I haven't had much to say over the last couple of months and there are a few reasons for this, one being that I have had a change of career and have been spending my time getting my head round being out of statutory services for the first time in 7 years. The old chestnut of a change being as good as a rest has definitely been the case for me. As those who have followed the link from rucomingout.com will know, I worked in a psychological therapies department and this was in the NHS. I had been on various temporary and fixed term contracts over my 7 years and can honestly say that taking the step out of there has been one of the best decisions I have made, I hadn't realised how miserable and uninspired I had become about my job. Don't get me wrong, I'm now on less pay working harder that I have in a long time but I actually feel like there is the possibility that I could be involved in something that could make a difference to peoples lives. The other nice part about being away from the NHS is that I am no longer forced to be as cagey about my identity for risk of facing disciplinary procedures by breeching social networking policy.
That is not the focus for this post though as I just wanted to mention a little about what is going on in Russia at the moment, here in England and Wales we are lucky to have just seen the equal marriage bill be given royal assent, yet if my wife and I were to visit Russia we could face 15 days in jail just for being gay. I have seen a number of celebrities and LGBT organisations sharing footage of the awful treatment for the LGBT community and sharing messages of support over the past few weeks and thought I would add mine to the mix. As a child my family played host to "Children from Chernobyl" which meant every year two kids from the surrounding areas in Belarus would come and live at my house for two weeks during which they received health and dental check ups, clothes food and fun days and generally got to tag along with whatever me and my friends were doing. Apparently someone somewhere had done some research into the health benefits of a break away from the contamination and a load of local churches and community groups had raised money to fund the trips. I remember hearing bits of conversations between adults about how extra money had had to be sent to make sure the children made it safely over the boarders and how previous trips had found their luggage mysteriously went missing on their return flights (when it was filled with clothes and toys and books for the local villages). I know Belarus is no longer part of Russia but many of the practices had the same backgrounds and I feel having shared my childhood a little with theirs I wonder if any of the kids we hosted over the years have faced such appalling treatment or have found themselves caught up in what is happening now.
While my partner and I may still hear comments like "dyke", "lesbian", "rug muncher" etc. from some of the local youths if we walk down the street holding hands in certain areas near where we live, I would like to think we are generally pretty safe and were anything to happen to us as a result of our sexuality that we could expect to see it would be taken seriously by authorities and people involved could face prosecution. I would also like to think that there are enough people in todays UK society to make that "type" of behaviour, socially unacceptable. I know that this blog was set up to talk about my coming out story and the aftermath and the ways I dealt with an rejecting family but at least I live within a (generally) accepting society. I can't even begin to imagine trying to come out in a society where I could be beaten and tortured for who I am! I know this treatment is not new and is far from exclusive to Russia but I think the way this differs at the moment is them being about to host the 2014 winter Olympics. What better way to show Russia that their practices are unacceptable than to hit them where in hurts... in the pockets of government. Just think if all those multimillion dollar sponsors pulled out because of their anti gay policies, or the athletes from other countries didn't compete, the TV companies refused to broadcast events and supporters didn't travel. What a powerful message that would be! I am by no means clued up on the ins and outs of all that is happening in Russia but please read the blog below (the link was posted by Stephen Fry on twitter) which draws frightening parallels with Germany hosting the summer Olympics just before the outbreak of the second world war http://funnyoddthing.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/when-history-repeats.html?m=1 and please spare 2 minutes to watch the message broadcast at last weeks Brighton Pride, www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/08/05/brighton-prides-video-message-from-russia-without-love if you see petitions flying round on Facebook, or Twitter, please take 2 minutes and sign them. Britain has come a long way in accepting LGBT communities, please lets not inadvertently take 5 steps back by following the crowd to the winter Olympics to finish with a quote I've seen a few times recently, "The Only Thing Necessary for the Triumph of Evil is that Good Men Do Nothing".
