IDAHOBIT
Paul MERCURIO (Hastings) (09:46): Today is IDAHOBIT day. As a young boy doing ballet in the 1970s and 80s and as a young adult in the 90s, the conclusion from a lot of people was that I must be homosexual just because I did ballet. What a weird idea. What a long bow to draw. But because of that I was on the receiving end of bigotry, hatred, abuse and occasionally violence, and it always perplexed me. I never understood what the fear was about, why people would feel like this and why they felt it was okay to force their opinions on me. I was lucky that I was pretty secure in who I was and was able to navigate all that fear and hatred and ignorance fairly unscathed, but I am acutely aware of how horrific this must be for those that are deeply scarred by this fear and ignorance, those that are searching for their identity in a world that refuses to accept them and those that know who they are but feel they must hide themselves away. I stand here now and say that in 2023 it is totally unacceptable, and in my view it always has been. Today is the day where we stand together and say enough is enough. Today is the day we stand side by side with love and acceptance for all of the diverse people in our community. Today is the day we stand in solidarity with our LGBTQIA family, friends and queer strangers and embrace them all unconditionally. I pledge I am going to do this not only today but every day.