LGBT+ history month celebrates and remembers the LGBTQ+ history and raises awareness’s of the issues people within the community may still be facing.  The history of gay rights is closely related to other civil rights movements aiming to promote both equality and diversity, the rights have progressed immensely in the last 100 years. Some of the most prominent changes to the UK law are:

1967 – No longer illegal to be a gay man within England and Wales

2000 – UK Government lift the ban on lesbians, gay men and bi people serving in the armed forces

2002 – Equal rights to same sex couples applying for adoption introduced

2013 – Same sex marriage in England and Wales becomes legal.

You may have also seen rainbow flags to represent the LGBT community, the flag was originally created in 1978 and consisted of 8 colours; did you know that each colour has its own symbolic meaning! Pink – Sex, Red – Life, Orange – Healing, Yellow – Sunlight, Green -Nature, Turquoise – Magic, Blue – Peace, Violet – spirit.

If you are from the LGBT community, you may be wondering if fostering is something that could be for you? At Sunbeam we have many carers from the LGBT community to help provide a loving, caring and safer environment to our children and young people. We believe that it’s your personal quality that makes you a great foster carer and not your gender or sexual orientation.

We positively encourage LGBT community to foster and have some amazing foster carers within this community, there are very important reasons why the contribution LGBT can make is so valuable. Some people believe in the fostering myth; you need to be married to start fostering, which is not true. At Sunbeam, we have many single carers, alongside our married carers regardless of their sexual orientation.

Sunbeam would like to use this month as an opportunity to raise awareness and encourage the LGBT community to enquire about fostering. If it’s something you’ve wanted to do! Sunbeam Family has foster carers from different backgrounds, religion and sexual / gender identity! Whether your nonbinary, bisexual, or heterosexual you can become a foster carer today! If you’re nervous about taking this step, we have existing LGBT carers who can provide guidance and share their experiences with you.

If you think you can make a difference to someone’s life, then call us on 020 8799 0930 or complete a call back request on our website www.sunbeamfostering.com and a member of our recruitment team will contact you to discuss your options and how we can help you.