Clark & Gay, Barristers & Solicors - Lawyer & Law Firm at Hraki

Contents:

• KEV SPACEY DEFENDS COMG OUT AS GAY AFTER BEG ACCED OF SEXUAL MISNDUCT: ‘I WAS UNR A LOT OF PRSURE’
• TOP BARRISTER MARRI GAY PARTNER OVERSEAS
• CLARK AND GAY LIMED
• GAY BARRISTERS
• BARRISTER WHO REFED TO REPRENT GAY CLIENT REPRIMAND
• CLARK & GAY, BARRISTERS & SOLICORS
• GAY BARRISTERS STICKERS

KEV SPACEY DEFENDS COMG OUT AS GAY AFTER BEG ACCED OF SEXUAL MISNDUCT: ‘I WAS UNR A LOT OF PRSURE’

Historil ntextUnlike the first woman or the first BAME barrister admted to the Bar, there will never be a rerd of the first gay man or woman, the first bisexual or the first trans person to be lled by the Inn.

Of urse, that’s not to say their nam are not ntaed our archiv: LGBTQ+ people have always existed and, arguably, jt as London has always been a queer cy (to quote Peter Ackroyd’s Queer Cy: Gay London om the Romans to the prent day (Chatto & Wd, 2017)) so ed have the hallowed grounds of the Temple.

TOP BARRISTER MARRI GAY PARTNER OVERSEAS

In their effemate rol, the men would later bee associated wh the French word ‘gai’ (cheerful), which overtime gave the term ‘gay’ that we know and have embraced today.

CLARK AND GAY LIMED

Que what the alleged victim thought would happen when he weled his would-be attacker ‘to the same box’ we n only some gay men of the Inn prumably had fun of an eveng, the Temple district was also an area which some of the worst persecutn of LGBTQ+ dividuals was displayed for all to see. In 1810, the Whe Swan on Vere Street was raid by officers of the urt, who were horrified to fd an tablishment ntag beds, a ladi’ drsg area, and a ‘chapel’ for gay marriag to be celebrated. At the lnch event last November, for example, there were dividuals who had ‘e out’ much later life and who lived through those now nceivable days when sexual acts between gays remaed illegal.

GAY BARRISTERS

Practilly all my school years were spent unr the cloud of sectn 28 of the Lol Government Act 1988, which serted Sectn 2A to the Lol Government Act 1986 a prohibn on tnal thori promotg homosexualy schools or publishg material wh the tentn of promotg homosexualy. In my 14 or so years of school life, I never heard a teacher refer to homosexualy, not even the ntext of art or lerature. There were no children who were openly gay any of my three schools and my one reference pot for what meant to be a gay male the 1990s was the children’s BBC drama slot at 17:00 on Tudays and Thursdays, where shows like Biker Grove or Grange Hill – though no doubt well-tentned – picted gay characters as people who suffered enormo difficulti g out and who, largely, were prsed or livg fear of HIV Aids.

BARRISTER WHO REFED TO REPRENT GAY CLIENT REPRIMAND

I saw policians and popular sgers ridiculed, their reers stroyed by tabloid trash for havg the dacy to live a private life that volved gay sex.

As far as my relatnship wh Middle Temple was ncerned, I nnot rell there ever beg any LGBTQ+ reference pot om the time I joed until the time I was lled July 2011 and moved to Manchter; I certaly nnot rell any overt homophobia but then, neher was I exposed to any posive msag of cln. The one thg I do know is this: that had I met jt one, openly gay barrister, Bencher, judge, or even staff member at the Inn durg my year London, I like to thk that my experience of that time and my pupillage that followed would have been very 2019, I stood the Prce’s Room my Inn, at a lnch event for the LGBTQ+ Fom wh my partner, Jack, and surround by LGBTQ+ lleagu, iends and alli. We are due to have not our first but send openly gay Master Treasurer, who will follow the footsteps of the late and very much missed Master Jenks.

As Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office the US, said:‘I nnot prevent anyone om gettg angry, or mad, or trated.

CLARK & GAY, BARRISTERS & SOLICORS

I n only hope that they’ll turn that anger and tratn and madns to somethg posive, so that two, three, four, five hundred will step forward, so the gay doctors will e out, the gay lawyers, the gay judg, gay bankers, gay archects I hope that every profsnal gay will say “enough”, e forward and tell everybody, wear a sign, let the world know.

The laws surroundg lbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ+) rights have been changg for s. In 1972 the first Gay Pri march was held the UK. In 1992 the World Health Organisatn removed homosexualy om s list of mental disorrs.

GAY BARRISTERS STICKERS

In 2001 the UK lifted s ban on lbian, gay and bisexual people servg the armed forc. Wh prev laws havg prevented lbian, gay, bisexual and trans people om beg open about their sexualy and inty for many years, new LGBTQ+ histori are beg disvered and retold all the time. Acrdg to ILGA Europe’s most recent annual review “of the human rights suatn of lbian, gay bisexual, trans and tersex people” the UK, 2020 the Employment Tribunal, for the first time, led that non-bary people are protected om discrimatn based on their genr inty, by the Equaly Act 2010 Taylor v Jaguar Land Rover.

The most recent data, sourced om the 2019 practisg certifite holrs survey, highlights that jt 5% of solicors intified as lbian, gay or bisexual, while the Solicors Regulatn Authory’s Diversy data tool found that 2% of solicors clared that they had a genr inty different om their sex registered at birth. While all women earned ls than men (regardls of sexual orientatn), acrdg to the fdgs, gay men reportedly earned half that of their straight male unterparts.

At the top end of the sle, straight men earned on average around £600, 000 to £700, 000 per annum, followed by the top 10% of gay men who earned on average around £300, 000 to £400, 000 – while high, is still signifintly ls than heterosexual men.

Meanwhile, other prsg issu that were highlighted the report clu microaggrsns, homophobia, biphobia and transphobia. Of the LGBTQ+ rponnts, 37% reported havg experienced homophobia, biphobia or transphobia their workplace – 37% of lbian women said they had experienced the negative behavurs, as well as 36% of gay men and 32% of bisexual dividuals. On top of the above negative behavurs, the rponnts also dited microaggrsns as a prsg issue, wh 53% of bisexual rponnts reportg they had experienced , alongsi 35% of lbian women and 26% of gay men.

Harvey Milk, a US polician who ma history 1977, after beg the first openly gay man to be elected to public office California, once said “[…] tak no polil al to give people eedom” and, as we wns chang to the law, ’s important to remember that the revisns aren’t enough to improve the overall experience of LGBTQ+ people society or at work.

Microaggrsns are still an issue; homophobia is an issue; biphobia is an issue; transphobia is an issue. ” Deborah mirrors the actns her thoughts: “As wh other unrreprented groups, you n’t have an expectatn that others will te you, you have to make your obligatn to te yourself and unrstand what might be like to experience transphobia, homophobia or biphobia. Deborah agre that “’s important for alli to ll out homophobic, transphobic and biphobic behavurs.

As a gay barrister-turned-amic and a gay solicor-turned-amic, we uldn’t help but notice that whilst there is a reasonably strong body of work on diversy and cln var sectns of the legal profsn, there is relatively ltle on LGBT+ lawyers. In 2009, The Law Society published a report on the reer experienc of lbian, gay and bisexual solicors ( njunctn wh the InterLaw Diversy Fom), but we were unable to fd any work which spoke to the experienc of the LGBT+ Bar.

And so, a year ago, we cid to explore, empirilly, how lbian, gay, bisexual, trans dividuals and others on the LGBT+ spectm experience life as barristers or barristers to May 2016, we created and distributed an onle survey aimg to gather data om the LGBT+ Bar four thematic areas: (i) the experienc of LGBT+ members of the Bar the workplace; (ii) if (and how and where) barristers were ‘out’ at work; (iii) the potential nnectns between sexualy and practice; and (iv) the purpose of LGBT+ works and role mols.

In s December 2016 paper, Report on Diversy at the Bar, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) prented data showg that were 294 lbian, gay or bisexual members of the Bar. Homophobia more prevalent at the Bar? The Bar then appears to be performg worse than the solicors’ profsn and ed worse than workplac generally on the we explored homophobia, bullyg and harassment the terviews we were really stck by three matters.

The first was how many barristers played down or ma light of their own homophobic experienc. The send was that, spe beg fearls advot the pursu of their client’s terts, many barristers had failed to step forward and fend their own rights and to speak up the face of homophobia. Recent highlights clu an addrs at the annual nference of the Instute of Barristers Clerks, and an teractive discsn, held associatn wh Stonewall, to mark the 50th anniversary of the partial crimalisatn of homosexualy England and also recently hosted a ‘Bt Practice’ panel event that was well-attend by chambers: discsn foced on the difference havg an clive anisatn n make; mon mistak; and what bt practice looks like.