Following the 1984-85 coal miners strike in the UK, it was a block vote from the National Union of Mineworkers that pushed the Labour Party at their 1985 conference to commit to supporting LGBT rights. Unions fight for ALL rights, and have done so for decades. It is by no means a new concept.

And because we are a labour union, and it is our own “brothers and sisters” in our union making hateful comments, it is also important to shed light on the critical role of labour unions in the recognition of gay rights.

But some of the history of homophobia as a “disease” goes even further. In the 1970s, Swedish activists called in “sick” to work because they felt “gay.” This activism led to Sweden being the first country to remove the classification of homosexuality as a diseases in 1979, 11 years before the WHO.

May 17, 1990 was the day the WHO - the World Health Organization - removed homosexuality from the International Classification of Diseases. That is the core reason why May 17 is recognized every year, internationally, as #IDAHOBIT