How are you feeling? It should be an easy question to answer, right? But answering it honestly as a queer person in 2026 feels anything but easy.
For me, this year has felt like a series of emotional whiplash. One day, I am screaming at an unholy volume watching Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder make out in the final, brilliant series of Hacks. The next, I am on a live news blog anxiously refreshing for updates on the horrific ramming attack at Berlin Pride. I am speaking to my friends in the pub about how worried we are that our rights are under attack, then coming home and dancing in my room to Confessions II.
The thing that has kept me going? I know I am not alone.
I have found so much strength and queer joy in the defiance of our trans sisters and brothers who refuse to be silenced or pushed out of public spaces simply because a judge in a courtroom said they should be. At the same time, I find myself seething with anger at those in power who could do something about it, yet have suddenly “forgotten” their previous promises and commitments to protect the trans community.
We asked a spectrum of queer people, all of whom are making a difference to culture or society in their own way, to honestly tell us how they are feeling right now. We also asked them what we should do next to protect ourselves from the threats knocking at our door – and what gives them hope.
As you will see from the responses we received, it doesn’t matter how many times straight people try to tell us otherwise; it is one of the most beautiful, powerful, glorious things in this crazy, crazy world to be queer. If loneliness and isolation are the curses of our modern age, as a queer woman I am eternally grateful that I can rely on my community to provide creativity, passion, resilience, solidarity, love, hope and above all, joy.
How does it feel to be queer right now? Honestly?
“Like holding something very powerful. Among queer people, marginalised people and people who have felt different this power is known, cherished and celebrated – at Prides or protests, in bed with our lovers, on the dancefloor with our friends, caring for each other in times of hardship or celebration.”
Tom Rasmussen · musician, they/them
Rupaul says all of this comes in waves. One decade we’re hot, the next people want to kill us, the next we’re on billboards. So there is a bit of lack of grounding when it comes to being a queer person. Everything feels temporary. We can not let the world’s trends dictate how queer we are, we have to wear it loud and proud every day…even when we are TIRED.
Priyanka · Drag Race winner, she/her
I’ve been having weird feelings of being unsafe or not comfortable to reveal my sexuality that I haven’t had in England for a long time. I’m scared for my trans friends and I’m scared for anyone who doesn’t fit a mould of what these fascists are trying to bend society into.
Vic Lentaigne · photographer, she/they
“We come to workshops on rainy Wednesday evenings, organise mutual aid, make art together, cook for each other, build campaigns, share skills and imagine different futures. Queerness has always been a practice of finding each other despite the conditions we're living in. Right now, that feels more necessary than ever.”
Ashley Joiner · Founder and Director, Queer Circle, they/them
Our freedom sometimes registers as a provocation. The backlash can be deeply personal, rooted in complex emotions including envy from various directions. In dominant cultural scripts, some perceive our fluidity as exposing what others surrendered for safety. There's also something else: we may carry what some disavow in themselves – their split-off parts projected onto us. Sometimes what looks like hatred is grief for possibilities they buried.
Chance Czyzselska · psychotherapist and writer, they/them
Fascism thrives in confusing times because it turns complexity into a simple plot: something has gone wrong, someone is to blame, order can be restored. Britain has real emergencies, but apparently they can wait. Instead, a manufactured panic about half a percent of the population has been indulged by a press that needed a story and a political class that needed the blame to land elsewhere. Meanwhile, the people cast as the threat are getting on with it. My days are enlivened by them, thankfully: good gossip, bad news, making things, being difficult in all the right and wrong ways.
Jenkin van Zyl · artist and filmmaker, he/him
Exhausting and empowering. I believe we are at a defining moment in history, one that people will look back on as a pivotal point for queer power and resistance, as well as the future of our democracy. I have never loved being queer more, and I've also never been as worried for queer people. It's quite a paradox.
Chris Mosier · transgender athlete and activist, he/him
“I feel ... everything. Joy, excitement, frustration, hope, melancholy, sadness, euphoria.”
Dr Justin Bengry · historian, he/him
“In a word, “scary”.”
Steph Richards · 74, transgender activist, she/her
It's a never-ending battle to fight for my rights and for my community. This isn't the moment to protect our egos or guard our own corners. We cannot win working in silos.
Saba Ali · Chair of the Ban Conversion Practices Coalition, she/her
Like a radical badge of honour, something I genuinely feel so proud of. We are sexy, chic, at the cutting edge of everything cool, so unbelievably smart and interesting, and most of all we are sincere love. Not to mention so heart-wrenchingly brave and bold as to live life with a divine honesty feels ridiculously heroic, or nuts considering that it sadly can also be dangerous.
Beky Banks · psychotherapist, she/her
I’ve built a life that I love and am proud of. And then there’s the constant, looming existential dread of the government trying to take away my healthcare, invalidate my marriage, erase my identity, and label me a domestic terrorist just for being who I am. Meanwhile, I’m just over here trying to live a silly little life! I love being queer and trans.
Charlie Burgess · author and artist working at the intersection of spirituality and queerness, they/them
Being an older member of the community, I still feel liberated and am still coming to terms with the comparative freedom I have compared with pre-1967. However, I am conscious that the pendulum which has been swinging towards this liberty can so easily swing back the other way. Vigilance and awareness of what is happening in the world in general and in your own sphere is essential. Watch out, you youngsters.
Clive · 82, resident at Tonic@Bankhouse, the UK's first LGBTQ+ affirming retirement community, he/him
“It’s beautiful, and the community is always building. I think even though government legislation seems to be against us, we’re getting stronger and louder, and actually it forces us to fight harder. So even though it's scary, I am also hopeful.”
Bambie Thug · singer-songwriter, they/them
“The community of it all, and how much we love each other, overshadows everything that we're feeling negatively.”
Hannah Jones · trans activist and actor, she/her
“It feels pretty fucking amazing to be queer right now. Like, I can't lie. I know that there's this narrative being pushed by this really small minority of well-funded billionaire bigots, but actually, apart from this, my life's great. I love my community; I have an incredibly fabulous life. I refuse to let anybody dim my shine, you know? They can choke on me.”
Lewis G Burton · DJ, activist and founding member of London Trans+ Pride, they/them/she/her
I think it feels complicated. There was a period where it felt like we were moving in one direction — like every generation was going to have to explain themselves a little less than the one before them. And right now it feels like we’re being reminded that none of that progress is permanent. But I also think being queer has made me very comfortable with the idea that there isn’t one direction you’re supposed to go in. I came out later in life, and there was something incredibly freeing about realizing that the version of my life I thought I was supposed to want wasn’t necessarily the life I wanted. So even when the world feels like it’s trying to make people smaller, being queer has done the opposite for me. It made my world bigger.
Emily Hampshire · actor, she/her
What should queer people refuse, resist or stop apologising for?
“Some things still have to stay contradictory, excessive and badly behaved, otherwise we accept the premise that queer life must be presentable before it deserves protecting. If one eyebrow won't match, make the other one worse.”
Jenkin van Zyl · artist, he/him
We must remember how far we've come and that it's our victory that has led to this attempt to limit our freedoms now. For example the new anti-trans legislation that came into effect in India this year. The fact is, we are free and we have to remind ourselves of this every day. Freedom lives in our hearts and minds and these belong to us. Be your beautiful self and do what you love, because your creativity and desires will help us build the world we want and deserve.
Rain Reeta Loi · they/them, Storyteller, Cultural Futurist, Founder & CEO of Sagara & Gaysians
“We need to resist the pressure to become fragmented. Systems often reward competition, scarcity and individual success, but queer liberation has always depended on collective action. We need to refuse the idea that some queer lives are more deserving of protection than others. Our movements are strongest when they recognise that none of us are free until all of us are.”
Ashley Joiner · Founder and Director, Queer Circle, they/them
To me it feels crucial that queer people, at this moment, remember that our identity intersects with other vulnerable identities whose rights are so easily eroded by those in structural power who are afraid of our actual power. In the UK we must fight for our trans friends, lovers, strangers and siblings. And against the tidal wave of hate towards migrants. We must resist the dreadful denial forced upon us by capitalism and remember that people in power, and our proximity to them, have never set us free: it is each other that can.
Tom Rasmussen · musician, they/them
“Our freedom to live our lives authentically terrifies those who do not - but that is one of the greatest gifts of being queer. Queer people should never limit our own greatness to make other people feel more comfortable with their own mediocrity and conformity.”
Chris Mosier · transgender athlete and activist, he/him
I have a fear of being "too loud" or "too aggressive" because of how queer POC people are perceived. It's hard to not worry about people's comfort when that's how we have to survive growing up. So we need to STOP acting like we're in a world where we have to hide who we are, those days are over (for some of us).
Priyanka · Drag Race winner, she/her
Remember the words of Harvey Milk, which inspired me to be a trans activist: "Every gay person must come out. As difficult as it is, you must tell your immediate family. You must tell your relatives. You must tell your friends if indeed they are your friends. You must tell the people you work with. You must tell the people in the stores you shop in. Once they realise that we are indeed their children, that we are indeed everywhere, every myth, every lie, every innuendo will be destroyed once and all" (Gay Freedom Day Parade, San Francisco, June 25, 1978).
Steph Richards · 74, transgender activist, she/her
“ Never apologise for joy, fun and play nor for being too loud, political, angry or upset. Refuse silence. Resist erasure. There's so much to celebrate, but so much to do. LGBTQ+ histories and lives are being systematically denied, even as some of the most vulnerable members of our communities remain in danger. We can never be complacent.”
Justin Bengry · historian, he/him
We are imagining and creating ourselves out of nothing but pure faith, each and every single day as queer people. No amount of erasure, whether Section 28 or the erasure of how we came to be in this country from our education system or overwhelming cis-het propaganda that we live in, has stopped us from becoming ourselves. Now isn't that something! They can't erase us because we exist anyway. If we exist, let's make joyful lives, doing what we love.
Rain Reeta Loi · they/them, Storyteller, Cultural Futurist, Founder & CEO of Sagara & Gaysians
Stop shrinking ourselves to fit someone else's narrative. You might say it's easy for me to say that, but I am also a woman, South Asian and targeted for coming from a Muslim family - but that won't stop me from speaking up and taking up space.
Saba Ali · Chair of the Ban Conversion Practices Coalition, she/her
“Loving another woman is like owning a secret key to heaven. A queue jump. Some kind of VIP guest list experience. To be sentimental, lesbian love dresses my wounds and creates a space where I can rest my bones… To be able to offer love and receive love so soft, warm, deep and exciting will never be wrong in my eyes; I will simply never apologise for loving another. Love makes the world better - and I have so much love it overflows across my whole life. It makes me believe in the possibility of a more compassionate, caring, inclusive world.”
Beky Banks · psychotherapist, she/her
I like to look to nature not to claim queerness as 'natural' in some essential sense, but because natural systems defy the rigid categories that the Western mind imposes – mushrooms with thousands of sexes, frogs that shift mid-life, forests communicating underground across arbitrary lines. Those aren't just curiosities; they're reminders that supposed human supremacy enforces a rigidity that is more fiction than fact. Resist the demand to be legible to systems that only value what they can categorise and extract.
Chance Czyzselska · psychotherapist and writer, they/them
“Refuse assimilation. Resist the fear that tries to make you small and palatable. Refuse to settle for anything less than full rights and protections. Refuse to break solidarity with trans people in exchange for a false and temporary sense of safety… Resist fascism everywhere you see it. Be yourself. Be messy. Follow your joy. Fight for what you love. Don't stop dreaming. Have fun.”
Charlie Burgess · author and artist working at the intersection of spirituality and queerness, they/them
Quite simply, we should stop apologising for who we are and who we sleep with. If we keep doing this, our very identity is at risk, which can and often does lead to complex trauma. Hiding who we are for the comfort of others, assuming we are harming no one, is deeply destabilising, particularly during our formative years. I can only imagine what trans people must be feeling with the relentless vitriol they are experiencing. We do not need tolerance; tolerance says, "I allow you to exist." We need inclusion, equality, respect, belonging, and genuine acceptance instead.
David · resident at Tonic@Bankhouse, he/him
“I don't think we should be silent. I don't think we should be quiet in our voices in any way. I think we need to be louder. Like ten times louder, fifteen times louder, than we ever have been. I think silence is a death penalty.”
Hannah Jones · trans activist and actor, she/her
“Queer people should stop apologising for being themselves, for being too fabulous, for looking good, for being hot. We are gorgeous, we are sexy, we are beautiful, we're talented. We give a fuck about people. I think there's a lot of care in the queer community, and that's something the rest of society can learn from.”
Lewis G Burton · DJ, activist and founding member of London Trans+ Pride, they/them/she/her
Don't be a cunt, be kind to people, and meet people where they're at.
EM Williams · activist and head of the London Trans+ Pride Access Consciousness team, they/them
I think there’s this pressure to be able to explain yourself perfectly — your identity, your sexuality, your pronouns, who you love, why you love them — like you need to submit a thesis before you’re allowed to exist publicly. I spent a lot of my life thinking I needed to know exactly who I was before I could say who I was. And I don’t think that anymore. You’re allowed to change. You’re allowed to find better words. You’re allowed to realize the words don’t matter to you at all. You’re allowed to contradict an earlier version of yourself. I think queer people should stop apologizing for being works in progress. Everybody else is too. They just don’t get asked to explain it as often.
Emily Hampshire · actor, she/her
What is keeping queer people alive, and what gives you hope for what comes next?
One of the most powerful experiences of togetherness and understanding I've felt is in community. I would say that this is a powerful life force and much needed at the moment.
Vic Lentaigne · photographer, she/they
“Queer people are inherently survivors - it's in our DNA. We live with the knowledge that we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors and transcestors who came before us and fought like hell to make sure we can live openly today.”
Chris Mosier · transgender athlete and activist, he/him
"Right" always beats "wrong", and we live in a "live and let live" society that is beginning to wake up to the potential human rights abuses we are now facing… There is hope and so many amazing people out there fighting for LGBT+ human rights. I am proud to be one of them.
Steph Richards · 74, transgender activist, she/her
“Knowing our history keeps queer people alive. It is shocking that in 2026 we still need to prove that queer and especially trans people are not just a recent thing. Knowing and sharing our history is an act of care, but also an urgent act of resistance.”
Justin Bengry · historian, he/him
“What keeps us alive is each other. Chosen family, people who show up when the world shuns us, the joy we refuse to give up no matter how hard they try to silence us. Hope is the people who hold me up when I've got nothing left, my friends who answer the phone at any hour, elders who paved the way and the ones coming up behind, the young changemakers.”
Saba Ali · Chair of the Ban Conversion Practices Coalition, she/her
“I believe that through building strong, cohesive communities that are clearly thriving in spite of funding cuts and political sabotage, we will never be crushed or disappear… We are a core feature of society, just with way more sexy household lighting and chic fashion choices.”
Beky Banks · psychotherapist, she/her
Organising, protesting, celebrating, dancing and making art together… In my field, psychoanalysts like Lara Sheehi and Avgi Saketopoulou who invoke the radical roots of analysis and describe how we can take our challenges from the clinic to the streets. Saketopoulou's suggestion is that we can reframe our relationship with our traumas. Asking not "what shall we do about trauma", rather what can we do with it, from and within it?
Chance Czyzselska · psychotherapist and writer, they/them
“Queer people are visionaries in part because we can imagine possibilities beyond the dominating status quo. We can imagine other ways to live and love and be in community with one another and the planet. We know that things don't have to be this way because we are living proof that the oppressor's rules and roles are lies. That's what makes us dangerous to the powers that be. That's also what makes us a vital part of any viable future for humanity. There is no future without queer people in it. That gives me hope.”
Charlie Burgess · author and artist working at the intersection of spirituality and queerness, they/them
We need to build genuinely diverse communities that go beyond apps, helping us connect whatever our age or identity. We need more spaces where we feel safe, express ourselves freely, and celebrate our unique gifts and talents rather than society's obsession with who or what gender we love.
David · resident at Tonic@Bankhouse, he/him
“I think the community is giving me hope for what's next. Even the younger people in the community, there is a bravery there. I think the pendulum always swings back, but it's the darkness before the dawn. I believe it will get better.”
Bambie Thug · singer-songwriter, they/them
“It sounds so corny, but I think hope is keeping queer people alive at the moment. I think there is so much injustice in the world, and so much hate and so much displacement in the queer community, but I think that the love for each other that we have really holds us together and keeps us really hopeful.”
Hannah Jones · trans activist and actor, she/her
I do think it's that shared solidarity in queer joy in queer spaces. I think the queer community has got a real ability to come together, and it's so authentic and beautiful.
Zoë Garbett · Mayor of Hackney, she/her
Just hanging out and spending time with your loved ones, especially your trans friends, right now - that is keeping us alive. It's reminding us that we're loved, that life is worth living.
Lewis G Burton · DJ, activist and founding member of London Trans+ Pride, they/them/she/her
Even when the world has tried to isolate us or convince us there was something wrong with us, somehow we’ve always managed to make communities, families, art, entire cultures out of finding the other person who felt like they didn’t belong either. And I think that’s what gives me hope too. You can take away rights, you can make people afraid, you can try to push people back into hiding — but you can’t actually make queer people stop existing. We’ve been here the whole time. And we’re reeeeally good at finding each other.
Emily Hampshire · actor, she/her
What is the role of art in our queer future?
“I feel that art is both an expression or extension of and protector for queerness. Through the practice of making art we are able to share facets of our experiences as queer people that might otherwise feel impossible to quantify.”
Emma Fineman · artist, she/her
“Where language alone may not be enough to encompass the fullness of the queer experience, art gives us alternative routes into its beating heart.”
Emma Fineman · artist, she/her
What would queer utopia look like to you?
“I feel like I'm in utopia when I'm dancing to Kylie in the sun with my friends, or swimming at sunrise in Barcelona after the final night of Primavera. I think decentering men feels really utopian. There's so much love around us all the time if we choose to see it.”
Maxine Heron · writer, speaker and model, she/her
“I'm curious about hell, it seems like a lot of sick bitches are there.”
Emma Fineman · artist, she/her
What's the best thing about sapphics?!
We are so hot. It is so hot to expand the definition of what it means to be a woman, a person — it's like being in a nondenominational church. We are sharing what we believe of ourselves. The convictions and rituals we have and curiously exploring what those are for others. Defining and redefining ourselves through deep self love and compassion is something that we amplify through our passion for each other. I absolutely love the way we champion other sapphics through our love of them. If you are gonna be about it, be about it, and we are ten toes and two fists deep about it. I rate it.
Emma Fineman · artist, she/her
“Queer utopia is everyone having the space to be completely, unapologetically themselves and to let their freak flag fly. I'd especially like to see women, femmes, non-binary and trans people feel completely free to explore and express themselves without shame or self-consciousness. I think one of the most exciting things about queerness is that once you realise you don't have to follow one set of rules, you start questioning all the others too. More of that, please.”
Elkka · DJ, she/her
Having queer sex is a bit like discovering you've been seeing in 2D and suddenly everything is in 3D. There's this whole secret world with its own codes, possibilities and ways of doing things. And I think the sexiest part is that it extends far beyond sex — we get to invent our relationships, our communities and our lives. The queerness of my life is probably much sexier to me than simply the fact that I sleep with women.
Elkka · DJ, she/her
“I feel most free on a dance floor, surrounded by queer people, when everyone has stopped thinking about how they look. There's a particular point in a night where people seem to shed their self-consciousness and you can feel a room become completely itself. Nothing tastes sweeter.”
Elkka · DJ, she/her
I'm grateful for my friends and for nightlife and music - I think they're all seeing me through. Queer culture feels like it's really evolving. I see so much new talent surfacing - it's a hard time for so many of us, but we're resisting it with all we have. Against many odds, the scene feels incredibly strong.
Maxine Heron · writer, speaker and model, she/her