New research from the London LGBTQ+ Community Centre makes for worrying reading starting with the fact that half (51%) of LGBTQ+ people surveyed feel that there isn’t much of an LGBTQ+ community in London outside of Pride and nightlife. They go on to add that over a third (35%) said they do not feel welcome in London’s LGBTQ+ nightlife scene, and very sadly that only 6% felt that mainstream services in London were adequate for the needs of queer people
Lip Wieckowski Manager of the Centre, commented “This report comes as the UK faces uncertainty and it is worrying that so many LGBTQ+ people in our city don’t feel welcomed or supported. Understanding the needs of LGBTQ+ people in London is key to providing essential services that meet those needs. LGBTQ+ spaces need to lead the way by uplifting each other and working together to serve our community.”
Over 500 LGBTQ+ people across the city completed our survey, sharing their thoughts about queer spaces in London. You can read the Full Report HERE
Meanwhile, over at GLAAD, the world’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) media advocacy organization, they have released new findings providing the first comprehensive count and analysis of increased threats, protests and violent action against drag events nationwide. The mass shooting that occurred in Colorado Springs, CO, on November 19th was not included at the time of publishing as the attacker’s motive had not yet been formally declared.
GLAAD found 124 incidents in 2022 of anti-LGBTQ protests and threats targeting specific drag events. The majority of the incidents occurred during Pride festivities in June and into September, October, and November, including false rhetoric against performers deployed in campaign ads for the midterm elections. The analysis shows increasingly violent rhetoric and incidents as the year progressed, including the firebombing of a Tulsa donut shop that had hosted a drag event in October.
Within the past two weeks, legislation targeting public drag performance was introduced in Tennessee and Texas, leading to a total of eight proposed anti-drag bills this year.
2022 news reports cited incidents targeting drag events in 47 U.S. states, with the exclusion of South Dakota, Rhode Island, West Virginia and Washington, DC. It is possible that incidents did occur in those areas but they did not receive media coverage.
A number of the drag events targeted by threats and protests in person were first targeted by right-wing media outlets like Fox News and the Daily Wire, and social media accounts like LibsOfTikTok. The outlets and accounts often misrepresented what would occur at upcoming drag events, spinning them as harmful to children, and protests or threats would follow.
A Media Matters report from June found that Fox News had devoted more hours to targeting drag queens and transgender people than to coverage of the January 6th insurrection hearings. A Media Matters analysis in November found that disturbing misinformation about drag had ramped up on Fox News and the Daily Wire in the weeks before the Tulsa firebombing, with Tucker Carlson falsely claiming that drag queen “want to sexualize children,” and the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh calling on police to “break down the doors” of LGBTQ clubs and arrest drag queens. Sometimes the targeting came full-circle, with right-wing media hyping up negative attention ahead of an event and continuing afterward. Read the full report HERE
Labels: 2022, anti drag queens, GLAAD, London LGBTQ+ Community Center, Reports
