As I write this editorial, Pride month 2022 is coming to a close and it is ‘Rainbow Day’ at the Mark Allen Group offices. This is an initiative begun this year by our LGBTQ+ network, MA Pride, of which I am pleased to say I am a member. Today, we are wearing bright colours and celebrating a community that I am proud to be part of.
The Royal College of Midwives (2022) has announced that it will be attending the London Pride parade on 2 July. The theme for the parade is ‘All Our Pride’, celebrating the past, present and future of Pride for the entire community (Pride in London, 2022). This year, Pride will draw attention to current campaigns for progress in LGBTQ+ rights in the UK, including a ban on conversion therapy, protection against hate crime equal to that which already exists for racial and religious hate crimes and a call to establish a national AIDS memorial to honour those lost and remember the impact that HIV and AIDS can have.
Trade unions, like the Royal College of Midwives, have played an important role in the history of Pride and the LGBTQ+ community. Early examples of solidarity between these two groups included the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners movement in the 1980s, and its offshoot group, Lesbians Against Pit Closures (Jackson, 2015). Both these groups supported the miners during the strike in 1984–1985 and were supported in turn by miners and their families at the Pride parade of 1985.
Pride is an incredible thing to be a part of. I would encourage anyone, whether a member of the LGBTQ+ community or an ally, to attend. Show your support for equality, for justice and for the rights of all those in the community.
This year, we have already published several articles that address inclusivity and equality for those in minority groups, covering a range of topics from gender-inclusive language (Jennings et al, 2022) to minority ethnic groups, both as patients in maternity care (Chubb et al, 2022; Crowe, 2022) and as midwives (Pendleton et al, 2022). These are topics I feel it is incredibly important that we continue to explore and I hope I can look forward to further submissions of research in this area. I am proud to be a part of publishing research that aims to improve equality in maternity care.