THE RAINBOW PROJECT

This past month or two has come with high highs and low lows for our community and for marginalised communities across Northern Ireland.

Belfast Pride was a beautiful and joyous event, with thousands coming out in support of LGBTQIA+ equality. The streets of Belfast were lit up with Pride flags, filled with the sounds of jubilance, celebration and peaceful protest for a better future for Northern Ireland’s LGBTQIA+ communities. Placards featuring demands for more inclusive education, better care for trans people, reducing HIV transmissions, ending hate crime and banning conversion practices were sprinkled throughout the march, and it all went off peacefully, with attendees going about their evenings and having a ball in various parties and clubs throughout the city.

The following weekend saw Belfast reach one of its lowest lows since the Troubles. In stark contrast to the joyous, progressive and inclusive scenes of Belfast Pride - and the beautiful sights of Portrush’s first ever Pride rally taking place at the same time - racist and Islamophobic rioters gathered across Belfast city, converging on Royal Avenue. There they were confronted by a massive counter-demonstration focused on sending the message that migrants, refugees, and all those from minority ethnicities and religions are welcome in Belfast and Northern Ireland.

Despite this impressive show of resistance against racism, which Rainbow was proud to support and several of our staff attended, the mob made their way towards the city’s most ethnically diverse region - the Botanic and Ormeau areas of South Belfast - where they enacted heinous violence and intimidation. Shop windows were smashed. Cafés and supermarkets were burnt out. Barbers, with clients still in their seats, were targeted and projectiles lobbed through their open doors. Racist mobs ravaged several areas in South Belfast late into the night, with the sole aim of inciting and carrying out violence against ethnic minority communities in Belfast, making them feel unwelcome and unsafe in their own city.

This violence and intimidation cannot go unanswered by progressive communities across Belfast, and particularly by LGBTQIA+ communities. Many of the people who are out hurling racist abuse and targeting businesses and spaces run by or frequented by minority ethnic communities are the same people who target and harass LGBTQIA+ communities. Many of those in the media and political sphere who have been stirring up hatred against migrants and refugees are also responsible for stirring up hatred against trans people in particular and LGBTQIA+ communities more broadly.

The violence we’ve seen demonstrates quite clearly the impact of this inflammatory rhetoric on communities on the ground, which LGBTQIA+ people know all too well. For years we’ve seen, almost in tandem, a ramping up of anti-migrant/refugee rhetoric - with Government ministers using terms like ‘invasion’ and an unending media focus on boat crossings - as well as anti-trans/LGBTQIA+ rhetoric - with trans people being portrayed as impeding on women’s safety and the relentless targeting of gender affirming care. In both cases, a purported ‘threat to children’ is consistently weaponised and already marginalised minority communities are scapegoated for many very legitimate issues facing the country and all communities within it, such as failing health services and a lack of social homes. Migrants and refugees, minority ethnic communities, and trans and LGBTIA+ communities are impacted by these societal failings in acute and heightened ways, many without a platform to resist this misinformation and prejudiced rhetoric.

The impact of this is felt even more keenly by LGBTQIA+ people of colour, particularly refugees attempting to navigate the convoluted and discriminatory asylum system. A report launched by Rainbow Refugees NI, a group established to advocate for the rights of LGBTQIA+ refugees and provide a safe space to meet others like them, highlighted the monumental failings affecting LGBTQIA+ refugees in the asylum accommodation system. The systemic and interpersonal violence experienced by LGBTQIA+ refugees in asylum accommodation is unconscionable, and requires all of us to work together across sectors to create a fairer and more just asylum system.

It’s clear: the struggle for racial justice and LGBTQIA+ equality are interlinked and intertwined, and we cannot have one without the other. However, even if this clear overlap did not exist, it would remain incumbent on all of us to make our voices heard and to stand against the aggressive racist rhetoric and violence being perpetrated within our own communities across Belfast, and to work towards equality, inclusion and justice for all marginalised communities.

We also must acknowledge that LGBTQIA+ people of colour face racism often from within our own community, while at the same time facing racist and anti-LGBTQIA+ discrimination in intersecting ways outside of it. We know that, within our sector, there is a body of work to be done to ensure that LGBTQIA+ people of colour feel safe accessing services, attending social events, and joining organisations or groups. Too often LGBTQIA+ people of colour do not feel sufficiently welcomed into our communities. This needs to change, and everyone within our communities deserves to feel included, respected and represented.

This inclusion cannot be a tokenistic exercise, and must be a consistent and ongoing approach to ensure that both our campaigning work and services are anti-racist, working towards a better Northern Ireland for all LGBTQIA+ people, including those from ethnic minority backgrounds. We remain committed to that work, and it is vital that everyone within our communities recommit themselves to this in light of the horrendous violence we’ve seen on the streets of Belfast in recent weeks.

No amount of words in the pages of this magazine can summarise or do justice to the pain and fear felt by ethnic minority communities in Northern Ireland, nor can they provide comfort or solace to those communities in the wake of this violence without appropriate action to back them up. However, it is my firm belief that these racist actions and groups are not representative of the views of people across Belfast or Northern Ireland. We cannot allow this small minority to intimidate communities, spread fear, and drive people out of this city.

If you have experienced a hate crime, the Hate Crime Advocacy Service is there to help. The Rainbow Project, Victim Support and the Migrant Centre can support you whether or not you wish to report to the PSNI. Our LGBTQIA+ Ethnic Minorities Advocacy Officer is also here to provide support, a listening ear, and to help you find community and safety in Belfast. GEG, our Gay Ethnic Group, provides a space for those within LGBTQIA+ communities from an ethnic minority to meet other folks with similar experiences, while the aforementioned Rainbow Refugees NI are there for those who are navigating the asylum system to meet others and build up their social circles in Northern Ireland.

Through these services and through supporting organisations across communities, we’ll continue working to build what is needed most at times like this: support, solidarity and community.

WE THOUGHT WE COULD BREAK THE ICE WITH A LITTLE GAME OF WOULD YOU RATHER

Always have to sing instead of speak or dance everywhere you go? I would always rather have to sing instead of speak

Have the ability to teleport anywhere in the world or be able to time travel to any era?

Time travel to any era

Be stuck in a rom-com with your worst enemy or in a horror movie with your best friend?

Horror movie with my best friend

Be an extra in a hit movie or the lead in a box office flop?

An extra in a blockbuster movie

Have a constant clown nose or permanent clown shoes?

Permanent clown shoes

Always have to wear mismatched socks or always wear your clothes backward?

Mismatched socks

Have to live without your phone or live without your favourite food? Live without my favourite food ‘cause there loads of other ones that I like

Be able to talk to animals or speak every human language fluently?

Speak every human language fluently, I think. But they’re both very good

Be a famous villain in a movie or a forgotten hero in real life?

A forgotten hero

And lastly, name 3 celebrities dead or alive that you would invite to the ultimate dinner party.

I’m gonna say Joni Mitchell, because I’ve been listening to a lot of her amazing songs and songwriting to help inspire me for this album. Whitney Houston because she’s someone who I never got to meet or see live, and her voice was amazing and taught me a lot about singing when I was growing up and Marilyn Monroe for the stories that she would be able to tell of that time.