Shock Jock Brexit's not what I want!: My thoughts RE UKIP under Paul Nuttall.

UKIP have announced a new leader this morning in the rather morose, "Eddie Hitler" lookalike Paul Nuttall. In some respects it would be kushty to ignore the lower than morally Bottom, so-called Far-Right party. Funnily enough Mr Nuttall doesn't believe the far-right exists anymore in the UK and credits UKIP with its destruction. I guess it's pretty easy to convince yourself that you're the party of the "patriotic working class" and try and mimic the Labour movement to escape the labelling of the past. Perhaps it's an attempt to "modernise" or "Alt-Right" the party. Who knows. I can relate to the need to escape political labelling. I've never considered myself as Left or Right leaning but it seems that if you discuss political events and policies you ultimately get sucked into ideological wars which are not of your own making. As a Millennial, I don't particularly care about old fashioned political labels being ascribed to me at will. I know my own mind and that's why I'm proud to be an independent, swing voter. As such, I have no problem expressing my disagreement with some of the
comments El Nutto has made in the past. I don't believe the UK needs to have a referendum on abortion rights, I don't believe businesses should be given an automatic right to openly discriminate against LGBTQIA people on the basis of (misguided) Christian values alone and I don't believe that fox hunting should be made legal again in the countryside. Immigration does need to be "controlled" in some form but not by spewing hateful rhetoric towards immigrants who have spent years working in the UK helping to look after our elderly, nurse patients back to health or help build the miniscule amount of social housing that actually help keep a roof over some British citizens' heads. So, on the face of it, Nuttall's UKIP wouldn't appeal to me in the slightest. Yet it's important to keep a close eye on UKIP policies that are developed over the next few months, especially if you are a member of the Labour party.

UKIP claims to be the party "for the British working class" but what UKIP doesn't understand is that most working class people in Lincoln, including myself, rarely talk about immigration except during fleeting moments of curiosity. I don't talk to my Dad about "bloody foreigners clogging up the GP Surgery" or tell my Mum I won't buy any food made by a Polish migrant on a supermarket hot food counter. I'd never dream of saying either of those comments to them or to anyone else friend or stranger. The Millennials I know are too concerned about whether they'll be able to secure themselves a full time professional role after 3 years of studying at University, or whether their apprenticeship will really equip them with the skills and experience needed to advance up the career ladder in the long term. The Millennials I know want to be able to earn enough money to put aside some for a deposit on their first home, or to help them rent their first flat. Millennials I know want to be able to not have to make a choice between heating their home or eating three square meals a day. Millennials I know want their grandparents and great grandparents to be treated with dignity and respect in their old age by professionals who have the time to care for them properly without worrying about "clocking in on time" to make sure their pay doesn't get deducted. Millennials I know who happen to be LGBTQIA want to know that they will be treated equally whilst working for an organisation- that means not being called "poof" on a daily basis, equal pay and equal opportunities for appropriate training and career progression.  Some Millennials I know care about the environment, wanting more investment in clean energy resources and better protections for animals in Lincolnshire such as our beloved hedgehogs and rabbits.

As far as I'm aware, UKIP haven't truly addressed Millennial based issues in any great depth. Farage certainly didn't go out of his way to publically comment about the state of our Social Care system or Mental Health services and I've never heard him talk about apprenticeships or comprehensive education with much gusto. All I knew about Farage was that he was a "pint man" who hated being part of the EU and bunked off from most debate and voting days and yet still got paid for it. If I'd done that whilst working as a Purchase Ledger Clerk I'd have been immediately reprimanded and possibly even fired. Farage just grinned like a Cheshire Cat.

So it was rather funny being lectured on how to follow politics like a "patriotic person" by a UKIP supporter. A recent tweet exchange involved me being accused of being supportive of a "Labour equalities-driven agenda"- as if being in favour of progressive Equality and Diversity policies is such a bad thing. He told me to "remember to switch off the lights"- i.e. insinuating that voting for Labour is now a vote for stupidity and brazen ignorance. Well that's the problem with some UKIP voters. They see any policies which are remotely progressive in nature as "leftist", "socialist", "Labour" only policies. Does that UKIP supporter, Mr Farage and Mr Nuttall think that Nuttall's policies would have much appeal in Lincoln from Conservative voters? I don't know about you but I've hardly heard of many Conservative voters who now openly oppose giving LGBTQIA people protection from discrimination at work on the basis of religious bias or want a costly referendum on a woman's right to an abortion. It's bad enough women in Northern Ireland are forced to come to England to get an abortion and some on the right still think it's acceptable to make them feel ashamed for exercising their right to control their own bodies. I don't care about fox hunting and Conservative and Labour voters alike in Lincoln don't talk about it. As for the death penalty, I thought we'd moved on as a country and believe in the power of redemption and show compassion for our enemies as we do our friends. As my grandma, a fierce opponent of the death penalty once said- "If you believe in An Eye For Eye you'll make the World Go Blind". I have no interest in putting people to death- not least because of the fact that ISIS issue death sentences like a trigger happy Trumputinung in crack cocaine binge mode. Being vengeful isn't really that worth it in the grand scheme of things. If we had so much hate in our heart, Brendan Cox would have called for the death penalty for extreme far right Neo-Nazi terrorist Mr Mair instead of expressing pity for him. I'd love to know who Mr Nuttall expects to be punished with a death penalty and whether he'd have let Mair be put to death for his actions. One can only surmise on that.

See the thing is that swing voters like me who are honest and open about our voting intentions and votes that we have previously cast are labelled on a fairly regular basis. The far right are very quick to label swing voters who are creatives as "Luvvies" and politically minded swing voters as "Champagne Socialists" in disguise if they dare to vote Labour rather than UKIP or Conservative at a General Election.   The far left label swing voters who vote Conservative "traitors" or "secret racists". It's ridiculous to slander so many independent voters in marginal seats like Lincoln, especially if they are working class Millennials. Mr Nuttall says that there are policies that Labour, UKIP and Conservative voters can all agree on. I agree with him on that point but I'd say that  Liberal Democrats, Greens  and Women's and Equalities Party (WEP) have to be included in cross-party discussions. So here's my list (probably quite different from Nuttall's!):

• appropriate funding and staffing levels for the NHS including improved Mental Health services, sexual health clinics (GUMs) for each English and Welsh county
• appropriate funding and staffing levels for the Prison service, to prevent staff fatigue and reduce drug dependency amongst prisoners
• appropriate funding and staffing for the Police service, including improvement of staff training on handing rape cases, child trafficking cases, domestic abuse and violence cases and how to treat people from ethnic minorities, LGBTQIA people and disabled people with dignity and respect when dealing with claims of hate crime
• appropriate funding and staffing levels for Comprehensive schools as well as Grammar and Free ones.
• encouraging transparency in public services to tackle and prevent corruption and fraud-e.g. making sure MPs are forced to pay back expenses to which they were not entitled
• immigration controls which are sensible and not derived from or backed up by hate rhetoric -e.g. praise migrant nurses, construction workers, agricultural workers and not demonise them or their family members as "scroungers"
• freedom of expression without resorting to discrimination -e.g. wearing a cross at work to show you are Christian but do not treat a LGBTQIA co-worker differently from a Christian heterosexual co-worker.
• more apprenticeship opportunities, including ones open to 25 year olds and older, including retraining for Arts graduates who want to change/get into a different career -e.g. Accountancy
• investing in Digital Infrastructure, especially in rural areas with superfast broadband and 5G becoming the norm by 2020
• investing in housing infrastructure, including increase in social housing, affordable housing, renovations of terraced housing in inner cities as part of building up social housing base
• investing in clean/renewable energy resources but recognising the need to retain oil/gas infrastructure until renewable resources are widely available and produce cheap energy
• preserving heritage sites for future generations and investing in museums, art galleries, theatre spaces, opera houses etc.
• reducing reliance on foodbanks by increasing the number of full time, sustainable jobs in Northern areas without resorting to hate rhetoric against immigrants currently based in the UK

Such a list isn't designed to be comprehensive or definitive in nature but it shows that Jo Cox was right when she said that there was "far more that unites us than divides us". I believe that the Labour party must study the article that Jo wrote for the Yorkshire Post during the EU Referendum to be able to combat the views of Farage, Nuttall et al head on. Jo gave us key suggestions as to how Labour can appeal to the swing voters currently worried about the impacts of immigration on job prospects and public services, especially in the North East. Labour can't patronise Brexit voters who  have also previously voted Labour...they can't say that just because they don't talk about nuclear disarmament or the grandness of Fidel Castro on a loop that they aren't "true" Labour voters. Instead, Jo mentioned the fact that Labour should focus on dealing with the practical consequences of the UK having experienced a high level of EU immigration over the last decade and a half. It seems clear that Jo would have been supportive of the establishment of a Migrant Impact Fund (MIF) to support schools, create new GP surgeries and build houses in areas of "high demand" such as Boston in Lincolnshire...the area that had the highest Leave percentage in the country at 75.6% and South Holland, second highest at 73.6% which has a large concentration of arable farms which employ EU migrants. Jeremy Corbyn, at his Autumn Conference mentioned that the MIF is a key policy that he'd implement in the first 6 months after an election win. Also, it only seems fair for Labour to be prepared to create a MIF, considering that EU migrants have contributed £20 billion more in taxes than they've taken in benefits since 2001. UKIP hasn't talked about establishing any kind of MIF and the Conservatives haven't been forthcoming on allocating specific funding for areas like Boston. So Labour grassroots activists need to be shouting about the MIF from the rooftops.

If  Labour wants to win the next General Election, Corbyn also needs to demonstrate how immigration controls should work in an inclusive UK. Quota systems which take into account professional requirements seems quite arbitrary to Remain voters like me (who agreed with Jo that non EU immigration levels may go up post Brexit with encouragement from UKIP) but in some ways the professions quota system approach maybe a step in the right direction to try and retain Labour Brexit voters. I remember talking to a Labour voter from Boston who said that he was fine with an "Eastern European working on the farms" but he didn't understand why a Polish migrant had been recruited as a HR Assistant at his local firm. His question to me was: "How can a Polish guy get a HR position but my girlfriend with a HR masters degree can't even get an interview with a local employer?" It was quite a cutting question given my views on immigration are that it has more positive than negative effects in Lincoln. Yet his views are typical of some working class voters in Lincoln. We can't dismiss their concerns completely out of hand. I don't think privileging British candidates over migrant candidates would be the answer to improving job prospects for British born people in Lincoln as he suggested to me but rather the emphasis should be on increasing the number of job opportunities by encouraging growth in the economy. Immigrants help create profitable businesses in the UK which employ hundreds of local people often on full time contracts that pay at least the National Living Wage. It's not distasteful for migrants who work hard to earn enough money to feed, clothe and house themselves and their family to be able to have access to their own food and actively enjoy cultural activities that connect them back to their roots. Locals have to make the effort to get to know their migrants as well as migrants getting to know locals. Neighbourhood solidarity matters greatly. Sharing cultural and social values helps to remove barriers that can lead to unwarranted prejudice and discrimination. If that HR Assistant from Poland is encouraged to connect with an unemployed HR graduate from Lincoln to mentor them into finding a HR position in Lincoln as a result of meeting at a community charity gala or at a local disco venue, that's a fantastic way forward. It's not idealistic, "left wing luvvie" pie-in-the-sky thinking to believe this level of positive social cohesion could happen. At the moment there is a sense that communities which contain a higher proportion of migrants are "troublesome"- Ms Ayling, a UKIP Lincs County Councillor and candidate in the Sleaford and North Hykeham By-Election made a video in 2008 stating the UK should "send the lot back"- lot referring to asylum seekers who would be "encouraged" to speak English as soon as they arrived in the UK if they are allowed to stay. Fear of the consequences of an asylum seeker not being able to speak the language leads to mistrust without much basis for that mistrust. Fear divides us. We have to do everything we can to combat misguided fears. Fear of discussion needs to be overcome. Labour activists should not be afraid to talk to UKIP ones and vice versa.

At the same time, Labour can't dismiss swing voters who voted Remain as irrelevant or "less valuable" because of their "centrist" views. Constituencies such as Lambeth and Hackney which recorded the highest percentage of Remain voters in June are currently solid Labour (whereas Boston is solidly Conservative) and London Labour voters wouldn't take too kindly to the UK going through a "Hard Brexit" as UKIP and far right Conservative MPs have crowed for. It would certainly be a mistake for Corbyn and McDonnell to ramp up rhetoric against the EU if the Brexit process started becoming tumultuous as a result of bumbling Conservative ineptitude. Remain voters need reassurances that European relations will remain strong. That's why Labour has to be coy with regards to their Brexit stance. Corbyn is right to state Brexit will happen but must be prepared to defend workers rights whilst exploring a suitable immigration policy. Emphasising the contribution EU migrants have made to the UK economy, UK culture and society is vital. Resisting calls for arbitrary quota systems suggested by UKIP is essential. The more thoughtful Corbyn comes across on Brexit, the better his polling will be with Remain voters. And yes, Remain voters still matter and do indeed vote in General Elections. UKIP will not gain the support of Remainers like me but we must be prepared to listen and engage with UKIP supporters and swing voters, if only to find practical solutions that will help working class Millennials to thrive in a possible post Brexit climate. Jo Cox wanted us to find the common ground in politics. It's time to apply ourselves to the task of convincing swing voters to back Labour and part of that is by getting ready to take Mr Nuttall's policy discourse seriously and literally. Labour activists may not like what he has to say but they have to take on board his comments and then rebuke them cleverly with facts and workable solutions. Labour activists can do this. Just stay "woke" as they say across the Pond!

My response to Owen Jones's "Racism in the LGBTQIA Community" Guardian Article

Well well well. Owen Jones dropped an extremely important article (No Asians, no black people. Why do gay people tolerate blatant racism? 24th November 2016 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/24/no-asians-no-blacks-gay-people-racism?CMP=share_btn_tw) yesterday morning that critiques the sheer concentration of racist attitudes that are seemingly tolerated in the LGBT community. As I expected, Right Wing Twitter and Facebook went bat shit cray cray on it. "You can't tell me who to find sexually attractive", "you can't thought police me" yada yada yada. As usual the "freedom at almost any cost to others freedom brigade" waged semantic war on Owen without reading his article with that much needed open mindset. Why would an Oxbridge educated white gay journalist want to talk about race now when he hasn't written in such a nuanced way before? What prompted him to start his article with a focus on online dating but end it talking about the need for white members of the LGBTQIA community to be willing to listen to those who may happen to be Afro-Caribbean, South Asian or Latino/Latina/Latinx? Maybe it was the confrontation with David Duke over Duke's celebration of Trump as a "white nationalist hero". Maybe it had something to do with receiving testimonies from fellow gay guys who are not White European that concerns dating app experiences or real life experiences of racism and he wanted to let their voices be heard...who knows? Regardless of motive, the article is a must read for any LGBTQIA activist who wants to use their social media platform in a positive way!

In some ways social media commentators have proved Owen right on his opening premise that "there is a serious problem with racism within the LGBTQ community that needs to be addressed". Is it at all acceptable in 2016 to wear racial fetish preferences so openly on your sleeve? Yes to some extent physical discrimination fundamentally exists and perhaps it is "folly" to try and apply civil rights so rigidly to dating situations, as Ultra Light Beam has mentioned in the Guardian comments section (24th November 2016). Commentator Nathan Young retorted that "if you happen to have been affected/scarred by white supremacist beauty norms in your upbringing, don't wear your twisted preferences like a badge" (24th November 2016)- such rhetoric seems a little harsh to me but the point is relevant: is it so important to openly declare "I only date white guys with muscular bodies who are British Citizens and I'm not interested in anyone else". If an African American guy or Saudi Arabian businessman happens to contacts you on Facebook and compliments you on your activism or style and then a few minutes later proceeds to asks you out on a date (or to "hook up" on Grindr which I myself will never ever will use), do you immediately say "sorry mate, I only date white muscular men and you're neither so piss off back to Riyadh and suck on camel humps?" or do you say- "thanks for the offer but I already have a date lined up this week and I don't want to let him/her down". You may be telling a little white lie with the latter reaction but at least you are letting the guy down gently. You don't need to insult the guy by making reference to his nationality, racial origin or religion to make your point. You don't need to shove physical/racial disapproval so openly into someone's face. Decorum matters, even in the world of online dating. I know it's touted as "ruthlessly impersonal" and to many games Grindr-ing is just a "game" to satisfy bodily lusts or secret desires but manners don't cost anything and a simple decline is all that's necessary to let a guy know you're not interested. Grindr users just tend to swipe their way into ignoring any individual who pops up and for that sort of platform I'd say that is probably within the realm of acceptable responses; after all we are taught that "if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all". Ignorance is bliss in some circumstances.

See the thing is Owen's article went beyond talking about dating app banter dressed up as possible racial discrimination. If readers only focussed on the rather bolshie social media dating scene you miss Owen's overarching point that there could be a level of systemic racism built into the LGBTQIA community and that sort of conclusion simply cannot be ignored. It would be disingenuous to ignore the story of Michel, a Southern Asian gay guy who was turned away from an LGBTQIA friendly nightclub venue based solely on his appearance and assumed nationality. I don't know about you but if someone told me I couldn't come into a nightclub in Lincoln dressed to the nines in an expensive gold metallic Jacquard jumpsuit number I'd spent £200 on (and my first night out in ages) because my confidence in my gender identity offended the door person or because I was "too Scandi milky white" for their liking, I'd be absolutely furious. I'd not take it lying down. Yet so many LGBTQIA people who come from ethnic minority groups feel that there is no point trying to change the current narrative because nobody in a position of authority chooses listens to them. We can't just shrug off their concerns and say - well they need to "get over themselves" because "it's not personal". Just imagine if the boot was on the other foot like I have and try "sucking up" the bad vibes. I guarantee you as someone who has enjoyed an privileged level of freedom to express myself (in no small part due to my race and upbringing)  you wouldn't want to take the shunning lying down.

Michel doesn't just face prejudice based on his race or nationality. It's disheartening to see that prejudice within the LGBTQIA community towards LGBTQIA Muslims has been increasing. It isn't their fault that they happen to share a name similar to that of Radical Islamic Terrorists. The form of Islam practiced by Orlando attacker...is different from Michel's because Michel is peaceful and not involving himself in Jihad against the West. Why should he and many other LGBTQIA Muslims pay the price for the actions of a few terrorists who mistakenly murder LGBTQIA people in the name of Allah?  Michel doesn't perpetuate a victimhood narrative as some on the Right allege. All Michel and his friends want to do is to go out, have a few (soft) drinks, have a dance and/or do a bit of harmless flirting. If we alienate Michel, does that make us any better than the ISIS regime the US and UK are meant to be fighting against?

I believe Owen was correct to call out gay publications for their lack of LGBTQIA narrative coverage of British Asian and British Afro-Caribbean/ African voices. It's all well and good inviting Louis Smith to do an erotic photo shoot to help raise awareness of HIV/AIDS organisations or ask
Laverne Cox to do an interview about her American TV career and why Dr Frank N Furter appealed to her as a musical theatre role but Louis isn't even openly LGBTQIA and Laverne's story doesn't necessarily resonate with members of the LGBTQIA community in the UK. Yes it's important to celebrate success stories to show LGBTQIA they can achieve their potential through hard work and lucky breaks but soppy celebrity hero worship is just not going to cut the mustard anymore.

Since I started using my Twitter account in early May 2016 (despite having joined in 2011), I've been in contact with grassroots LGBTQIA activists who are working in their local communities to challenge stereotypical attitudes towards LGBTQIA people with ethnic minority backgrounds and to help empower their peers to speak out through the use of social media platforms such as Twitter, Tumblr and Youtube. Owen says that white LGBTQIA journalists and creatives have to listen empathetically to other voices within the community. Listening is just as important as speaking and we must be very careful not to try and take credit for schemes and initiatives that were started by LGBTQIA people of colour even if this happens accidentally. Promote, don't appropriate. Owen adopts this important mantra by giving the example of Chardine Taylor-Stone, a young black woman who is a member of our community and who founded the Stop Rainbow Racism campaign in direct response to blackface drag act "Laquisha Jonz" created by Charlie Hides that was hosted by managers of the famous LGBT London venue the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Now I'm all for freedom of expression and drag satire can be an effective way of challenging societal norms but a blackface act reminds me of the olde-worlde Black and White Minstrels troupe that besmirched my grandma's TV screen in the 1960s and 70s. My grandma didn't approve of "blacking up" then and I don't think she'd be best pleased to find that in 2015 a drag act freely chose to  incorporate such phoney stereotyping into their routine, even if it was intended to make folks laugh. The humour was at the expense of stereotyping working class black women and I must say hearing about the simulated oral sex scene between "Laquisha" and a police officer made me sick to my stomach. What sort of  message does that send to Black British women, including those within our community? That even though they might be not attracted to men, may be asexual or may have been raped/sexually abused/ physically abused by a police officer or suffered domestic abuse/violence at the hands of a police offer they still have to placate them to stop themselves from being thrown in jail because "that's what sassy  black working class women do?" No way can I support that as art form. It's absolutely ridonkulous! Yet Chardine faced threats of violence, accusations of being a "killjoy" by white people, Facebook censorship and most deplorable of all, being told by members of her own LGBTQIA community that she wasn't welcome and her identity was invalid. All because she spoke out against undertones racism in the arts community and she even managed to convince Charlie that she was wrong...Chardine held that "mirror" up and Charlie took a "long hard look at herself" and realised the folly of the act. Charlie's now a much needed ally in the fight! I do wonder what would have happened if the situation was reversed. I also wonder if I'd have received such a hostile reception if I'd been the one speaking out against the act. I doubt it. Anyways enough about me-  read more about Chardine's story and the positive steps she has taken to address LGBTQIA racism here: https://chardinetaylorstone.com/say-no-to-rainbow-racism-campaign/. 

I can only show my deepest respect and admiration for trans pioneers like Sylvia Rivera, a Latina (of Puerto Rican and Venezuelan descent) woman who helped found the Gay Liberation Front and Gay Activists Alliance who took part in the world famous Stonewall riots in 1969 and later went on to establish the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries movement with fellow Stonewall protestor and famous drag queen Marsha P. Johnson which still aims to help young drag queens and trans people of colour in New York City. Trans people deserve to know about their history and not to hide it away with shame or disdain. Trans people who come from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK should know that we respect their efforts to work with us to help change stilted mindsets that still exist, even within the LGBQIA community towards trans people which occurs regardless of race, nationality or religion.

Most importantly and perhaps most annoyingly for those on the far Left, we must be prepared to listen with LGBTQIA people who are conservative socially and/or politically. I must admit I often struggle being empathetic towards trans women who lecture Afro-Caribbean trans men who get pregnant and decide to have the child with a trans female partner or denounce women who freely choose to undertake an abortion due to the current circumstances they have found themselves in -e.g. if they are homeless or jobless or have been diagnosed with cancer. As a trans person I have asked to have control over my own body and to be allowed to change it so that I can align myself with my chosen gender (or choose not to go through gender reassignment surgery or hormone replacement therapy because I'm happy in my body or I may be trans non-binary or even just non-binary...who cares?). I don't have the right to tell any trans man how they use their own body. I don't believe I have the right to demand a woman stops "killing a foetus" because we "disapprove of it". I'm pro choice and that means empowering people to make their own decisions about their bodies free from guilt tripping. I used to very much anti-Abortion until I heard firsthand from women who made the incredibly hard choice of aborting their foetus so they could undergo chemotherapy to help save their own lives. It was heartbreaking but I empathised with that and that process of realisation was incredibly empowering for me. Conservatives will disagree but I'll never stop fighting against prejudice and discrimination when I see it. That includes racial and religious discrimination.

Part of the "fight" for me - (aka super intense ideological discourse) includes grassroots engagement with Conservative or "Alt-Right" Millennials.  If we are unwilling to listen to those with conservative views who live on our doorstep we will be unsuccessful in our efforts to engage positively with them and dare to hope we have started the process of changing their mindsets regarding racial prejudices. Most of the time Alt-Righters don't even realise their views might be interpreted as racist. They dismiss online trolling as "banter" and that if you've taken them literally it's your fault you are "butthurt". Yet there are those in the LGBTQIA community who openly declare racist prejudices by using the words "sand nigger" to describe Saudi Arabians/Muslims (anyone from a country that have a desert in the Middle East). When a gay friend comes up to you and declares that he will not date a Southern Asian or Middle Eastern guy because he might be Muslim and consequently a Trojan horse terrorist, don't just shut down his discourse by branding him immediately a racist and make him go off in a huff, never to speak to you again. Try and challenge and break down the racial and religious stereotype that's been created in his mind. Firstly state that there are Middle Eastern guys who are Christian, Jewish or even atheist in the UK and that you can't just assume that just because someone comes from Saudi Arabia it doesn't mean they are Muslim. Explain that the Orlando terrorist was his own man and made decisions in the name of a radical form of Islam. Introduce him online to stories of LGBTQIA activists in Saudi Arabia who are members of the Green Party fighting to overturn the draconian policies imposed on the LGBTQIA people by King Salman Al-Saud and his nepotistic government full of his family members. The fact that there are openly gay Saudi men and women, even in the UK is a testament to survival and the absolute need to be authentic to one's identity. Knowledge is power and the more Alt-Right "gun toting"conservatives get to know about the fight against fundamentalist/radical Islamic teachings in Saudi Arabia, the better!

Owen Jones's article hopefully struck a cord with the LGBTQIA community. We need better online social etiquette. We need to be more understanding of the dangers of stereotyping and be able to acknowledge our hidden or overt prejudices whether we work in the media or in nightclub security. Most of all we need to be able to listen.  Listen to LGBTQIA voices that come from brilliant activists who differ from us in terms of nationality or race or religious belief. Listen to LGBTQIA voices which come from different ideological background but be prepared to challenge the bias and prejudices contained within. The LGBTQIA community may have a systemic problem with Establishment based racism and prejudices concerning nationality and religious belief but we can make the effort to alter this. We just need to collaborate and not be afraid to do it.

Anti Bullying Week in Focus : How HR Professionals, Managers and Employees Can Help Tackle LGBTQIA Bullying At Work

Imagine this scenario. You're a trans woman who has just completed her Gender Reassignment Surgery recovery and has decided to go back to work as a Purchase Ledger Clerk at a local Accountancy firm (a SME with 40 employees). You get on fine with your fellow clerks and the Payroll Administrators but there is a male Accountant who works part time for the organisation who has started staring at you uncontrollably whenever you enter the central office. After a week of staring, the accountant in question starts making unflattering comments to you about your appearance. He calls you "big man hands", "fake boobs", "mentally retarded", "silly Fanny" in front of a Junior Accountant who says nothing about the rhetoric. This goes on for about 6 months without the Accountant relenting. You go to your HR Manager several times but each time they say there isn't enough evidence to prove that the Accountant is doing anything wrong; the manager fobs you off each time by saying that they will remind him to stop saying "hurtful comments" just in case he's doing it.

One afternoon you are alone in the office with the Accountant in question showing him some records that you need to correct on behalf of a client and the Accountant tells you sharply that it was your fault you got the records wrong and that you should "kill yourself" and save him from having to fire you because you are transgender. He then lunges at you, punches and kicks you until the Junior Accountant comes back into the office and calls the Police. Only once the police conducts a thorough investigation do all the incidents of bullying and harassment come to light. The trans employee is so shaken up by her experiences that she leaves the profession and doesn't go back into work for 2 years.

In my opinion it shouldn't take someone knocking seven bells out of a LGBTQIA employee at work for an organisation to take note of bullying and harassment that occurs as a result of being open about their gender identity or sexual orientation. It shouldn't take a police investigation or the opening of an Employment Tribunal case to get employers and HR departments to realise that bullying must be taken seriously and grievance procedures created and followed to protect LGBTQIA employees from harm and to punish bullies for the way they have decided to conduct themselves whilst at work.
The HR Professional at the Accountancy firm should have at least had a robust Equality and Diversity policy and Anti-Bullying policy in place and followed set procedures in the Grievance/Disciplinary policy so that they could have protected the trans employee from having to be in contact with the Accountant in the first place, especially seeing that the bullying had been sustained over 6 months or so. They should have also made all employees aware that transphobic bullying is against the Equality Act (because trans people are covered by the Gender Reassignment protected characteristic) and that any employee found to be bullying a fellow LGBTQIA employee would face disciplinary action, regardless of rank/seniority in the business. The HR Professional should have referred the trans employee to organisations to help them deal with the effects of the sustained bullying and also addressed their own awareness gap to ensure it didn't happen again, perhaps referring themselves to the ACAS website or sign up to Stonewall training or attend a local CIPD workshop to do this. There literally are no excuses to remain ignorant of LGBTQIA workplace bullying.

Many excuses of course are made in the workplace for harsh behaviour; whether it be -"it's just a management style" and employees have "to deal with it" or look for another job, to a manager shouting and swearing at staff in a call centre being seen as "a bit of banter" when it includes transphobic or homophobic slurs. The organisation's HR department or SME HR person must do all they can to change the mindsets of those who LGBTQIA bullying in the workplace isn't worth addressing or isn't widespread enough to need to be addressed. The guidance below is designed to help lay out basic steps that can be taken by HR Professionals, Managers and Employees to address LGBTQIA bullying head on. I hope you find some of them useful and implementable, whether you are an organisation in the UK, US or beyond.

What can Employers do to tackle LGBTQIA Bullying at Work?

• Foster a culture that is free from bullying. "Tone at the Top" leadership is incredibly important in this respect. How a CEO/CFO treats a LGBTQIA member of staff will impact on the way others in the organisation treat them. How the CEO/HR department manager also deal with those who bully LGBTQIA matters greatly. HR managers must make it clear that bullying behaviour is a type of gross misconduct and that those found guilty after a thorough and robust disciplinary process will be dismissed.
• The Equality and Diversity/Bullying policies must not be merely seen as part of a "tick box exercise" scheme to placate LGBTQIA staff. They must lead to the employers and employees wanting to build a team that values everyone regardless of their gender identity or sexuality.
• Bullying and harassment may be verbal, non-verbal, written or physical. Examples of all these types of bullying must be laid out in the Bullying policy and referred to in the Equality and Diversity policy. This makes all staff aware of their own behaviours and then take responsibility for themselves so they do not risk losing their own jobs.
• "Deeds, not Words" matter. HR staff must be prepared to train management so they understand what constitutes LGBTQIA bullying and harassment and that their actions could constitute an offence against the Equality Act 2010. Managers need to be given a space where they can reflect on their style and what adjustments they need to make to prevent unnecessary offence being caused and also to spot the signs of workplace bullying:
• Being constantly criticised or having duties/responsibilities taken away without a reasonable explanation being given for this (need to communicate sympathetically with member of staff involved in a appraisal meeting to explain why duties are being reduced/changed).
• Managers/Team Leaders using their position of power to make a LGBTQIA employee feel uncomfortable/unsafe at work -e.g., making threats about job security without any objective evidence being provided by the HR team.
• Shouting/aggressive threats.
• Being made to feel like the butt of all office jokes on a daily/weekly basis (this is NOT banter!)
• Being constantly ignored, victimised and excluded on a daily/weekly basis.
• Spreading malicious rumours about a LGBTQIA member of staff-e.g. a trans female employee "perving" on fellow female employees in the bathroom.
• Blocking progress/promotion within the organisation on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.
• HR staff  and managers should encourage employees to notify the perpetrator that their behaviour is unacceptable in the first instance (by words or by conduct) but it must be understood that this might not be possible (especially in cases of rape/sexual assault, grievous bodily harm (GBH) or able bodily harm (ABH).
• HR staff and managers must make it clear to the LGBTQIA employee affected by bullying and/or harassment that all allegations of bullying and harassment will be taken seriously, confidentially.
• HR staff and managers must communicate the disciplinary/grievance procedures to employees, including who the employee needs to speak to (their designated point of contact) and what will happen once the incident (s) have been reported.
• HR staff could create an Anti-Bullying support forum to highlight incidents that occur across the organisation. HR staff can moderate the forum and share tips and advice on how to tackle bullying and harassment and encourage victims to speak out and approach the HR department to start the formal grievance procedure.
• HR staff should monitor LGBTQIA staff absence sensitively; if an employee is taking several days off at a time, ask yourself why this might be the case. Approach the employee with care and be prepared to listen if they start talking to you about incidents that have occurred at work. Note such incidents down in the employees file and promise to investigate them as a matter of urgency. If the employee has already filed a grievance complaint and they need to take time off because they are "run down" or stressed, tell them that you are understanding of their situation and remind them to forward a doctor's note to the HR department. Keep the employee informed of the status of the grievance procedure via letter or email and remain a Point of Contact for the employee after the results of the grievance procedure are given, making sure you resist the urge to judge them if the results go against the employee concerned.
• HR staff should keep all documents relating to the LGBTQIA employee's grievance procedure, just in case the employee decides to leave the organisation and/or take the organisation to an Employment Tribunal. This will show that the organisation is willing to be transparent and co-operative during the hearing and the judge may be more likely to rule in favour of the organisation. However, be prepared to learn lessons from the case if the judge rules in favour of the ex-employee so that the HR department and organisation can prevent similar mismanagement happening again.

What can Employees do to tackle LGBTQIA Bullying at Work?

• Commit to the zero-tolerance Bullying policy.
• Be prepared to be honest about their own conduct in the office and make changes quickly after reading the policy- e.g., don't join in with calling a gay colleague a "bender" or "poof".
• Be prepared to report transgressions by others and support those LGBTQIA colleagues who are being bullied rather than "hiding behind a wall of silence" and pretend that the bullying and/or harassment is going on.
• Join the Bullying forum and share tips and advice about any experiences of bullying you may have been through to try and encourage others to speak out against their bullies.

What to do if you are bullied at work:

• If you are being bullied, remember that you can take control of the situation:
• If the incident has only occurred once, and involves verbal/written bullying, approach the person concerned and say -"I am sure you are not aware but when you called me "poof" or said that I was a "pervert", I feel bullied. If you do not stop saying this, I will have to use the formal grievance procedure".
• If there has been multiple incidents and the perpetrator has not stopped:
• Confide in someone you trust - e.g. fellow colleague/parent/partner.
• Keep a diary/ list which logs each and every incident of bullying and/or harassment and each time you feel belittled or afraid. Note down the names of everyone who witnessed or participated in the incident. The writing of a diary is cathartic in itself and empowers you as an employee because it should show you that you are not the cause of the bullying- the perpetrator is.
• Go to your team leader/manager with the diary and tell them you want to start the grievance procedure against the perpetrator. If the team leader won't intervene, go to the departmental manager. If the manager won't do anything, email/phone the HR department to arrange a meeting.
• Remember that it is OK to email/approach your manager/HR manager to find out the status of your grievance procedure. Keep strong and remember you have done nothing wrong.
• Remember that it is OK for you to take time off from work if you have been suffering from stress or feeling depressed as a result of long term bullying. Don't be afraid to seek help for your stress by talking to your GP and they can see if you can access NHS Talking Therapies/ Counselling if/when appropriate.
• If you feel your organisation isn't taking your formal grievance case seriously enough or have refused to investigate, and you are a member of a union, contact your union representative straight away. If you're not a member of a union, you can always contact ACAS or look on their website as they can offer help and advice.
• If your organisation rules against you, you can take them to an employment tribunal. You can contact ACAS to get advice on this or get in touch with the Tribunals helpline on 0845 795 9775.  
• It's OK to dip your toe in the water and search for other job opportunities within the local area. You're not giving up, you're just exploring all options available to you, especially if the grievance procedure has been handled badly by management or the HR department.

The Importance of Anti Bullying Week: Beat the Alt-Right Trump Cyberbullying Effect

November 2016 has been a rollercoaster, emotionally for me. Hillary Clinton's POTUS bid ended in disappointment, a man who openly puts his foot in his mouth when talking about individuals and their rights managed to win comfortably. One aspect of Trump's campaign strategy that really didn't sit well with me was Trump's constant need to snipe at minority communities, media commentators and political opponents. I don't need to do a rundown of all Trump's comments because they are pretty much out there on his Twitter account and those of his cult worshippers for all to see. The New York Times published an article which showed "the 282 People, Places and Things Donald Trump had Insulted" (26th October 2016) on Twitter alone.  I note a few just to jog our memories:

• President Obama: "Looks and sounds so ridiculous", "living in a world of make-believe".
• Hillary Clinton: "Crooked", "Zero natural talent", "Just can't read speeches."
• Elizabeth Warren: "Goofy", "All talk, no action--maybe her Native American name?", "Pocahontas", "Phoney Native American".
• Debbie Wasserman Schultz: "Highly neurotic".
• Glenn Beck: "A real nut job", "mental basket case", "Irrelevant."
• Bernie Sanders: "Can't even defend his own microphone(???)", "Sell-Out."
• Jeb Bush: "A basket case", "Sad sack", "Just got contact lenses and got rid of the glasses. He wants to look cool but it's far too late".
• Ben Carson: "has never created a job in his life  (well, maybe a nurse)."
• Ted Cruz: "LYIN' TED", "Puppet", "I have standing to sue him for not being a natural born citizen".
• Charles Lane: "A real dope".
• Don Lemon: "As dumb as a rock".
• Arianna Huffington: "Liberal clown", "Dummy".
• Mark Halperin: "Sleepy Eyes".
• Megyn Kelly: "Dopey", "So average in every way".

So after reading this list, do you think Trump fulfills the definition of a "bully"- someone "who uses superior strength or influence to intimidate someone, typically to force them to do something". I'd say so when the attacks have been sustained and pretty much unwarranted, especially against those who weren't even running against him for the Presidency and those media commentators whose job it is to keep Trump fully open and transparent with the American public such as Megyn Kelly. In my opinion Trump uses disgusting (and not particularly original) rhetoric to try and show that he is a "strong" man in order to instill fear into his dissenters so they will allow him to do whatever he wants. Is that someone who should be in a position which requires tact, grace, humility and compassion? What message does it send to our students that a bully can gain enough votes to get him into the most powerful political position in the world? Anti-Bullying Week (14th-18th November 2016) just happens to have fallen on the week after Trump's win in the US and thousands of tweeters have been sharing their experience of bullying at school, in the workplace and at home. In the light of Trump's win I want to explore one particular area of bullying further- that of cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying:
The battle against bullying has gotten larger due to the creation of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, instant messaging services such as Skype, Snapchat or Kik, dating apps such as Tinder and Grindr and gaming sites.  According to the recent National Bullying Survey (August 2016), 56% of young people said they have seen peers being bullied online and 42%  felt unsafe online. The problem is that such bullying can occur 24/7 and messages can go viral, encouraging others to troll the person being targeted by the bully.
Examples of cyberbullying include:

•  Harassment: Sending hateful/ humiliating comments about a person's looks on an Instagram post.
• Denigration: Someone sends information about a person to others that is fake, damaging or untrue. The example of Austyn Crites, a Republican protestor at Donald Trump's rally in Reno, Nevada who got arrested because someone shouted that he had a gun was accused of being a paid Hillary protestor when in fact he only came to ask Trump a question about the economy. His FB was trolled by WikiLeaks and Trump supporters based on false information held in a WikiLeaks database.
• Flaming: Someone uses deliberately explicit offensive language to trigger platform users into having an argument with them. These trolling bullies do this because they enjoy provoking reactions and making others feel distressed/targeted for no proper reason.
• Impersonation: When someone creates a profile pretending to be someone else or hacks into someone's profile to cause them harm by posting explicit material to harm the person concerned or their followers or other social media platform users.
• Trickery: Getting someone to reveal personal information/secrets in order to blackmail or humiliate them online and/or offline.
• Cyberstalking: When someone repeatedly sends messages that include threats of harm, harassment, intimidation or that makes a person fear for their safety or the safety of others.
• Grooming: This is where someone adds you as a "friend" to try and pressurise you into performing sexual acts for them. The threat is usually made to a child/teenager that embarrassing things will happen to them after the perpetrator "tells" their parents or that they will send any pictures you may have sent them to others without hesitation if the child/teenager doesn't comply with the perpetrator's request. Grooming is also an offence in the UK.
• Sexting: Where a boyfriend or girlfriend sends sexual messages to a friend/boyfriend that may include naked images of themselves or others. Remember that it is illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to take, send or redistribute pictures of anyone under the age of 18.

Generally speaking, in the UK, it is important to remember that anyone who makes threats towards you of any kind could be committing a criminal offence. It is actually against the law for people to make threats using the phone system and this includes the Internet. It can also be a criminal act as defined under the 1997 Harassment Act.
Perpetrators of Cyberbullying should therefore take note: if you choose to abuse someone online, you will be traced with little difficulty. Internet Service Providers take account of each person's internet activity and even if you create an anonymous email website using Gmail or Hotmail, your account can be traced.

There are things that a child/teenager or adult can do if they become a victim of cyberbullying in any of these forms:

• Print out/ screenshot the threatening comments/pictures that have been sent to you to act as evidence that a crime has been committed.
• Block any social media accounts that seem to have messages coming from the perpetrator or his supporters.
• Confide in your parents if you are under 16 so they can come with you to make a formal complaint to the police.
• If you are being bullied by email- remember to contact the host provider directly- e.g. abuse@Hotmail.com.
• If you keep getting bullied on a gaming website, it might be time to take a break from the site whilst those involved are investigated and blocked from the website.
• If you get friends trying to harass you into sharing sexual pictures/cam with them, and you are under 18, report them using the red button on The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre website. They will then pass details onto your local police force who will carry out an investigation into the groomer's activities.

As stats from the National Bullying Survey above have shown, there really are no innocent bystanders online. If you see someone being bullied on a gaming site, on Instagram or on FB, you can report the bullying on their behalf to the app provider or online site concerned using their report button. Twitter for example has now made it easier to report bullying and to deal with it to prevent it from carrying on. Equally more tweeters should encourage their friends and followers to use muting and block buttons at a first offence when a tweeter sends a death or rape threat, regardless of whether that person "was joking or not".

Here are some tips to follow to keep safe online:

• Create unusual passwords for your social media accounts. The best passwords are those that use a mixture of lowercase, uppercase, symbols and numbers. It's generally not advisable to use your name, email address or birthdate in the password. Be careful to store passwords safely if you need to write them down for future reference and if you see someone looking over your shoulder whilst you are signing in, change that password straight away.
• When you are using public computers, make sure you don't divulge any personal information and log off fully from the machine before you leave.
• Think before you type. If you are in an angry mood with someone because of the way they have treated you, remember that sending nasty divisive comments or pictures back at them online won't help solve the problem. It is better to speak to a friend or parent than confront the bully online straight away, or you may end up becoming a cyberbully. Once you type a comment, it's pretty much out there unless your app has a delete capability. Even then your comments may have been saved/screenshotted and passed around to other users and before long it may become viral.

How to overcome Cyberbullying:

• You are not the one to blame. Try and look at the situation from an impartial outsider's perspective: the perpetrator often has their own personal issues that they can't deal with, so they have taken out their frustrations out on you to try and build their own self-esteem levels. You're not excusing what they have done to you but you can start to heal when you realise you didn't motivate or provoke them into bully you deliberately.
• Don't feel the need to bottle up your emotions; if you try and suppress feelings of disappointment, shame it may lead to you becoming depressed for a significant period of time. I remember when I was bullied at school for having a high-pitched voice it did make me feel unwanted. I often went upstairs and locked the toilet door and I cried for hours thinking that somehow I was never going to be accepted by my peers. I was lucky that I had sympathetic teachers to speak to and that my parents were willing to listen to me when I felt upset to help calm me down and stop me from making a negative choice. I had people who were willing to reach out and help me deal with my emotions but many are not so fortunate to have strong support network to fall back on. All I can say is be willing to express yourself and try and talk to your boss (if bullying is work based) personal tutor (if bullying is school based) or your grandparents/parents/siblings. They may be able to get you in touch with a therapist if the bullying has been sustained over a long period. If not, go and talk to your GP, who may be able to refer you to NHS Talking Therapy or contact the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy if you want to go to private provider.
• Managing stress is important as you try and deal with the effects of any type of bullying. I took up drama lessons after school and wrote a short piece about bullying for my school newspaper. Believe it or not, it helped my friends and peers understand just how malicious comments about a person's voice could actually become. They realised that it didn't matter what my gender identity or sexuality happened to be because your vocal chords are something you have fairly limited control over. Knowing that I had changed mindsets in my own class environment made my stress levels reduce dramatically. I no longer feared going into school which was fantastic.
• Using the knowledge and skills that you gained whilst tackling your own bullying to help others is an amazing feeling. I've been involved with Just Lincolnshire (my local Equality Rights organisation) and GenderFreeDV (helping support survivors of Domestic Violence and Abuse regardless of their gender identity, sexuality, disability, race, religion or ideological preferences) and I'm proud to back other charities that focus on addressing LGBTQIA bullying in schools such as Diversity Role Models, Stonewall and the fantastic #IAmBeingMe campaign that launched today. Social media can certainly help you to get your story across to tweeters (but be mindful of cyberbullying-please see below:) and connecting with varying organisations to help question stereotypes perpetrated by far left and alt-right ideologies is needed more than ever these days. If you have the courage to speak out, you can make a real difference and alter mindsets which can lead to genuine social and political change.

What to do if your child/teenager/partner/parent is a victim of Cyberbullying:

• Reinforce the fact that no-one deserves to be treated in a vicious way online and that they have done nothing wrong.
• Help is out there-whether it is through an Anti-Bullying organisation, school teacher, HR manager, the Police or social media Help teams.
• Remind them to take screen shots of the abuse if possible and encourage them to use any block/mute capacity on the websites to prevent the abuse from carrying on.
• If your child/teenager is having suicidal thoughts as a result of cyberbullying, seek advice from your GP or get in touch with mental health charities such as Young Minds UK. If they have been self-harming, get in touch with Harmless or The National Self Harm Network Forum.
• Most importantly, praise children/teens for being brave enough to deal with the cyberbullying and tell them that the experience should empower them to take responsibility to prevent themselves falling victim to cyberbullying again.

Cyberbullying isn't a joke. Words can wound others if posted intentionally to cause distress. Nobody should stand for seeing death threats, rape threats, stalking or grooming online. As online users
ourselves it is imperative that we make ourselves aware of the types of Cyberbullying currently being carried out and the steps that we can take as individuals to prevent Cyberbullying from becoming a blight in our own lives and those that we care about. We need to be positive role models- or as AntiBullyingUK has framework hashtagged it - we need use our #PowerForGood. If we think twice about replying to trolls and fuelling their egos further, we can send a message to our followers that Cyberbullying is unacceptable. Nobody is saying that anyone should be above criticism online and that being able to give our opinions on topics is healthy. It's how we make those arguments that matters. Notwithstanding Trumpian twitter battles, I think we can all agree that being nicer to one another online could help aid discussion between different politically ideological groups and that could help reduce the volume of slurs and insults to an extent. If we can teach children/teens/new internet users that sending death threats, rape threats, slurs, threatening pictures is wrong, I believe we can change the atmosphere on Twitter, FB, gaming sites et al. As for grooming, impersonation and stalking, we can only remind people that such activities are illegal and that we will empower those who may be potential victims of those activities to take steps to prevent them from happening. Paedophiles will not get to lure their victims as more awareness of Cyberbullying develops thanks to Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) in schools. Blackmailers will lose their power to intimidate and bully when reporting mechanisms get faster and more accurate. We may not be able to eliminate Cyberbullying in its entirety but we will reduce it dramatically when we all work together as decent, compassionate human beings to #ReclaimTheInternet from the haters once and for all.

Healing Rhetoric Matters: My View on the Trump Victory, Brexit and Trump Protests.

"Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Abraham Lincoln.

The deed's done. Millions of hard working American working and middle class voters have gone to the polls and decided which candidate they want to represent them on the world stage for the next four years. Some of you may feel ecstatic and hopeful for the future, knowing that the policies your candidate has put forward on their national platform now have a slightly better chance of being acted upon. Others will feel despondent, let down by those peers and family members who voted contrary to them yet didn't say a word until after the vote had finished. Some will feel extremely concerned about the direction America is taking, whether it be a possible roll back on LGBTQIA rights, mass deportation programmes for illegal Latino immigrants or a cosying up to crooked regimes run by vile, egotistical dictators with no regard for international cooperation on human or environmental rights.
 It's a scary place to be in emotionally. Those who are on the losing side of the Presidential campaign, I get you. I wanted Hillary Clinton to win. Not because she was a woman but because she was a champion of human rights, a middle class girl who had made a success of her life by fighting for those less fortunate than herself. Yes the email "scandal" wasn't Hillary's finest honour but to be perfectly honest, I'd use a personal email server if I thought my confidential data was going to be kept more secure. Donald Drumpf has never truly been a champion of the people. Time and time again he failed to fulfill his charitable obligations, treated women shoddily and can't help to shoot his big ass mouth off to inflame tensions even further. If you look at his tweet reactions to the Trump protests, you see that his first response blamed the media for inciting hatred, which he claims is "unfair" and yet this morning he walks back on the tweet and praises them for expressing First Amendment rights. The SECOND tweet was the first one he should have sent out. Many protestors would have been sceptical of his true feelings but at least it was a civil attempt to try and acknowledge why protestors are so vocal about their feelings towards him. Trump has to learn he can't simply tweet what the hell he wants and not expect a backlash. It's a shame the protests have become violent in places; I certainly don't condone damage against property and burning flags doesn't really lead to any change in opinions and understanding from political opponents. Those on the far left are extremely angry about the outcome of the result and their fear is justified; Trump hasn't actively come out and said he'd defend the LGBTQIA Executive Actions carried out by President Obama or roll back on his threat towards leaving the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Those are the sorts of policies left wing activists care about. If some are scared about the prospect of seeing a reduction in their rights, do you really think that they're going to lie back and take it? Unfortunately for those on the Alt-Right, "Generation Snowflake" doesn't seem so "flakey" right now. However, that doesn't mean that activists have a green card to carry out mindless destruction for days on end. Remember the lessons learned from the Suffragettes. A breaking of a few windows and chaining themselves to the railings gave their movement much needed press exposure but it was the polite discussions and idea formation which led to the 19th Amendment. Protestors have to decide whether they want to carry on causing short-term disruption to areas with high Democratic party turnout or whether they want to commit themselves to a long term grassroots movement, a "political revolution" of the sort advocated by Bernie Sanders, to build up support for progressive ideas and policy platforms and then to move on and win Senate and Congress seats at the Midterm elections.

The Democratic party platform has now got to learn from Hillary's defeat. The party has to evolve. It has to become more representative of the people that choose to adopt the progressive ideas and policies that really drive change socially and economically. Many working class voters are receptive to the idea of single payer healthcare, a $15 an hour Living Wage and getting employers to offer mandatory maternity and paternity paid leave. Bernie pulled in thousands of people at his rallies because they wanted him to deliver these policies. When Bernie lost the nomination, many Millennials would have been put off voting for these policies because of Hillary's "crooked" media profile even though she adopted many of Bernie's policies in her own platform. I hope that the Dems will keep the HIV/AIDS Strategy and Autism Strategy on the backburner though; they were brilliant and showed Hillary could develop progressive ideas. It's now all about getting awareness of those ideas out into swing states and rural areas. I'm sure voters in Michigan, Ohio and North Carolina would back a candidate who stood for equality and diversity. It just needs to be the "right" one that can inspire them to turn out but also not be a "hope seller" as President Obama has been labelled (wrongly) by some left activists recently.

Perhaps not even Bernie or Elizabeth Warren are suitable to lead the Democratic movement when it finally emerges from its much needed transparent cocooning process. Donald Drumpf won because he pitched himself as a Washington "outsider" who promised to "Drain The Swamp" and crush political corruption (he didn't say whether this included Republican congressmen and senators who take lobbyist cash) . The ironic part of that "politically pure" image he presented to voters was that he isn't really an outsider at all. Drumpf is a billionaire (or multi-millionaire) businessman that was connected to Wall Street Bankers, fracking supporting, coal mining businessmen and most of all, the Washington Republican AND Democratic Elite. The Republican party has controlled the Senate and Congress for years, yet all they seem to do is be obstructive, moany about their 2nd Amendment rights and angry that they have to "pay out for poor people" just because they decided to become teachers instead of "Mr Brexit". I agree that individuals should have Self-Improvement as part of their core inner moral virtue system but what some Republicans don't understand (like UK Conservatives) is that sometimes people need a helping hand to get them on their feet, to get them into a position where they can provide for themselves and their family.

Nobody should be discriminated against based on their gender identity or sexuality. There are Independents who voted for Trump who are concerned that he may now roll back on Roe Vs Wade and Same Sex Marriage. They may keep deluding themselves into thinking Trump was an equal rights candidate disguised as a trashy divisive Alt-Right one but almost everything he said on the campaign trail seemed to be an affront against the left and progressives who fought hard to get Obama elected to put rights provisions in place. Obama may have had his faults, but he did more to advance LGBTQIA rights than any other US President. Some Trump supporters resented the provisions Obama put in place to support the legalisation of same sex marriage. Yet 14% of the LGBTQ community actually voted for Trump knowing the views of his VP, Mike Pence (who approves of gay conversion therapy and actively defunded HIV/AIDS organisations whilst Governor of Indiana). Those in the 14% category really now have a responsibility to openly reassure those LGBTQ young people who are fearful about their future why they shouldn't fear #DonTheCon. And no, it's not enough to cite him holding an upside down LGBTQ flag. They also want to know what YOU'LL be doing to help protect and support LGBTQ individuals and organisations during a Trump Presidency. And no, it's not enough just citing Peter Thiel as an example of Trump's benevolence and respect. That's because Thiel was a major financial backer of his during the Presidential campaign and he's being reward for his loyalty to the "dear leader". Also, is Trump going to hire trans people on his team? Or LGBTQ people of colour? Or a former illegal immigrant who worked hard to gain US Citizenship yet gets vilified by the Alt-Right even though they've paid more taxes than Drumpf? I'm not too sure about that, given the picks he's announced already. So whilst Trump doesn't really hire an entirely diverse transition team (4 are members of his own family are still directly connected with The Trump Foundation and Trump Organisation) it may be difficult to inspire trust and confidence in his leadership being an attempt to #DrainTheSwamp when it's just being replaced by a much more authoritarian, anti equality one. There are Protestors out on the streets to defend Hillary but there are also Bernie supporters and Green supporters who do not trust Trump to challenge corruption because he is an billionaire or he has negative views about environmental rights or doesn't really know what he truly believes in. Uncertainty breeds discontent and Brexit is not a model that Trump supporters should rely on if they're looking for change or unification. "Mr Brexit" is not the best peacemaker!

The link between Brexit and Trump's Victory as I see it:

Only a few months ago I myself was recovering from the shock of the Brexit referendum, when 52% of voters decided to exit stage right from the EU while I had voted enthusiastically and wholeheartedly to Remain. I am a Nordic-Green Left enthusiast despite being independent politically UK wise. So I believed that EU federalism could lead to greater co-operation on social issues that might have lead to better environmental protections and increased LGBTQIA rights in Eastern and Southern Europe. I supported the EU because the organisation did so some good and could have been reformed had it been given half the chance. I'm proud to say that my city, Lincoln, had the lowest Leave percentage in our county, Lincolnshire at 57%-43%, especially as I thought at one stage the city would vote for Brexit at 70 or even 75%. A few nights before the vote I had predicted correctly that the final tally would be close at 52% Leave to 48% Remain. The main reason was that I knew the Remain campaign had a platform which was an extremely tough sell to those working class voters who had felt let down by the political Establishment over the past decade or so. The level of change to them seemed horrifying but not in the policy areas that you find huge dissent towards in the US. LGBTQIA rights are pretty much accepted even by far-right conservative voters and working class voters in the UK tend to be more left-leaning or centrist anyways. For them it was all about protecting jobs, increasing trade and managing immigration levels sensibly-the sort of policy concepts you hear extremely vaguely from Donald Trump but not voiced particularly well. Some elements of the Leave campaign overly focussed on the disadvantages of immigration and used some poorly constructed rhetoric to whip up support for control measures based on slandering immigrants and refugees' moral character. It's my personal belief that many Leave voters were conned into blaming EU immigrants for most of Britain's political and social issues. Most of those voters wanted to "Take Back Control" of British finances without fully realising most economic budgetary decisions are taken by UK Parliament. Parliament has been sovereign on foreign policy and defence issues. We're still part of NATO, WTO and other organisations. I believe Brits should all take a look into the UK societal mirror and instead of immediately blaming the EU and immigrants (and Muslims) for most of Britain's problems without taking a long hard look at the politicians in this country and the decisions they already had control over, such as deciding over the funding of public services such as the NHS in areas which have seen immigration rise significantly over the past decade, such as Boston in Lincolnshire . "Take Back Control" seemed such a great idea at the time when voters were at the polls but with the Government making decisions such as Communities Secretary Sajid Javied granting horizontal fracking rights in Cuadrilla's Preston New Road site at Little Plumpton in Lancashire which overturned the local county council's fair decision. Equally the approval of the construction of a new nuclear power station Hinckley Point C which will end up increasing energy costs for the lowest paid in our economy and initial approval to build a new runaway at Heathrow Airport have angered many environmental campaigners and activists on the left. "Taking Back Control" hasn't been universal by any means.

The funny thing is that in the US, voters are perfectly willing to "blame Washington" for societal ills without understanding the impact of economic decisions that are taken at a state level. The Republicans have been implementing their own agendas in the states which they control- e.g. the hurtful HB2 against transgender bathroom rights in North Carolina and have obstructed Obama during his second term as I've mentioned above. I believe voters have been conned into voting for an illusory sort of change that will never really help solve societal and economic issues. All the US Election and Brexit vote has done is embolden the Alt-Right media journo wackos and  given Trump and British UKIPPers an ego boost and carte blanche to try and destroy progressive policies that help working class citizens. Immigrants are NOT to blame for EVERYTHING that has gone wrong during the first 16 years of the 21st century. It's time for politicians on all sides to take ownership of the failures that have resulted from their policies and start taking working class voters' views into account. These include those of the Trump protestors!

What needs to happen next:

1. Trump needs to address protestors directly, either through the giving of a keynote speech addressing the politics of hate speech and protecting rights in a Democratic state-e.g. California or Virginia or actually going out from his golden Trump Tower in New York and speaking to the protestors out on the street. He could even invite them to his boardroom and do an interview or video conference so they can air their views in a safe but constructive way.
2. Trump needs to stop tweeting in a confusing, reactionary and often contradictory manner. Platitudes after a blame tweet are not going to help quell fears expressed by protestors Perhaps Trump needs to "Delete His Account" or get social media pros in to handle it that can increase positive PR exposure amongst Democrats, Greens and Independents.
3. Protestors need to ensure their messages are consistent, that they know what they are marching about so when they get interviewed by journalists, they can get a message across that can be understood by most Americans and International viewers. Chant #NotMyPresident and #BuildBridgesNotWalls all you like but be prepared to explain reasons for this in a sentient way.Use the protest as a way of building grassroots social networks. Go for a coffee or for a taco break, talk about why each of you has decided to attend the protest and what you intend to achieve as a result. Exchange mobile numbers, KIK, Skype, email, Facebook or Twitter Handles and keep the conversation going when you get home. Write blogposts and articles explaining why you attended the protest(s) in the first place. Don't be afraid to express your political and social issues and the hopes and fears you have for the future. Share these with your contacts and encourage them to engage in debate with you if they disagree. Let them see why peaceful protests against Trump are legitimate. Break down the stereotypes being perpetuated by the MSM and Conservative/Alt-Right media outlets and commentators. Also, try and avoid the urge to damage property and bait police officers. It will only help to fuel the stereotyping!
4. Journalists and creatives sympathetic to the protestors' cause should get out into the crowd and help tell protestors to tell their stories free from political bias. The stereotypes need to be debunked. Be prepared to share articles and blogposts when you can. Create satirical posters that question Trump and his supporters' tactics. Don't be afraid to show that you have an open and enquiring mind, though!
5. Democrats need to go and have a chat with friends and family members who voted for Trump so they can hear the reasons which swayed them at the ballot box. Don't blame them necessarily for Trump creating a divisive narrative because of his poor choice of words. Explain why you're as a Democrat still support the policy platforms of the Democratic party, especially social ones relating to the LGBTQIA community. I'm sure you'd find common support for the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and Autism Strategy that can be talked about further as Election 2020 beckons forth.
6. Follow Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren and other key members of the DNC to see how the policy platform will develop over the next year. Get involved with the discussion and tell them via social media/blogposts what they need to do to gain your vote at the Midterm election to try and turn the Senate Democratic blue again and reduce Trump's power.
7. NeverTrump folks can donate to Planned Parenthood/Stonewall/local LGBTQIA youth charities or anti bullying or racism charities. Let them know you support the work they are doing and volunteer your time in your local area if you can.
8. Become ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) members. They stand against bigotry and hate and have already stated that they will pursue Trump through the courts where he has cases pending. As of today, Trump has 75 cases pending. Several relate to the shoddy Trump University with the biggest Low V Trump University starts on the 28th November in San Diego. Members of Mr Trump's golf club in Jupiter, Florida who are suing him for $2.4 million  for taking dues and fees while blocking them from gaining admission to the club. More evidence of #DonTheCon's mentality that shouldn't be ignored.
9. Finally, remember that we should all try and LoveTrumpsHate.  Rise above the Alt-Right troll baiting by using civility as your main tactic. Michelle Obama's words still ring true even when you are peacefully protesting- "When they go Low, we go High". Express yourselves in all kinds of ways but make sure you do so with an open mind, open heart and act with compassion.

A Selection Of My Favourite Self-Created Donald Trump Memes From The US Presidential Election 2016

Hello Everyone! So the day's finally arrived...all my American friends will be out in awesomely fashionable white pantsuit Bey formation, waiting for hours on end (cos some "clever" nitwits decided to restrict polling sites due to Citizens United et al) only to then desperately try and make it home for rosy Pink champagne, chocolate macaroons and moreish iced fancies with a possible (not alone) bunk up nap before we wait to discover who has triumphed in this galling, conspiracy riddled, insult laden, ferocious Twitter Battling US election. Since everyone needs some light relief during these final hours of insanity, I thought I'd just share some of my own meme creations before they descend into the pit of miserly obscurity, only to be used in GCSE History lessons as a way to describe Monsieur Cray Cray Donald Drumpf. Enjoy!

Why #ImWithHer (Hillary Clinton) Part 3: Bernie Trusts Hillary To Deliver A Progressive Platform

Bernie Sanders is one of my political heroes. You have to understand that as a trans equal rights activist in a conservative part of Eastern England that often feels underrepresented by the political system, I look up to Bernie because he is a man of integrity and he respects and fights for those who truly feel they have been left behind by the Establishment. Bernie never makes his campaigning about himself; he never asks for blind cult followers or celebrity filled rallies to help build support for his platform and he never throws temper-tantrums when the vote hasn't gone his way; instead he tries to empathise with his opponents and find ways of working with them to ensure the lives of Vermonters regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, race, religion/creed, disability, political preference or whether you prefer shopping at Walmart or 7-Eleven.
Just the other day Bernie released a series of tweets that showed his compassion for all ordinary American voters that are choosing to vote for Donald Trump; "I do not believe that most of the people who are thinking about voting for Mr. Trump are racist or sexist. Some are, but I think most people are hurting, they're worried about their kids, they're working longer hours for lower wages". (5th November, 2016).

Bernie gets it. He knows working class voters feel disengaged with the political system as it currently stands. He knows voters want real change. He knows the 2-party model is old fashioned and broken and restrictive. That's why Bernie talked so passionately about kickstarting a "Political Revolution" that would allow voters to stand up to big business lobbyists who want to continue making a fortune off the backs of hard working citizens. This revolution, however, wasn't Bernie's to own. He wanted voters to take ownership of the campaign and be passionate about it 24/7, 365 days a year, not just for one portion of the election cycle.

The key thing to remember is that Bernie believes that voters can only truly rise up and fight for their rights and win by engaging with the system rather than trying to destroy it in its entirety. When Snake-oil merchants sell you the idea that you can vote once and then all your political dreams will come true, you should know you are being lied to. Remember what happened with the Suffragists. The movement started properly with The Seneca Falls Convention, in 1848, when they passed the first resolution in favour of women's suffrage. This led to amazing strong women like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony choosing to be figureheads to spur others to fight for their voting rights. Anthony was even arrested in Rochester, New York, in 1872 for attempting to cast her vote and she was only following on from other women who had tried to vote in the past (some were even successful!) but Anthony helped  make the suffrage movement visible. Bernie Sanders did the same sort of thing when he decided to run against Hillary. He helped give a voice to millions of Millennials and Liberal progressive Americans  who want substantive change. Yet it took many more years of campaigning to eventually secure the right to vote, with the passing of the 19th Amendment on August 20th, 1920. If you want to change the American political system for the better, you have to be prepared to put in the hard work to do it. By getting representatives and senators elected that share a progressive vision for the future of the US, you as a Bernie supporter and voter can enact real social change. Nobody expects blind obedience to the Democratic party platform; it is the essence of democracy which allows people to critique ideas and policies to try and make those policies better for the good of the majority, rather than the minority.

In case you haven't picked up on some of Bernie's policies that have made it onto the Democratic party platform for the 2016 election, here's 4 of the best:

1. Pay for students to attend college if they or their families are earning less than $85,000 a year. The coverage will go up to $125,000 a year by 2021.
2. Give Americans in every state the chance to access publically funded health insurance options and expand Medicare by allowing people 55 or older to opt in while protecting the existing program.
3. Raise that National Minimum Wage to a Living Wage of $15 an hour, something Bernie has pushed for for many years.
4. Oppose the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal because Bernie helped Hillary release the deal could reduce job creation and lead to lower wages for those in employment.

I believe some Democrats have to understand that the central component of the argument that has swayed some voters away from Hillary to vote for Jill Stein, Gary Johnson or another 3rd party candidate is that those voters feel they are being exploited by those in a position of power and that change has not been swift enough under the Obama administration to make a positive difference to their own lives. Most of the trouble has been connected to a Republican controlled Senate and Congress obstructing those increases in federal budgets that could have helped fund policies designed to help working class voters who were still reeling from the effects of the 2008-09 Economic Crisis. I haven't seen any decent vaguely progressive policies from Republicans or Trump that couldn't have been proposed by a Democratic Senate working in collaboration with their Republican counterparts. For example, legalising marijuana, especially for medical use is a great idea at a state level but whilst Trump advocates for state freedoms on that, he also wants states to be able to repeal same sex marriage laws and overturn Roe Vs Wade. The correct position to take (from a British progressive perspective) would be to legally abortion, marijuana and SSM nationally and allow people to make decisions for themselves, especially if you believe in freedom of choice and  expression. It seems to me that Trump wants to allow people to express their freedom but only if it tallies with his own conservative beliefs (or if you don't really believe him to be conservative, whatever position he happens to be selling at the time).

As someone who watched the Republican and Democratic primary season unfold, it is quite ironic that Trump wants to reach out to Bernie supporters yet ignores some of his key platform ideas. Here's why:

• Bernie wants to raise the National Minimum Wage to $15 an hour which would benefit all working class voters but Trump hasn't said a positive word about that policy. All Trump keeps harking on about is "bringing jobs back to America" without having hired American workers to make his own products (when he could have done easily as a "niche luxury manufacturer") and giving tax breaks that would benefit the richest 1% more than working and middle class voters.
•  Bernie talks about fighting against the dominance of pharmaceutical companies so that drug prices can fall so that ordinary Americans can afford the medication they need to be able to live a comfortable life without worrying about getting into sustained debt. Trump hasn't even created a strategy that would help benefit HIV/AIDS patients where they would only have to pay a maximum of $250 per month towards their out of pocket expenses. Trump doesn't have a policy that would end drug subsidies that pharmaceuticals get for direct-to-consumer advertising and use the subsidies to fund research instead. Nope, those are Hillary's policies, influenced no doubt by progressive Bernie!  

• Bernie wants a single payer system for healthcare- a bit like the UK's NHS because for him, access to decent healthcare is a human right. Bernie voted for Obamacare because it was a "small step in the right direction" Hillary wants to strengthen and expand Obamacare coverage "even if it means standing up to special interests" by making a "public option possible". Trump's plan is to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) because he is in favour of "free market reform" to allow those who are rich to get better insurance policies than working or middle class voters. Bernie supporters should take note that this means Trump does not support progress towards a single payer system or having a public option. Trump opposes healthcare for undocumented immigrants, stating they cost the US "too much money ($11 billion annually)" whereas Hillary wants to provide treatment for all undocumented persons, regardless of immigration status. Trump wants to reduce access to abortion, contraceptive and preventative care. Family planning clinics provided by Planned Parenthood would be up for defunding despite the fact that preventing pregnancy is as rational, sane a thing as choosing to give birth to a child to allow him/her to be adopted. If you are Pro-Choice like me, there is no way I could support Trump based on healthcare policies.

• Bernie wants to make college education debt free and tuition free so that every American who aspires to having a career in the Arts, Politics or even  to be a Wall Street big-wig can be given the tools to try and attempt to achieve their dreams, if they work hard and get the grades in High School to pass the entry requirements. Even those who haven't received a good education in their childhood should be able to attend evening classes without having to take on a massive amount of debt to do it. Trump doesn't even have an credible college policy to me- saying that he only has "good faith" in universities to reduce tuition costs to draw on. We all know how reliable that "good faith" is in the UK, where the Government has allowed tuition fees to rise beyond the £9,000 a year cap and our universities have been active in capitalising on that cap increase the first chance they get, even as the number of students eligible for grants and maintenance allowances from those universities concerned continues to fall dramatically. Trump's proposal to make it easier for working class students to attend a technical/vocational school is appealing at first glance but remember he won't fund it 100%.

• Bernie fights on the side of Native Americans and Environmentalists opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline. He got Obama to take notice of the DAPL situation and there are signs that Hillary may speak out after the Election has ended. Yes she hasn't been vocal enough to support #NODAPL protestors, especially when they are being physically assaulted by local police forces but remember Trump hasn't spoken once about Standing Rock, either. He hasn't reached out to the protestors, or Bernie to discuss what's going on there. If Trump really cared about the environment or protecting Native American homestead rights, he'd have intervened by now. He usually shoots his mouth off about his pet causes anyways. Protestors should beware a Trump presidency though; look at what happened to Austyn Crimes, whose only "Crime" was daring to hold a sign up saying he was a "Republican Against Trump" and the Trumpettes came at him by shouting "Gun" to panic the crowd enough to call for him to get him arrested for attempting to "assassinate Trump" with "hateful"words and then online trolls  slandered his reputation by calling him "yuppie" or "mentally ill" and then when  that didn't work they called him a Democrat agitator, with Wikibleets branded him a "Hillary Shill" within minutes of the event happening. LOL! The man had only volunteered for canvassing for Hillary for 3 hours during the entire campaign and he still voted down ballot for Republicans! Enough - Bernie would have been tolerant of the protestor and would have answered his questions sanely and treated him with compassion. President Barack Obama did the same with a Trump protestor carrying a sign at a Hillary rally. Who looks truly sane now?

Bernie has even stated that he's "pretty much opposed to Donald Trump's policies in every way". I can see why pretty easily. Trump may say he is "fighting the Establishment" and wants to make the US a better place, or in his words "Great Again", but not from a progressive standpoint. Hillary may have not started out as having a particularly progressive platform but she has clearly been receptive to Bernie's ideas. Bernie has backed Hillary unequivocally by going across the US, speaking to socialist and centrists alike who were unsure about voting Democrat after Bernie lost the primary. Bernie knows that Hillary will find it difficult to deliver many of these progressive policies without support from a sympathetic Congress or Senate. Bernie has to be at the centre of helping to deliver the platform and it seems some House Republicans are scared at the prospect of him getting anywhere near the decision table. House Speaker Paul Ryan said that a vote for Democrats would lead to Bernie being in charge of the Senate Budget Responsibility Committee. For once, Speaker Ryan got something right. By voting Dem down the ballot, Sanders supporters and progressive voters can hold Hillary to account for her decision making by having Bernie there to scrutinise her. This will help protect the progressive platform that has been created by those at the forefront of the "Political Revolution". If Hillary doesn't follow on her promises, by all means vote her out in 2020 or at the next Presidential Election. If you are reading this on Monday night or Tuesday morning, are an undecided/independent voter or Sanders supporter not sure what to do, remember you have the ability to change the outcome of the election. Vote for the progressive platform. Vote for equality, inclusion and compassion. Vote to help Bernie gain a Democratic Senate. Help Bernie to help elect Hillary Rodham Clinton as POTUS. Help Bernie to hold Hillary to account for her actions during her first term. Most importantly of all, continue to enact your own Political Revolution to ensure your voice gets heard, louder than ever, in 2020.