Supporters or Saviours?
Image credit - Jiroe
I want to look at the relationship between the LGBTQ+ community and its allies, and consider this in the context of Universal Basic Income.
I was lucky enough to visit Edinburgh before the first lockdown in March 2020. I was indulging in one of my favourite activities, book shopping, when I came across a wonderful text by Mimi Marinucci called Feminism is Queer. In Chapter 9 "Questionably Queer? From straight allies to queer solidarity" Marinucci explores the idea that there’s a problematic side to being an ally.
This is something that I’d never considered before - that rainbow filters on profile pictures and the use of hashtags such as #StraightAlly, particularly prevalent during LGBT History Month and things I had previously only seen as uplifting, could be problematic. Marinucci's argument was that these potentially centred straight identities.
Marinucci states that 'the gay-straight dichotomy reinforces straight privilege'. Reading this, I was forcefully reminded of the Victorian-era concepts of the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor and their relationship with charity. My understanding of this is that there’s a privilege in itself in being able to give support to a group that is marginalised or has little power.
26 Million People Change Profile Pictures With Facebook's Rainbow Pride Filter - Read more here
An Ally is a person that is, by definition, not part of the community that they’re supporting (although they are often members of other marginalised communities eg L with the T), therefore their ability to provide support comes specifically from not being part of that particular, marginalised group. This position comes with privilege and creates a dynamic of not only being a supporter but in some ways being a saviour. This can then be seen as reinforcing the low power-high power dichotomy.
Another consequence of an Ally not being a member of the marginalised community they are supporting is that they always have the ability to walk away or withdraw their support. This could be for any number of reasons, but one particularly damaging reason could be an attempt, even an unconscious one, to control the behaviour of that group.
This brings me back again to the concept of 'deserving' and 'undeserving'. Where there’s a need for Allies, there’s always scope for judgement and for any support to be conditional upon this judgement. It is for this (possibly rather spurious) reasoning that I believe UBI has a place in this conversation.
UBI by its very definition is without conditions. There’s no place for judgement because it’s not dependent on anything. It’s my hope that one day we’ll not need Allies because discrimination and marginalisation will be things of the past. I firmly believe that UBI is a step towards achieving this goal.
My dream is that when we reach this utopian state we can stand shoulder to shoulder with all our fellow people, as equals. We’ll be each other's supporters, with no need for saviours.
The ‘Poverty: It's a sin - a roundtable on UBI and the LGBTQ+ community’ is on the 28th of February 2021 at 16:00hrs GMT.
Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a regular and unconditional payment given to everyone in society regardless of their income, wealth or work.
It guarantees a basic level of financial security for everyone, and makes sure nobody in society falls through the cracks. But how would a UBI help the LGBTQ+ community specifically, both in the UK and around the world?
Join UBI Lab LGBTQ+ for an informal roundtable discussion. After a short introduction to the basics of UBI, we'll be the important question. Free, all welcome. To register - Book HERE
More about the author
Helena Hyatt - @onhyattus
Helena Hyatt born in England now lives in South Wales and has worked in the legal sector for ten years whilst gaining her undergraduate and postgraduate law degrees. She has a keen interest in reading, preferring science fiction and fantasy genres which led her to thinking about Utopias and from there UBI.
She is now putting theory into practice and is a member of the UBI Lab network Womxn's, LGBTQ+ groups and is a co-founder of the Caerphilly Lab.