Blog: 'It gets better? Intersectional LGBTQI+ (in)equalities and the UK Government’s LGBT Action Plan

Taylor, Y. (Blogger)
Lawrence, M. (Blogger)

Education

Activity: Public Engagement and Outreach › Media Participation

Description

British Sociological Association (BSA) Everyday Society blog

Period	24 Sept 2019

Keywords

Sexuality
Policy
Gender
LGBTQI+
LGBT Action Plan
Lifecourse

Documents & Links

ny of us have heard the phrase ‘it gets better’. This familiar adage went viral in 2010 when, in response to several LGBTQI+ youth suicides in the US, thousands of LGBTQI+ people shared video messages online addressed both to their younger selves and to LGBTQI+ youth (Taylor, 2011). Fast forward to 2018, when the UK Government publishes its LGBT Action Plan for ‘improving LGBT lives’ (GEO, 2018a), representing the first LGBTQI+-specific cross-departmental policy published by a UK government. In this policy, and in parallel speeches delivered by the then Prime Minister Theresa May and Penny Mordaunt MP, we are told a story of progress; that yes there may be room for improvement, but LGBTQI+ lives are getting better – across time, across place, across individual lifecourses, and across normative thresholds such as partnering and parenting – and that this onward progressive trajectory is as linear, uniform and inevitable as the onward march of time (Lawrence and Taylor, 2019).

Related content

Projects
Comparing Intersectional Life Course Inequalities amongst LGBTQ People in Five European Countries
Project: Research

Activities
The UK government LGBT Action Plan: Discourses of progress and LGBTQI+ lives ‘getting better’
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
From Section 28 to LGBTQI+ Inclusion? Legacies, tensions and trajectories in Education
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Organiser of special symposia

Research output
The UK government LGBT Action Plan: discourses of progress, enduring stasis, and LGBTQI+ lives 'getting better'
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review