In this personal piece, GiveOut’s Executive Director reflects on his hopes for life after the coronavirus crisis. Recognising that we are still in the midst of the pandemic, this is the first blog in GiveOut’s ‘After the Virus’ series, in which we are inviting our team, supporters and grant partners to share their thoughts about the future.
By Rupert Abbott
Rupert Abbott (@RupertBAbbott) is GiveOut’s Executive Director. This piece is written in his personal capacity.
I’m no longer checking the news for the daily COVID-19 death toll, with thousands of lives lost and families shattered each day. It’s too much to take in; and, honestly, I feel numb to the statistics.
I’ve felt very emotional at times, shocked at the depth of the crisis and with underlying anxiety about the future. So far, my family has been lucky. At one point, I wasn’t well – who knows if I had it.
Like most, my prime concern has been to protect my partner, family and friends. My other priority has been my team at GiveOut, our partners and supporters. We responded quickly and I hope sensitively, working from home and postponing all in-person meetings and events since before the UK lockdown.
Now, after the initial shock, with some time to think, and reflecting on the UK’s response and what matters to me, I’ve started to give more thought to what comes next, or at least what I hope will come next.
It may be years before lockdowns and physical distancing measures are fully lifted. Once they are, the world will have changed profoundly. As we shape this ‘new normal’, this is what will matter the most to me:
1. Cherishing family and friends
Every day, my partner and I say how lucky we feel to have each other, and how hard it must be to be alone now. We know that many, including in the LGBTQI community, are feeling so isolated. Even though my parents and some of our closest friends are just around the corner, it doesn’t feel like it – so close yet so far.
My partner is Cambodian, and we have family and friends there – we are really worried about them, fearful about the crisis unfolding in a country with an extremely limited healthcare system.
Zoom calls and WhatsApp groups are brilliant alternatives but they don’t compare to the love and laughter of meeting in person. This crisis is a reminder of how important family and friends are and it puts into perspective past disagreements and regrets. The first thing most of us want to do when the restrictions ease is to hug (or at least be near) some of those we miss so much – we’ll never take that love for granted.
2. Valuing community
Community is at the centre of our work at GiveOut – the LGBTQI community standing shoulder to shoulder. This is more important than ever, as the global LGBTQI movement is relying on our support to get through this pandemic and, later, rebuild.
For me, this crisis has reinforced the sense of local community also. My partner and I live in an apartment block in Hove and from day one our neighbours have rallied around each other, offering to collect food and medicine for more vulnerable residents, sharing essentials, and posting updates on our Facebook group. One neighbour organised a physically distanced Easter egg hunt in the communal gardens for the children in our block!
For those who can afford to, we’re supporting each other’s businesses, from queer bars to card shops, cafes to theatres, making donations or buying vouchers to “pay it forward” for use once the lockdown is eased. Many of us are volunteering in mutual aid networks and supporting foodbanks and local charities, as they help the most vulnerable. Thursday evening is a highlight of the week, as we all come out on to our balconies to clap for carers, key workers and the NHS – this is a tradition we should keep.
In the UK, following years of arguments and anger around Brexit, I think this crisis is helping to bring society back together again. We must not return to the division. The bonds forged through this shared experience will be strong and the habits of mutual aid and support should remain, will help us rebuild, and prepare us to weather other crises.
Video by Tanya Levene: #ClapForOurCarers in Hove, UK
3. Addressing inequality
My partner and I feel very fortunate to have jobs we love and our own home, and know that so many others are not so lucky. I think many of us have been reflecting on who really make our society and economy tick, and how we value them – including those born elsewhere and who contribute so much. COVID-19 does discriminate. In the UK, those from BAME backgrounds are overrepresented in the death toll by 27%. And the poorest in our society are twice as likely to get it, including LGBTQI people, who are more likely to face economic hardship.
We all hugely value the NHS. We will be eternally grateful to those who have sacrificed so much to get us through this crisis and this should be reflected in how they’re treated.
But can we honestly say that we valued as “essential” those working in supermarkets, corner shops and as delivery drivers? Their pay packets and job security would suggest that we haven’t – for many, real incomes have stagnated for decades.
Many of our essential workers are migrants, but they are facing ever tighter immigration rules and paying surcharges to access a health system that some are here to support.
This crisis should make us reassess how we value all these people – we need to ensure that they are paid properly and protected. With rising unemployment, we will need those who can afford to do so to pay more tax, to rebuild and ensure a more compassionate distribution of wealth.
4. Recognising charities’ vital role
This crisis has been a wakeup call on the crucial role of civil society and charities. From hospices to helplines, homeless shelters to human rights watchdogs, more than ever charities are a lifeline for the most vulnerable.
In the UK, a decade of austerity has already had a huge impact on charities’ income. At this time of crisis, just as the need for charities’ services and support increases, their ability to fundraise has been severely undermined. In the #EveryDayCounts campaign, charity sector bodies have been calling for UK government support, estimating that charities will miss out on over £4.3bn of income in the first three months of the lockdown. At GiveOut, we highlighted our concerns for LGBTQI charities in a recent opinion piece.
The UK government’s announcement of support to the charity sector is a welcome first step, but it won’t be enough. And internationally, there is concern that development budgets might be cut in the context of massive debt. Globally, LGBTQI groups are already woefully underfunded, in particular in the global south and east.
More than ever, charities will rely on the support of the public and corporates. From almost 1 million people signing up to volunteer to support the NHS to the millions of pounds raised by Colonel Tom, the public has dug deep to give up their time and money to support each other at this time of need.
At GiveOut, we launched a world-first appeal to support LGBTQI communities respond to the coronavirus around the world, our supporters have held virtual fundraising events, new donors have signed up and others have offered to volunteer – thank you!
At this time, I think many of us are reassessing what really matters in life. After the virus, I hope there will be greater recognition of and support for civil society and charities as the safety net for the most vulnerable. But with more people facing economic insecurity, it will need those who are able to do so to give more, philanthropists to seize the moment, and corporates to step up, with responsible capitalism facing its greatest test. It is likely that new models for funding civil society will emerge, with much closer public-private-third sector cooperation.
5. Working differently
With our weekly Zoom kick-off meeting and daily check-ins, the GiveOut team speaks more now than when we were in the office! We’ve started to experiment with virtual events, with online fundraising and briefing events with LGBTQI activists.
And while we won’t return to work in the office in the foreseeable future, with the risks that travel to and work in central London may entail, there will perhaps be a more fundamental change to working culture.
Back in 2016, in a piece on the future of the human rights movement, colleagues and I proposed that organisations would need to reflect on internal ways of working and structures. “Over time, reliance on physical offices, layers of hierarchy and bureaucracy should give way to lighter, flatter and more open structures and working methods…”
The coronavirus has turbo-boosted some of these changes. Technology is allowing rapid decentralisation of organisations, while more informal collaboration is changing working relationships. I would expect much flatter organisational structures and ways of working to emerge, with teams bound together by shared values.
6. Talking about health and well-being
Lockdown restrictions have made me think more carefully about my health and wellbeing, even if they’ve not been good for the waistline! I’m making the most of my daily outside exercise, cooking more and thinking carefully about food as a precious resource – something my partner and his family in Cambodia have always done.
One positive development around this crisis is that people seem more willing to talk about mental health, from the trauma experienced by front line workers to the challenges of isolation. This is important for LGBTQI people – we are disproportionately affected by mental ill-health and social isolation, which may be exacerbated in the context of quarantine and restricted movement.
Recognising and talking about mental health and wellbeing is a habit that I want to continue personally and professionally.
7. Protecting human rights
In several countries, the pandemic has been used as a pretext to restrict human rights, with disproportionate emergency measures introduced by authoritarian regimes that may be reluctant to give up these powers.
In the UK and globally, we need legal protections to ensure that measures introduced to trace the virus do not open the door to more general surveillance, with personal data and privacy compromised. We should be able to enjoy both privacy and health.
Around the world, we are seeing already marginalised groups disproportionately affected by the coronavirus. LGBTQI people are likely to be affected by the pandemic in particular ways, being more likely to have underlying health conditions and face barriers to accessing healthcare, for example.
The pandemic is also being used as a pretext to deprioritise equality initiatives, in the European Union for example, and even to attack marginalised groups, including refugees, migrants and ethnic minorities.
In many countries, LGBTQI people are bearing the brunt of these attacks, with reports suggesting an increase in homophobic and transphobic rhetoric. In Iraq, Israel and the Cayman Islands, LGBTQI people have been blamed for the pandemic. In Uganda’s capital Kampala, police used COVID-19 directives to arrest 23 people living at an LGBTQI shelter. In Hungary, the State of Emergency has been used to propose a decree that would prevent transgender people from legally changing their gender in identity documents.
And in the year the UK was due to host an international conference on LGBTQI human rights, the Minister for Women and Equalities has made concerning comments about the future of the Gender Recognition Act, advocating “checks and balances in the system” for transgender people.
We need to look past our differences and resist politicians’ attempts to divide us. As we respond to the pandemic and rebuild, we must prioritise human rights and the protection of the most marginalised and vulnerable in our societies.
8. Responding to the climate crisis
While there has already been a dramatic reduction in carbon emissions as we stay at home and consume a whole lot less, our response to the pandemic may come to be seen as a dry run for responding to the climate crisis.
When it is safe to do so, many of us will be desperate to travel internationally again, particularly to see family. But while our freedom to do so might be curtailed, with countries closing borders, the threshold for what makes a trip necessary will be higher, as we get into the habit of considering virtual alternatives to meeting in person.
In responding to the pandemic, the world has shown that the impossible is now possible, that in an emergency the state can make massive interventions. As we recover and rebuild, we need to learn these lessons and pull together to address the greatest crisis of our time – the climate emergency.
9. Thinking beyond borders
In this regard, while many countries have tried to act alone in defeating the virus, treating it as a national issue, success will ultimately rely on international collaboration and coordination.
With the UK having the highest death toll in Europe, ideas of British exceptionalism – of buccaneering Brexit Britain – have surely lost currency. I’m proud that the UK has been one of the largest donors to efforts to fight the virus in some of the world’s poorest countries, and is helping to lead global efforts to find a vaccine.
A wish list perhaps, but we should also take the opportunity to address the downsides of globalisation, including ensuring and maintaining vital supply chains of the essential goods and equipment built through the crisis. We should return to the question of how we tax tech giants, which have only thrived in this crisis. And the UK should reassess our relationships with those countries that are failing to be transparent around the current crisis and have used the pandemic as a pretext to abuse human rights.
My hope is for much more international cooperation, with respect for human rights central to this.
10. Depolarising politics
Finally, the politics of Brexit and the deep polarisation must be consigned to history. This should have no place in a country that has been through so much, with tens-of-thousands dead. Across the pond, where empathy and civility has been needed now more than ever, President Trump has been found badly wanting.
In the UK, building on the bi-partisan approach taken to much of the COVID-19 response, my hope is that a new, more inclusive politics will emerge, with less division and more collaboration. This will mean a reinvigorated opposition and others asking hard questions of the government, but also working together to forge a more outward looking, kinder and compassionate country, ready for whatever the future may hold.
These are my hopes for life after the virus.