Her Majesty's Government is far, far ahead of our own: on advice of the government, a lesbian activist was included in the Queen's Birthday Honours list this year. From PinkPaper (links added by me):
Brighton lesbian Clare Dimyon was presented with an MBE by Prince Charles at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace, last week.A clip of Clare speaking at a rally against anti-gay violence in Trafalgar Square last year; the camera wobbles a bit at the start, but it is steadied by the time Clare begins to talk:
On Friday, 29 October, Clare Dimyon, 45, was honoured for her “services to promoting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Central and Eastern Europe”. The honour is a historic first for Pride.
A party of three lesbians of three generations, from Britain, Poland and Hungary accompanied Clare to Buckingham Palace. One of them, Gaby Charing, a 66 year old lawyer exclaimed: “I never thought I’d live to hear the Lord Chamberlain utter the words 'Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender' inside Buckingham Palace. I remember his office censoring homosexual plays in the sixties.”
Dimyon’s first parade was in London 25 years ago. She was first inspired to take part in Pride parades in Central and Eastern Europe following the events of Riga Pride 2006 and the banned Warsaw Pride of 2005.
Since then she has participated in parades throughout the former Soviet bloc. In 2009, she created the Solidarity Tour, visiting each one in turn, to draw attention to emerging LGBT communities in Moldova, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Macedonia, the Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
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