As a non-heterosexual, or non-cisgender person you are endlessly “coming out” – making what would be invisible, visible by saying who you are. You are endlessly making the subtle judgment of “is this place ok?” or “are these people ok?”; “will they kill me?” It gets a bit tiring. It’s a tricky thing for this
Today is the last day of non-binary awareness week. In this project, one thing we’re very interested in is how the everyday categories of the welfare system that have been designed by heterosexuals align with queer lives. It probably will not surprise you to learn that UK welfare bureaucracy really does not seem to be
The blog for the project has been quieter than we might have wanted this Pride Month. This is partly to work and life things getting in the way. The other bigger challenge, that we have to be honest about (and our funders are well aware of this!) is data access issues. The issue is sexual
The Big Issue have reported today on statistics from the Department for Work and Pensions that show it is rejecting 89 per cent of the appeals for Personal Independence Payment that are brought through the mandatory reconsideration process. This has increased from 40 per cent in 2021. Mandatory reconsideration is the process by which claimants
This post is written by team member Dr Lee Gregory. International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) is held on the 17th May and is an opportunity to raise awareness of LGBTQ+ rights violations and promote the work to improve the rights of LGBTQ+ people. Reflecting at this time on emerging insights from our
This week is lesbian visibility week. In previous posts we have talked about how, in this project, we have been particularly keen to speak to trans people. This has been to address a gap in the data we are using for our secondary analysis, as surveys still only ask a sexual identity question, as well
This morning I sat having my breakfast listening to someone argue on the radio that transwomen should be excluded from the inclusive, friendly weekly park run. As I stood waiting for my train, where I’m sat writing this, I saw a wonderful advert for the new Trans+ charity Not a Phase. On this trans day
In the UK, February is LGBT+ history month, where we bring attention to the positive, and more difficult, aspects of queer history. I – the author of this blog post, Dr Peter Matthews – actually did my first degree in History, and have always been extremely interested in what is termed “social history” (i.e. the
This research project is big because nothing like this has been done before. A goal for the project was to interview 90 people who identify as LGBTQ+ who had accessed the welfare benefits system. And we’ve hit this goal! Looking across who we have interviewed so far there are some really obvious gaps that we
Today, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation published their UK Poverty 2023: The essential guide to understanding poverty in the UK report. I was fortunate enough to be able to join the excellent webinar for its launch. I have not yet had time to read the report in detail, but I did want to reflect on two
Theme by the University of Stirling