From queer liberation to climate activism, Dom McGovern reflects on the enduring spirit of Pride, the lessons of LGBTQ+ history and how initiatives such as the RSA’s Playful Green Planet are building a better future for us all.
It might sound basic or saccharine to say, but for me the fundamental meaning of Pride is hope. It’s the idea that collective action can bring together a better future. When I came out as a teenager in 2011, things looked different. Gay marriage hadn’t been legalised, the life-changing HIV prevention drug PrEP had not been approved, and Lady Gaga had only released two albums so there was still a long way to go.
Over the course of the 2010s, there’s been a noticeable commodification of the concept of Pride. It’s been articulated far more succinctly and intelligently than I’ll be able to, but even the concept of June as ‘Pride Month’ is an American Import. We, of course, have the 1969 Stonewall Riots to thank for kicking off a wave of gay liberation protests worldwide. But the first Pride march in the UK took place in July of 1972.
I went to the 50th Anniversary March in 2022 and spoke to people who had been at the original protest, and the overwhelming feeling was that ‘it’s not over.’ Those who had partaken in LGBTQ activism over the last half century were heartened to see a gathering of people much larger than that of 1972, but over the intervening years had been part of a community ravaged by disease and bigotry, forced to fight for their own survival over and over.
Post-pandemic there is a bleak sense of rights being unilaterally rolled back. Everyone is looking for someone to blame, and we’ve got a ‘last in, first out’ policy when it comes to communities looking to be accepted.
The author Edmund White writes of the gay community: “The very rapidity of change has laid bare the clanking machinery of history. To have been oppressed in the 1950s, freed in the 1960s, exalted in the 1970s and wiped out in the 1980s is a quick itinerary for a whole culture to follow.” This quote has always stuck with me as it reflects the ephemerality of progress. Progress isn’t linear, it ebbs and flows with the political tides.
We see this clearly at present with the demonisation of the trans community. The 2010s was a decade in which the broad narrative was one of progress in the West, with many countries legalising gay marriage, liberal politicians proudly unveiling gender neutral bathrooms etc. But post-pandemic there is a bleak sense of rights being unilaterally rolled back. Everyone is looking for someone to blame, and we’ve got a ‘last in, first out’ policy when it comes to communities looking to be accepted.
For me, a huge part of being part of the LGBTQ+ community is about interacting with our history, and using experience and collective knowledge to build a better future for the generations that come after. Poet Emma Lazarus said ‘Until we are all free, we are none of us free.’ This is where LGBTQ+ activism and other liberation movements go hand in hand. In my time working at the RSA, I have come to understand the value of climate activism at a grassroots level, particularly through my work on a project called Playful Green Planet (PGP).
LGBTQ+ and climate activism are sister movements, aiming to create a sustainable future for young people, where their needs are prioritised, they feel safe to expand their worldview and have access to the right resources to do so.
For both queer liberation and climate action movements to succeed, they require advocating for the most marginalised members of society. Both movements work towards a world in which everyone is able to build the life they want without fear of either discrimination or an unsafe environment. For this advocacy to work, sustained grassroots action is vital. This is where PGP comes in.
The RSA has a series of projects known as interventions, each run by a team dedicated to the idea of reaching across political, economic and social divides, and building a better future. PGP is an RSA intervention that focuses on taking underutilised outdoor areas, and transforming them into vibrant green spaces where children and young people are able to interact with nature in a way they otherwise might not be able to.
In March this year, my colleagues Cathy Pineo, Daisy Carter and I visited the Maxwell Centre, the PGP pilot site in Dundee, where a group of artists, volunteers and community organisers has turned what was once an abandoned churchyard into a thriving garden. In this space, children who don’t have access to nature are able to interact with a welcoming, creative and mostly edible garden.
The work being undertaken at the Maxwell Centre embodies the spirit of Pride. A group of people coming together to advocate for those who might not be able to advocate for themselves. For me, LGBTQ+ and climate activism are sister movements, aiming to create a sustainable future for young people, where their needs are prioritised, they feel safe to expand their worldview and have access to the right resources to do so.
Grassroots projects like those at the Maxwell Centre and the other PGP sites show us what is possible. The work they do is invaluable, and I feel very lucky to have borne witness to it (even if it involved me dressing up as a potato on the day).
Dom McGovern is Media and Public Affairs Officer at the RSA. He is also a stand-up comedian and writer.
Hero photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
The RSA announced that it will kickstart a pilot of its radical Playful Green Planet intervention, supported by The National Lottery’s Community Fund.
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