship of Janet Street-Porter, at a time when the repeal of Section 28 was under threat and long before the introduction of civil partnerships, never mind equal marriage. It began as the Pink List before becoming the Rainbow…
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