Celebrating Pride in 2020 🏳️‍🌈

By Patrick Robert Doyle,
Head of Design at gowago.ch

Originally from the UK, Patrick joined gowago.ch shortly before it’s launch in early 2018. He joined the team to help put customers at the centre of every design decision at the company. The font you’re reading now is one he chose on a panicked afternoon when gowago.ch was only weeks away from launching and a whole website needed designing.

This has not been the start to the year that many of us were expecting, and the cancelation of LGBTQ+ Pride events across the country certainly wasn’t in my 2020 vision (sorry, I’ve been dying to use that joke).
Last year, 50 years after the brutal Stonewall Riots that sparked the modern fight for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights, I was fortunate enough to visit the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan. Of course I ordered a Manhattan cocktail at the bar and quickly discovered that it’s not a flavour I agree with.

I owe the freedom to express my love for my partner in many parts of the world to this tiny building in the heart of New York, where the police raided and beat peaceful gay men, lesbians and transgender partrons of the bar at a time when it was illegal to be homosexual in the USA.
Seeing any similarities to the fight for racial equality that’s dominated the last few weeks?

The freedom to peacefully exist without discrimination is a human right we are all entitled to regardless of sexuality, gender, ethnicity, appearance, impairment, and identity.

Switzerland prides itself on inclusivity. Earlier this year, I’m proud that almost 2 thirds of Swiss citizens voted in favour of a proposal that makes discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation and sexual identity illegal. Soon, my identity as a gay man will be protected in the same way as a person’s ethnicity and gender.

And just this month, the Swiss parliament’s lower house backed the Marriage for All bill that will grant same-sex couples the right to marry. Whilst the bill isn’t comprehensive in giving same-sex couples the same rights as heterosexual couples, and there’s been pushback from some notable political groups, these are steps forward on the long road to implementation.

The United Nations Human Rights Council even has its home in the beautiful city of Geneva. But despite the UN Human Rights Council’s adoption of the resolution on sexual orientation on sexuality and gender identity, there are still vast parts of the world where a person’s sexuality can be justification for imprisonment, violence, and death.

There are countries I have visited where I had to ‘act straight’ and hide any part of my identity that may give authorities cause to deport me, or gangs to beat me. Even in Switzerland, I have experienced prejudice and discrimination when trying to find a one bedroom apartment for me and my partner.

The fight for equality based on sexuality and gender is not over.
That’s why this year, gowago.ch is flying Gilbert Baker’s iconic rainbow flag 🏳️‍🌈. The infamous symbol of gay rights activism across the world stands for solidarity with those that suffer prejudice because of their sexuality or gender, and is the banner that causes for equality stand behind.

This Pride Month, gowago.ch stands for LGBTQ+ rights.
Implementing the Marriage for All bill in parliament.
Transgender rights are human rights.
Black lives matter.
And be excellent to each other.