Highland Rainbow Folk advocated for LGBTQ+ elders in and around Inverness to ensure people were treated with ‘dignity and respect’
A little over a decade ago a group of people got together to advocate for the rights of older LGBTQ+ people in the Highlands.
Called the Highland Rainbow Folk, their mission statement was to try and help professionals in the health and social care sectors in particular treat LGBTQ+ elders with respect and dignity.
They produced leaflets, and conducted training and workshops to highlight their experiences, with everyone who was sharing their stories over the age of 50.
Originally set up by Help The Aged and the Terrence Higgins Trust around 2009, they would become independent a couple of years later before winding down in 2014.
Their work was necessary because of the fear people had of negative reactions from care staff when coming out, not having families of choice recognised, being separated from partners or even being seen exclusively through the lens of their LGBTQ+ identity.
“A lot of the stuff in our leaflet was awareness around what language to use,” Highland Rainbow Folk co-founder Suzy Gentle recalled.
“It was about how to treat people with dignity and respect, and about not making assumptions. It took a long time.
“We had some really good people in their 50s, 60s and 70s. We had a wonderful man called Murdo, who has died now unfortunately, but he was a Highlander through and through and a very proud, gay man. He was in his 80s by the time we finished, and he had some stories.
“We had a lady called Val, who has also died now, and she was in the armed forces before being dismissed for being a lesbian, probably in the 1960s or 1970s.
“I think that’s how we got to the storytelling bit, because everyone was telling stories and I just thought we needed to capture this. If people hear others’ stories then they relate to the individual and not the term.
“We would get some really interesting questions – some that proved we needed to be doing what we were doing. It was an interesting time.
“We just wanted others to see us as people. Some had quite horrific stories of things that had happened to them, and it was just interesting to get the reaction.”
Although relatively short-lived as a group, the stories that those within the Highland Rainbow Folk had to share will undoubtedly have had an impact on those listening.
What their work did, at the very least, was break down those barriers between the LGBTQ+ community and those who had never knowingly met someone from the community, and invite conversations to begin.
“I think we made a difference to some people’s awareness,” Ms Gentle said.
“People weren’t necessarily homophobic or transphobic, they were just unaware, and I think maybe people working with older people weren’t as aware that they could be LGBTQ+ too. We weren’t assuming people were prejudiced, we assumed people wanted information.
“On one occasion, I think it was in Fort William, we did our presentation to a relatively big group, and nobody said anything. We kept asking for questions, but nothing.
“We finished, said thank you, then we broke up and everyone came up to talk to someone individually. They just didn’t want to do it in front of everyone, which shows that people were unsure of what language to use, particularly around trans stuff, and whether they were allowed to ask questions.
“Someone once said ‘but you all look so normal’, and some of the group got quite offended while others just said ‘we are normal’.”
Even amongst the group’s members, there were learning curves. Ms Gentle, for example, was not as familiar with the challenges facing trans people, or older gay men, as others may have been.
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Of course, even if not all of the experiences were shared between members of the Highland Rainbow Folk, they could still rely on each other for support when putting themselves out there to try and benefit the community as a whole.
“I think it made me realise a lot more of the struggles that people had gone through,” she reasoned.
“I’ve had homophobia in the past but I had never been thrown out of home, or out of the navy, or told to leave an area I was in.
“It was a real struggle for people like Murdo growing up, when it was illegal for men, and yet he wasn’t bitter at all about that. That was interesting for me as well, how people didn’t hold it against others and just thought ‘if we can change them, we will’.
“I got to see how honest people could be. We were standing up in front of people we had never seen before and said some incredible things, and told some incredible stories. That was really brave.
“It was a nice time, and an important time I think – not just for the people hearing the stories, but for the people telling the stories. It was important for them to be visible and feel seen.”
While some of the groups that Highland Rainbow Folk were aligned with at the time – like Girlzone, a social group for lesbians, bisexual and trans women; and Swans, a self-supporting group for trans people in the north of Scotland – no longer exist, that does not mean their mantras are irrelevant.
In fact, Ms Gentle believes that many of the topics that the Rainbow Folk discussed and fought for are still relevant today, 11 years after the group disbanded.
“You can always raise people’s awareness more,” she added.
“Things stick when people hear other people’s stories, so I think there is always room for that in diversity training – whether it’s LGBTQ+ or Black Lives Matter. The opportunity to tell your story is always important.
“People are more aware now maybe, but you always get the odd one who doesn’t want to listen.
“I was doing a psychology course, and we were talking about older people, and somebody said ‘all these 80-year-olds are homophobic’. I just asked ‘what about the 80-year-old lesbian or gay man’, and they looked at me like it was outrageous. You can’t just sweep everyone together like that, but there must have been a lack of awareness that an 80-year-old could be gay as well.
“I always challenge the idea that the older people get, the less tolerant they are, mainly because I know a lot of people in their 70s or 80s who are LGBTQ+.”
