All out celebration: Croydon’s Pridefest returns to Wandle Park tomorrow
CROYDON COMMENTARY: According to Mayor Perry, there’s no equalities issues at the council because he’s had no complaints. Fairfield councillor RIA PATEL says that on LGBT+ issues, that is untrue
I love how wonderfully diverse the population of Croydon is. As I councillor I am also pleased to be representing Fairfield, one of the most diverse wards within Croydon.
Our diversity is a real strength and something we should celebrate. But it is also really important that we defend it. The last hundred years has seen many major advancements in equal rights, but it has also seen truly horrific examples of what happens when there is a backlash against equality.
Given that we have just finished Pride Month and we have Croydon PrideFest tomorrow, I decided to use my question at Wednesday’s full council meeting to ask Mayor Jason Perry about what he is doing to promote the rights of LGBTAIQ+ people in Croydon.
This week is non-binary awareness week and as a non-binary person I wanted to raise a complaint that Croydon Council didn’t appear to be doing anything to raise awareness about people who are non-binary.
Question for the Mayor: Ria Patel at Wednesday’s council meeting
The Mayor’s response was extremely disappointing.
Apart from attending PrideFest and implementing equality policies for council staff, which he has to do by law anyway, Mayor Perry’s response can be summed up as “everything must be fine because I’ve had no complaints”.
Apart from being a very lazy response, it is also untrue: because I was standing there in front of him complaining about the council’s lack of action!
It is also very disappointing given that some Croydon councillors have been very public in their opposition to the rights of trans and non-binary folk, liking and retweeting social media from anti-trans individuals and hate groups.
Trans rights are personal and very important to me, but as I said in my question, an attack on one group of people very quickly turns into an attack on others. As we can see in the United States at the moment, the same people who are attacking trans rights are also attacking abortion rights and attacking voting rights, trying to re-draw election maps to reduce the power of black voters.
If we want to keep equal rights, then we have to keep fighting for equal rights for everyone.
I hope that everyone has a fantastic time at PrideFest tomorrow but I also hope that Croydon residents use this as a chance to show that we all stand for equal rights for all of us.
Pride is a protest and we are complaining that Croydon Council are not doing enough to promote equality in our borough.
- Ria Patel is a Green Party councillor for Fairfield ward. She is co-chair of LGBTIQA+ Greens
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