The New Black: There’s a new networking blog site and it’s a godsend for lesbians, says Beau Jackson

I first discovered Tumblr through a friend. On a Facebook status she had posted a link to an article on her Tumblr page and, liking the creativity and freedom of the posts I saw, I decided to create my own ‘tumblelog’.

Like any other blog or social networking site you first have to create a name for your page, and from there you can begin to post pictures, text, music and videos…but then, who’s going to see it?
As my friend did, you could always post links to your tumblelog on the likes of Facebook and Twitter, but Tumblr is not meant to be an extension of the network you have going with your friends. Instead it is an anonymous outlet for you, viewed by people with the same interests as you, who live in different places all over the world. These people are your followers.

Your followers are people who choose to receive a stream of your posts on what is called their ‘dashboard’, better known as a homepage. You in turn receive your own stream of posts from people you choose to get regular updates from, as with Facebook and Twitter. However, Tumblr avoids all those annoying updates from the clearly very fun party people who log in just to say “9iii’,m sdos drijmk!” on a night out.

Over my time on Tumblr I have gathered together a stream of people that seem largely of the lesbian persuasion.
Seeing the content they post and their popularity I asked a handful of them if the self professed “easiest way to blog” site lives up to it’s name and, more importantly, if they share my feeling that it is particularly ideal for the LGBT community to express themselves and receive support.

All of the users asked agreed that they post content without a fear of being judged or discriminated against – result! Still, that is not to say that prejudice doesn’t happen on Tumblr. We don’t live in a ‘perfect world’ and so we can’t expect any part of it to be without prejudice and discrimination. When such an instance of tunnel vision does occur on the site, there is, as pointed out by Claire of thenameofasong a ready-made community on hand to fight against it, probably much more so than the support you may receive from Facebook, as the people following your tumblelog generally share the same interests and opinions as you do.

The inevitability of this situation is then that users of Tumblr will strike up new friendships with each other, particularly useful for, for example, a 16- year-old lesbian living in a small town without a gay community. Allison of the blog itsbeendaysnow told me how she had met her current girlfriend through Tumblr, a relationship that probably wouldn’t have happened without the site, and others told me of their friendships with people across the globe. The same can be said in conjunction with other social networking sites, but with Tumblr there’s so much more freedom with the people you meet and it’s a lot easier to quickly find someone with the same interests.

It should go without saying that Tumblr provides a great support network particularly for younger people concerned about their sexuality. Again, the people asked unanimously agreed that they have witnessed or they themselves have helped teens with questions about sexuality. Candace of FYLL commented that her Tumblr famous blog had not only made young girls feel comfortable with their sexuality but that it also “made them LOVE being a part of this community”.

And so, it’s safe to say that the ‘Tumblr family’ is going to keep on growing. But here’s hoping that the site remains a relatively prejudice free and supportive unit, where people can share experiences, fears and ideas freely.

What will the new Equality Act will do for you?

The Equality Act and its aspirations for the LGBT Community

The Equality Bill was approved by the House of Commons on 6 April 2010 and is expected to receive Royal assent within the next week. The new Equality Act is expected to start to come into force from October 2010. Its development has been five years in the making and its progress through parliament something of a political ‘hot potato’, as Pope Benedict XVI’s comments earlier this year encouraging Catholic Bishops in England and Wales to fight the UK’s Equality Bill with “missionary zeal” emphasised. Whilst there have been different views on what the new law will achieve, it’s overarching purpose has been to simplify existing discrimination laws by putting them together in a single place, and having greater consistency between the protections. The new Equality Act will replace almost all existing discrimination laws, it also aims to strengthen the law further to protect the LGBT community.

Some of the changes include the following:

• All public bodies will be required to consider equality issues when exercising their functions as a public body. In particular, public body policies should aim to:
• Eliminate discrimination and harassment on the grounds of a person’s actual or perceived sexuality;
• Advance equal opportunities between gay, bisexual and straight persons;
• Foster good relations between gay, bisexual and straight persons.

For example, local authorities should consider creating and promoting services to benefit the LGBT community specifically in order to assist integration and foster good societal relations.

• The prohibition on civil partnerships taking place in religious premises has been removed – this amendment was made recently to the Bill during the House of Lords report stage. The government has made it clear however that this will place no obligation on any faith or denomination to do so if it does not wish to
• Employers will be allowed to take “positive action” in recruiting candidates where one candidate is from an under-represented group. For example, where an employer interviews A and B, and both are as qualified as each other and A is female, the employer might decide to recruit A instead of B because women are under-represented in that workplace. This is likely to be harder to implement in situations involving gay people given that sexuality is frequently an invisible issue.
• At present, if an employee brings a claim for sexual orientation discrimination against an employer, a Tribunal can only make recommendations regarding improvements in the workplace in limited circumstances. In most cases, employees will only bring a claim against an employer once they have left employment and recommendations cannot be made in such cases. Extending the power of employment tribunals will mean that Tribunals can make recommendations that benefit the whole workforce and not just the individual who brought the claim, even if the successful claimant has left the organisation. For example, if a lesbian is bullied at work because of her sexual orientation, the tribunal could recommend that her employer conducts some focussed awareness training to ensure homophobic bullying is dealt with specifically. A failure to follow tribunal recommendations could form important evidence in future tribunal claims.
• The Equality Act also protects against “dual discrimination”. This is where an individual considers that discrimination has occurred on a combination of grounds – an example might be a lesbian couple refused IVF treatment on the basis that they are not trying “naturally” to conceive. This is unlikely to affect gay men, and so it would be hard to show that the treatment was on grounds of sexual orientation alone, when in reality it is based on a combination of discrimination due to sexuality and gender. However, the new dual discrimination protection applies only to two (and no more than two characteristics).
• The Equality Act will also eliminate homophobic discrimination based on a perception of someone’s sexuality (even if they are not of that sexual orientation) or if they are associated with someone of a particular sexuality. For example, a child who is teased at school for having gay parents might be able to challenge the way the school implements its anti-bullying policy if the policy does not tackle associative discrimination.
• The Bill will make it unlawful for private members’ clubs, and other member associations, to discriminate against gay members or guests of members. This means that a gay person invited to a private club could not be refused a drink, for example. However, it does not mean that the private club would have to allow a gay person to become a member even if the reason for the refusal is on the grounds of sexual orientation.

Having said all of the above, the new law does still leave some holes in anti-discrimination legislation: one area that is specifically excluded from the Bill is protection against harassment on the grounds of sexuality by goods, facilities and service providers. In other words, a lesbian cannot be refused a room in a hotel because of her sexual orientation, but if she was subjected to harassment by an employee at the hotel, she could not claim for harassment. In this example, however, she might still be entitled to bring a claim for discrimination. Gay people are also not currently protected against harassment on grounds of sexual orientation in the context of education in schools. During the consultation period prior to the drafting of the new laws, good evidence was produced to justify extending protection to gay people outside of the employment sphere, in particular to tackle homophobic bullying in schools, but no such provision is actually contained in the Act.

Overall however, although in some aspects it represents missed opportunities, the Equality Act is welcomed and is a positive step towards a more integrative and equal society.

Kiran Daurka, Solicitor at Russell Jones & Walker

www.rjw.co.uk