LGBT+ Conference 2019

The TUC (Trade Union Congress) brings together 48 member unions, and collectively represents more than 5.5 million workers around the UK. The Equality conferences offer unions such as Accord the opportunity to put forward items of business (we call them motions), which if adopted, become TUC policy. This article is a report back from our delegation at the LGBT+ Conference in July 2019.

Keynote speeches

Maria Exall (Chair of the TUC LGBT+ Committee) opened conference by reminding delegates of the progress that we’ve made on LGBT+ rights whilst reminding us of the challenges that still lie ahead. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the stonewall uprising, yet hate and intolerance seems to be on the rise again (reported crimes doubling in the last five years).

Frances O’Grady (TUC General Secretary) added a tribute to the hard work and dedication of all trade unionists that have fought and continue to fight against injustices. She pointed to the ‘rise of the dinosaurs’ in politics which is fuelling hate crimes — she laid this squarely at the door of those like Boris Johnson who have ‘an empty hole where any moral conscious should be’.

Frances praised the LGBT+ conference for sending a thoughtful motion on the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) to Congress 2018 which was unanimously passed.

“There is no room for bullying and shaming in our movement. When Trans people rise, all people rise — it’s time for unity”

There are still many challenges ahead of us including: ensuring schools have inclusive sex and relationship education; equalising LGBT+ rights in Northern Ireland; and making sure there are new laws to tackle harassment.

Demand for a General Election

The political landscape remains stuck in crisis as a result of the paralysis caused by Brexit. Frances argues that the UK needs a deal that meets the TUC Tests as laid out in the September 2018 General Council statement:

• Maintaining workers’ existing rights and establishing a level playing field so that British workers’ rights do not fall behind those of other European workers
• Preserving tariff-free, barrier-free, frictionless trade with the rest of Europe to protect jobs
• Ensuring that trade and livelihoods in Gibraltar and Ireland are protected — including avoiding a hard border, and protecting the Good Friday Agreement

Further, with the prospect of Boris Johnson becoming our next Prime Minister (which has now become a reality), elected by roughly 150k Tory party members, Frances called for a General Election now.

Other speakers

There was a panel discussion to talk about the problems with the current guidance on sex and relationship education — last updated in the year 2000 — and the issues that remain with the new guidance that comes into effect from September 2020. One of the main contentious areas is that parents can opt their children out of this vital area of education.

The panel was led by Jennifer Moses (National Official for Equality and Training at NASUWT), Sue Sanders (Emeritus Professor, Harvey Milk Institute 2015 and Chair of Schools OUT UK), and Khakan Qureshi (Founder of Birmingham South Asians LGBT). There was also an enlightening presentation by Dr Chelvan (Barrister) titled ‘Where next for Queer rights?’ looking at the state of LGBT+ rights across the world.

Harassment & bullying

In January 2019, we reported on new research that was conducted by the TUC on harassment at work, and conference was given an update on the campaign. In May we reported on further work by the TUC to build on this research — it showed that 7 in 10 LGBT+ people have been sexually harassed at work.

No one should have to put up with harassment, abuse or violence, especially at work. Accord has campaigned on this issue for many years and you may have one of our posters up in your workplace (if not, you can download and print a copy).

Inclusive data collection

For some time now, conference has called for questions relating to sexual and gender identities to be included in the UK Census — we were disappointed when this wasn’t included in 2011. The next Census will take place in 2021 and conference felt it was time for the TUC to start campaigning on this matter with the government and the Office for National Statistics.

Conference also called on unions to ensure that they use inclusive language on their application forms and membership records. In October 2018 I wrote about the steps Accord was taking to ensure we were being inclusive, including updating our membership database and application forms.

Hate crimes

Frances noted that over the last five years, hate crimes against LGBT+ people (because of their sexuality and gender identities) have been on the increase. In fact, they have doubled. Conference acknowledged however that much of what happens to LGBT+ people in our workplaces and on our streets goes unreported.

As well as some of the negative attitudes that are appearing in the wider society, there’s a problem with the law in that anti LGBT+ hate crimes are not treated equally to others. Conference asked for the TUC to campaign on changing the law and to focus on zero tolerance policies in the workplace.

If you’ve been affected by any of the issues that we’ve discussed here and you want to talk to us confidentially, or if you want to give us any feedback on what’s been happening in your workplace: contact us at equality@accordhq.org