In the UK in 1969, wheat prices were less than £50/tonne, land values had just about risen above £200/acre, Cledwyn Hughes was Minister of Agriculture under Harold Wilson, and Sir Gwilym Williams was President of the NFU.
Meanwhile, across the pond in Manhattan in June of that year, the Stonewall uprising took place. It initiated a revolutionary shift in the progression of LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) rights. Stonewall is the reason that June is now celebrated as Pride Month across the world.
LGBTQ+ people in agriculture
Mentions of agriculture and LGBTQ+ rights in the same paragraph are not something that one often reads. Writing as a queer person who has grown up living and working within agriculture, this is a sad reality, but one that, happily, is changing.
As part of my role as a 2022 NFU Student & Young Farmer Ambassador, I was humbled and elated to have been asked by the NFU to record a short video on farm to wish members and non-members alike a happy Pride Month.
In 1969, only two years after the legalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, a similar positive public acknowledgment of LGBTQ+ people would have been unthinkable, not just within the NFU and not just within agriculture, but across society.
No visibility in the 90s
I was born in 1995, halfway through the lifespan of Section 28, UK legislation that prohibited promotion of the acceptability of homosexuality (legislation not repealed in England and Wales until November 2003).
Growing up in an isolated rural agricultural community in the West Country in the late nineties and noughties, there was zero visible representation of LGBTQ+ people.
Any references made were invariably derogatory and discriminatory. As I slowly came to realise that I myself am part of the queer community, to my utter dismay I thought that meant I would inevitably be ostracised from the farming community.
Making progress
Over the course of the past half century, the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ+ people have been volatile, but across UK society we have seen monumental progress being made.
While our rights and freedoms have gradually begun to flourish across society, it saddens me to say that I believe rural communities, including the farming community, have been slower than others in accepting and welcoming LGBTQ+ people.
However, encouragingly, this is finally changing and changing quite rapidly.
Impact on mental health
Personally, I have struggled considerably aligning my queerness and my farmer-ness. Throughout my adolescence and beyond, my mental health has suffered severely because of this internal conflict. There were innumerable times when I simply could not see a way forward for me within agriculture, nor within the community in which I grew up.
Positive representation
I fundamentally believe that had there been more (any!) positive representation of, and discussion about, being LGBTQ+ in agriculture, I would have found accepting myself and visualising my future exponentially easier, while also being saved from so much strife.
Societal, familial and vocational pressures and persecutions still negatively affect my mental health every day, which is something that I ongoingly manage to varying degrees of success.
Nonetheless, I am incredibly proud to be an out queer man, proud to be a farm manager and thrilled beyond words to be engaged to my wonderful boyfriend.
Five, ten, fifteen years ago, however, I would have found it inconceivable to ever be making that statement.
Allies within the farming community
Wonderfully, organisations such as Agrespect are now amplifying the voices of many of the hundreds, if not thousands, of LGBTQ+ people working within agriculture and its supply chains in the UK.
Moreover, as organisations such as the NFU give increasing positive visibility to agriculture’s intrinsic, but historically silenced, queer community, that is when progress really starts to excel.
If you’re a lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, something else, or unsure and are reading this while feeling any of the despondency or troubles that I have referenced above, feelings that so many of us sadly experience, please know that you are valid and you are valued just as you are – both inside and outside of agriculture.
A positive and diverse future
With the increasing rate of progress in recent years, I am enormously enthused and optimistic about a positive and supportive future for people of all minorities and diversities within our industry in the years to come.