In the election campaign I was touched, but not surprised, to see Sal Brinton post a link on facebook to an interview with Adrian Hyyrylainen-Trett where he spoke of his experiences growing up gay, and self-identifying as an HIV+ parliamentary candidate. My suspicion was that many would encourage someone in Adrian’s position to “be discreet”: but seeing him being so open and the party President support him so clearly made me proud to be a liberal democrat.
From a gay perspective, it’s been encouraging in the present leadership election to see doubts over Tim’s support for LGBT people raised as a cause for concern, and to see him act quickly to counter them.
Recently I had a very positive surprise when I read an article picking up on Norman Lamb’s piece in Pink News where he moved the whole debate on a stage by saying:
until every young person is proud of who they are, who they find attractive and who they love, our fight will continue.
The shift feels significant: from accepting a minority (which keeps them as a minority whose acceptance is to be fought for) and something genuine. It calls to mind the slogan of the LGBT-majority Free Community Church in Singapore: “welcome home”
As a reminder of the other side, a friend posted a “joke” on Facebook about four men talking of their sons: the first three were very proud of their straight sons’ successes in business, but the fourth sadly admitted that his son was gay and worked in a bar. My friend’s point was that this reflected the experience of many LGBT people who find themselves under-achieving and being under-valued for a host of reasons.
That feeling of being unacceptable is so deep-seated as to be almost invisible. What moved me about that interview with Norman was that it’s the opposite: a message of acceptance that is just as deep-seated. There is something profoundly transforming in being valued for the whole of who one is.
I remember reading a book called Society against itself, which is critique of the dysfunctional end of political correctness and makes some sharp points about the failure to recognise difference. Under the pretence of acceptance it can end up being brutalising.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, the idea of no-one being “enslaved by … conformity” from the preamble to the Liberal Democrat constitution keeps coming to mind. That is about not pushing everyone into the same mold, but refreshingly and vibrantly celebrating diversity.
Norman’s interview spoke powerfully to me. But this isn’t a gay-only approach: it’s there in his support for people with mental illness (another group society often treats as if they should not be different) and and gender balance. I am surprised at how much that message of liberty and acceptance speaks to me.
I don’t know how far it is appropriate to link this to one leadership candidate or the other. It may be more about looking at this part of our core values now, and see the embracing of diversity as something which enables us come together and support whoever emerges as leader.
* Mark Argent was the Liberal Democrat candidate for Huntingdon in the 2019 and 2024 General Elections.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Lord Bonkers: "Something less terrible than the truth"
Two new Makerfield by-election polls gives Burnham 5 and 12 point leads
Reform under water
Neil Hickman
Tom Bailey
expats
David Raw
Tom Reeve
2 Comments
If instead of being an article about young gay people this had been an article from a working class perspective, I wonder if responses would be the same ?
And yes of course before anyone jumps to any wrong conclusions and takes the discussion down a side road – it is not unusual to be both gay and working class.
Just imagine, Mark, if you had written —
“… I read an article picking up on Norman Lamb’s piece in ‘Working Class News’ where he was saying: —
until every young person is proud of who they are and what class they come from, our fight will continue.”
In LDV we recently had an article from Gordon Lishman attacking what he called the politics of “identity” although he seemed to be aiming his fire at nationalism and class rather than other forms of identity. I commented that class always seems a bit of a blind spot for some Liberal Democrats prompting references to Grimond saying that he would “abolish class”.
One of the reasons why the apparently dead bird that is The Labour Party has never fallen off its perch is because of the loyalty of working class voters. If you do not believe me just check the size of some Labour majorities in those seats where even last month they were tens of thousands of votes ahead of the Liberal Democrat candidate down in fourth, fifth or sixth place.
Until Liberal Democrats address this issue “our fight will continue”.
I was picking up what had spoken to me in that article — but the point is absolutely general about being accepted for who one is.
On the specific issue of class, life is complicated because how people self-identify is changing. I suspect the key issue is whether the we are going down a Liberal path of opportunity for all, or the more traditional Socialist one of making life bearable for those at the bottom of the pile, while also keeping them there. That said, with “new Labour” doing its stuff, we have been and might be again Left of Labour, but with a rather different mentality