CRAIG’S THOUGHTS

By Craig Hanlon-Smith @craigscontinuum

Dig Deep. Or Never Hide the Pride. ..

As you read the October edition of this magazine the first time it has appeared in print for some 18 months, summer may well have truly slipped off for its annual break if it ever really arrived. Desperate for recovery, retailers will be smacking us around the face with treats of Christmas to come, and organisers of LGBTQ+ Pride events will already be prodding us with promises of early-bird discounts if we part with our too-scant cash, months ahead of events we were never really sure if we enjoyed very much anyway. I write this as I gaze out to semi-gloomy skies, undecided as to whether to attend Worthing Pride as a frumpy faggot or sequinned Shanelta.

And it’s not that I’m not looking forward to the event, I very much am. I’m slightly ashamed to say this is the first time I’ve attended what some may call a provincial Pride and the uncertainty of what lies ahead reminds me of the Prides I attended almost 30 years ago.

As does the entertainment line-up. However talented or terrible, I cannot tell you the excited joy I feel at the list of cabaret artists, predominantly drag, although not all, considered to be the main draw of the day. Artists who have entertained locals all year round, no coming together at the annual event of community celebration.

I’m also slightly apprehensive. Although a mere 10 miles from the small city that was my home for 20 years, I know very little about the town but I am familiar with the stories of recent assaults on people perceived to either be gay or trans in the area. The victims of these assaults actually neither, but the real and true identity of those subjected to these attacks is not relevant to someone hell-bent on doing them harm.

This is not a statement on the dangers of Worthing per se, but on the daily life of people of minority groups in the UK in 2021. I did say it feels like the Prides of 30 years ago, and the violence is not contained within smaller towns part of the red wall or blue trench or forgotten masses. Like any cancer, it has spread everywhere.

Ramjith Kankanamalage was murdered in a London cemetery, in what police are describing as a homophobic hate crime, his post-mortem confirming the cause of death as a blunt force trauma to his head. The murder took place in a well-known cruising area, and it is thought his attackers were in deliberate wait. Ramjith and I are gay men of the same age. It feels as though the past 30 years have not happened.

It did. And we must not allow ourselves to be pulled back. Provincial towns up and down the country now hold their own Pride events and, where possible, we must support them. Visibility is a significant step in our peaceful march against the spread of violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, all over the world and especially for us, here at home. And this country is our home and the home to those who wish to settle here in the name of collective freedom, peace and true democracy.

We also need now, more than ever, to dig deep and find our individual resilience. Every one of us has a tried and tested method of overcoming adversity and standing tall, whether actually or metaphorically. Whether because of our gender, our sex, our sexual orientation, our ability limitation, health, the loss of a loved one, a career, whatever it may be. Now is not the time to retreat and continue a pattern of comfortable hiding inspired by the pandemic, not that visibility should be about putting ourselves at risk from a virus that is either biological or social.

We are here, we have a right to be so.

The tone of our country has changed in the past five years and I need say little more about a national political direction. Yet, make no mistake – this has been instrumental in emboldening those who are seeking out our difference for assault. Now is the time for faggots and sequins and so much more than ever. We should paint our nails, wear our heels, strap up our army boots and just turn up in whatever floats your bath toy, but not turning in cannot be an option.

There are those who have kept faith and worked tirelessly with and for our communities these past 18 months. We should celebrate the teams providing Pride celebration opportunities by other means. Ticketed events of any kind are in many ways exclusive in that there will be those who are unable to access them. This is one of the many reasons drag has always been so vital to our local communities in bringing us together for the price of a pint or less.

“Visibility is a significant step in our peaceful march against the spread of violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, all over the world and especially for us, here at home”

The production of this magazine has continued throughout the past 18 months, online and now back in print. Information sourced, researched, written, discussed, argued about, challenged, edited, designed and (you might suggest of course I would state so) I have always considered Gscene, now Scene, to be vital to the local communities of Brighton & Hove.

Whatever our future, Pride events will return in some forms that are familiar or perhaps not. Though Pride is not a concert, a party, an event outside or framed in a more sedate and sophisticated seated arena. It does not belong to a money making organisation whether it contributes to charitable foundations or not. It is neither provincial nor massively metropolitan. Pride is within, it belongs to us all as individuals and to hide the pride is the true sin.

Army boots or sequins, more than ever before, the time is now.