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cosmolinguistA lot of things happened to me at Liberal Democrat Conference the other week, and i'm kind of surprised by one of them that's stuck with me so strongly.
I was on the LGBT+ Lib Dems' stall when Channel 4's TV news came to interview another of our exec members about a controversial new program of positive discrimination in candidate selection. Because this includes LGBT (one would hope + (by which we mean "other sexuality and gender minorities who don't feel covered by L, G, B or T) too but I don't know) people, it makes sense we'd get asked about it.
I stayed out of the way and quiet during the interview, of course, but there was one point at which I'd have liked to jump up and shove the interviewer's microphone down his throat, and that was when he said something like, "This new program puts LGBT people in the same category as people on low incomes! What do you think of that?"
The snide implication being, of course, that any good LGBT person would feel sullied, if not offended. by the malodorous if metaphorical proximity of poor people.
Apart from the obvious (this guy has never heard of intersectionality (a person can be more than one minority/marginalized group/protected characteristic/etc; I for instance would tick four boxes if I wanted to do this thing: I'm a woman, disabled, lgBt, and low-income), I'm actually really glad that low-income is given consideration, when it is a less likely strand to be included than the usual ethnic minority, gender and sexual orientation. But one of the things I like about the Lib Dems is that it seems a party of people who actually think about minorities, descrimination, and the things that prevent fairness and equality from being realized.
It isn't surprising, really, when you consider the Liberal Democrat Constitution, which by the end of the first sentence is saying that the party exists to build and safeguard a society "in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity." I think all three of these are interesting things to include so prominently, and they really struck me when I first read them on the back of my membership card.
Poverty is such a great concern, of course, because it takes away liberty. If you've ever had to worry about where your next meal is coming from, how you'll cover the rent, or whether you can support dependents, you'll know I'm not exaggerating when I say it's impossible to think of much else. Poverty means you'll accept poor working conditions and other illiberal, unfair things. It closes a lot of doors.
I still think ofmiss_s_b's run for the presidency of the Lib Dems last year, which she was originally put off because it offers only £5,000 a year. (Some nutter in the comments (I really had forgotten it was Andrew, though it doesn't surprise me at all) came up with the idea of people pledging a tenner a month if she was elected, and a surprising number of people signed up to that pledge.) That we ended up choosing between an MP and someone who seemed to consider the presidency a consolation prize after losing the London mayoral election is a disappointment in this regard.
Of course these traits don't inherently make someone a bad person or a bad president, but it's powerful evidence that poverty can keep out diversity. As a certain fluffy elephant said at the time, "What Auntie Jennie's candidacy does is to make the MPs/former-MPs HAVE to pay attention to the REAL grass roots of the Party and be aware that they have things to say and they are NOT going to shut the BADWORD up!"
Once you start caring about poverty, there are a lot more people to listen to. One of the things we'll tell you is about how not all LGBT people are middle-class, disabled people are damned if they work and damned if they don't, there is still a gender pay gap, and none of these groups are exclusive of the others. It's entirely possible to find yourself in more than one category that means you're prone to being enslaved by poverty.
That's what I wanted to shout at the Channel 4 interviewer.
I was on the LGBT+ Lib Dems' stall when Channel 4's TV news came to interview another of our exec members about a controversial new program of positive discrimination in candidate selection. Because this includes LGBT (one would hope + (by which we mean "other sexuality and gender minorities who don't feel covered by L, G, B or T) too but I don't know) people, it makes sense we'd get asked about it.
I stayed out of the way and quiet during the interview, of course, but there was one point at which I'd have liked to jump up and shove the interviewer's microphone down his throat, and that was when he said something like, "This new program puts LGBT people in the same category as people on low incomes! What do you think of that?"
The snide implication being, of course, that any good LGBT person would feel sullied, if not offended. by the malodorous if metaphorical proximity of poor people.
Apart from the obvious (this guy has never heard of intersectionality (a person can be more than one minority/marginalized group/protected characteristic/etc; I for instance would tick four boxes if I wanted to do this thing: I'm a woman, disabled, lgBt, and low-income), I'm actually really glad that low-income is given consideration, when it is a less likely strand to be included than the usual ethnic minority, gender and sexual orientation. But one of the things I like about the Lib Dems is that it seems a party of people who actually think about minorities, descrimination, and the things that prevent fairness and equality from being realized.
It isn't surprising, really, when you consider the Liberal Democrat Constitution, which by the end of the first sentence is saying that the party exists to build and safeguard a society "in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity." I think all three of these are interesting things to include so prominently, and they really struck me when I first read them on the back of my membership card.
Poverty is such a great concern, of course, because it takes away liberty. If you've ever had to worry about where your next meal is coming from, how you'll cover the rent, or whether you can support dependents, you'll know I'm not exaggerating when I say it's impossible to think of much else. Poverty means you'll accept poor working conditions and other illiberal, unfair things. It closes a lot of doors.
I still think of
miss_s_b's run for the presidency of the Lib Dems last year, which she was originally put off because it offers only £5,000 a year. (Some nutter in the comments (I really had forgotten it was Andrew, though it doesn't surprise me at all) came up with the idea of people pledging a tenner a month if she was elected, and a surprising number of people signed up to that pledge.) That we ended up choosing between an MP and someone who seemed to consider the presidency a consolation prize after losing the London mayoral election is a disappointment in this regard.Of course these traits don't inherently make someone a bad person or a bad president, but it's powerful evidence that poverty can keep out diversity. As a certain fluffy elephant said at the time, "What Auntie Jennie's candidacy does is to make the MPs/former-MPs HAVE to pay attention to the REAL grass roots of the Party and be aware that they have things to say and they are NOT going to shut the BADWORD up!"
Once you start caring about poverty, there are a lot more people to listen to. One of the things we'll tell you is about how not all LGBT people are middle-class, disabled people are damned if they work and damned if they don't, there is still a gender pay gap, and none of these groups are exclusive of the others. It's entirely possible to find yourself in more than one category that means you're prone to being enslaved by poverty.
That's what I wanted to shout at the Channel 4 interviewer.
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Date: 2011-10-03 08:36 pm (UTC)(I don't believe they ever used the piece - I certainly haven't had anyone mention seeing me on TV)