As resources wear thin and rhetoric seeks to divide, LGBTQIA+ communities face a challenge of safety.

Last year, I wrote a blog for Reclaim the Agenda on the power of community in the face of a growing threat to trans women’s safety in the UK. I argued that spaces where LGBTQIA+ people can be in community together has a profound impact on people’s sense of purpose, belonging and safety. And I remain convinced of this. Yet, for the LGBTQIA+ community, access to safe spaces are shrinking due to a lack of resources, and a hostile political and media culture, has left LGBTQIA+ people feeling less safe in public life.1

Since writing my last blog, the electorate in the UK has shifted: the Labour Party took office last July (a party who are historically progressive when it comes to LGBTQIA+ rights). However, over a year into their four-year term, ILGA Europe, a European NGO, released their Rainbow Map, where the UK has dropped six places to 22nd.2 The drop comes after the UK Supreme Court ruling For Women Scotland Ltd. v The Scottish Ministers found that, for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010, ‘sex’ refers to ‘biological sex’. In another move, following the publication of the Cass Review in April 2024, Labour banned the sale and supply of puberty blockers for under 18s. Such actions have sent a message to the LGBTQIA+ community: rights are under attack.

Indeed, across the Western world, trans members of the community, particularly trans women, continue to face disproportionate and sustained attack from many politicians and the media. According to data provided to Trans Media Watch by Dysphorum, in 2012 there were approximately 60 trans-related stories in UK media, and by 2022 that had risen to approximately 7,500.3 Many of these stories have fed into a ‘moral panic’, which have sensationalised trans lives and framed trans people’s exitance as a ‘debate’. The impact of this hostile rhetoric has placed trans people under increased public scrutiny, many now living with a heightened sense of fear, alarm and panic.

In this context of a hostile political and media landscape, the role of community organising and resourcing for safe spaces for LGBTQIA+ people to exist and thrive is vital. HERe NI is an LGBTQIA+ women’s organisation, which advocates for LGBTQIA+ women and their families across Northern Ireland. This is a challenging time for the organisation as funding and resources are hard to come by. While HERe NI remains committed to offering our community support, we also need the support of our allies. Together we can build a strong and united movement with a clear message: we are not going back.

Sophie Nelson, Senior Policy Development Officer at HERe NI.

1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1e6l89wyewo

2 https://rainbowmap.ilga-europe.org

3 https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/128369/pdf/