Same-sex marriage has been all over the news. Photos of happy couples are captioned with reminders of the progress in LGBT equality over the past decades. Some even describe it as the final piece in the jigsaw of gay rights.
But as the confetti settles, life can be far from rosy. Under Tory austerity policies, life chances for many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are being threatened and reduced.
LGBT people have been largely invisible in commentary on the cuts. Why does this matter? Because we in UNISON can see that decades of painstaking work to ensure public services meet the needs of LGBT people is being lost – services which change lives and indeed save lives. And they risk being lost silently.
We knew from our members that there was serious damage. And this is just the beginning. George Osborne has promised a further £25bn of public sector cuts if the Tories are re-elected next May, saying the job on austerity was ‘not even half done’.
So UNISON commissioned NatCen Social Research to investigate. Published at the end of last year, its research report confirms our fears. It found significant and detailed evidence of a number of ways in which austerity cuts affect LGBT people and the services they use.
Unsurprisingly, LGBT people individually were facing greater financial hardship. In this they are no different to anyone else. Specific to this community, however, is the increased marginalisation, the fear that progress on challenging anti-LGBT discrimination was being reversed and that overt prejudice was on the rise again.
People talked in detail about the effect of cuts to specialised LGBT services: housing, anti-hate crime and youth services, helplines, mental health and sexual health services, and gender identity services, at the time these were needed more than ever.
Job cuts meant the loss of valuable LGBT staff and staff with specialist knowledge built up over many years that would be difficult to replace even when there was reinvestment in public services.
There was considerable concern about housing, particularly for younger LGBT people. A LGBT housing advice service reported that calls were at an all-time high, with 25 per cent of callers already ‘street homeless’, in squats or sofa-surfing. Multiple difficulties: fleeing parental abuse, potentially unsafe shared accommodation, the need to live near LGBT support networks, changes to housing benefit, and loss of dedicated LGBT housing services were leaving people with nowhere to turn.
People reported feeling more unsafe. LGBT discrimination was creeping back into society while anti-hate crime initiatives, policing and staffing on public transport and other public places were all being cut back. People felt frustrated, unhappy and worried about hate incidents in public spaces and at work.
Another recurrent theme was marginalisation, guilt and isolation. People expressed concern that LGBT needs were treated as less important than others – a luxury or ‘nice thing to do’ that could be dropped in harder times. They felt guilty for asking that their needs be met in a climate of austerity. Cuts were leading to less acceptance –a trans woman described how job centre staff with no time have even less time for you if you do not fit their system because your gender and legal sex are not the same.
Reduction of appropriate sexual health support was of real concern. There were fears of a rise in unsafe and risky sexual behaviour, and a decrease in HIV and STI testing. Appropriate mental health services were also less available.
Even if the cuts were reversed now, the damage will affect many people for the rest of their lives. We need investment in appropriate services. We cannot afford to have this government in charge of our economy.
The countdown to the next general election has started.
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Carola Towle is national officer, LGBT equality, at UNISON. Read the research report here
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