Me 2 You – June 2020
Hello,
Over the last few weeks, we have seen protests continue against police brutally following the murder of George Floyd. Whenever I hear a story like this I think “not again,” as it feels as if we get one of these ‘black men shot by police in America every year’.
The lessons never get learned, also the rights of everyone need protecting, in admits of a pandemic where BAME people have been more likely to die from Coronavirus this needs to lead to change.
This month my focus has been on pride month, soberly this also came out of police brutally and the Stonewall Riots in 1969. This was a piece which I really enjoyed writing and researching, it was designed as a mixed piece looking at the history and what it means in today’s world.
This was one of the comments have had was this “I read it earlier this afternoon and have certainly found it thought-provoking. It brought back memories of a friend of my parents who took his own life in the late fifties because he found life as a gay man intolerable.”
I think that comment proves how far we have come, but we can never think that any rights are won. We need to recognise how far we have come, but we can never think that all rights are won, as the shooting of George Floyd or the current debate around the Gender Recognition Act reform has proved.
Queer Icons was something which came from the icons piece I wrote last year; this was a challenge to research. I didn’t want to speculate about people’s private lives, which lead to me expanding to include public allies.
You have may read about an ‘LGBTQ+ Baptist/Faith’ (Working Title) piece, I have been continuing to work on this with collaboration with a colleague. However, it’s been canned for now as I haven’t been able to see them.
A ‘new normal’ I believe is edging nearer, I believe and hope that I will be able to go on holiday next month. However, this will not be a normal holiday.
As with my F1 site, I have never covered a global story which has affected not just the sport but all of our life’s like Coronavirus. I don’t think we will ever see a story quite like this, where numerous races are affected again. Our whole lives have been affected by this, it is arguably a story I’ll think I’ll be remembering for the rest of our lives. It’s a story which has directly affected all of our lives and changed us.
I’m always open to your ideas, but when I started writing this blog eighteen months ago it was an outlet for thoughts and ideas to showcase my writing. My mission with this is to inform and educate, I hope that this pride month I have enjoyed writing these pieces.