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Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Stuart Andrew)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I, too, thank my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn) and the hon. Member for Wallasey (Dame Angela Eagle) for securing the debate, which is an important one for so many reasons. For too long, the history of LGBT people’s lives, their stories and their love were hidden. The achievements of people, including the advancements and breakthroughs that they made, were recorded but never acknowledged or celebrated, simply because they were LGBT.
We have had some really thoughtful contributions this afternoon. In opening the debate, my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington rightly talked about the international changes that have happened —some good; some really very worrying indeed—and how we cannot take progress for granted. The hon. Member for Wallasey agreed, reminding us that we need to be mindful of the risks that exist and that by fighting together we can make sure that progress continues to be made.
The hon. Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty) talked about Pride events in Wales and how things are different today, including in villages. As someone who grew up on the Isle of Anglesey back in the 1970s and 1980s, I remember that if you wanted to go to a gay club, you had to travel miles into Llandudno on the first Monday of the month. It really has been interesting to listen to the debate, although one of the most shocking things I heard was that the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Olivia Blake) was born in 1990, which makes me feel incredibly old.
As the hon. Member for Wallasey said, it is important for us as LGBT people to remember our past and understand it, to celebrate our present and to create our future. Those are the principles of LGBT History Month, and they are the principles that I and many people here in Parliament are proud to stand up for today, in a House that has more LGBT people than ever before.
We have rightly remembered many of the battles for rights and the fact that persistence was often the way to ensure things happened. Whether it be in respect of section 28, the gender recognition certificate, the age of consent or equal marriage, the remark by the hon. Member for Wallasey about the sky not falling in was very true indeed. In fact, I remember that after the equal marriage debate people were very quickly boasting that they had been to a gay wedding, and celebrating that fact.
The theme for LGBT History Month this year is the celebration of the contributions made by LGBT people in the fields of medicine and healthcare. We are asked to look “under the scope” and recognise the invaluable contributions of LGBT people across the medical and healthcare sectors—including in our world-renowned NHS—which have often been overlooked, so for a moment I will reflect on that.
The UK has long been known for trailblazing healthcare professionals, and I am proud that this debate gives me a chance to pay tribute to some of those trailblazers who were LGBT. Dr Sophia Jex-Blake was a 19th-century Scottish physician who was most widely known as Scotland’s first ever practising female doctor, and for her pivotal role as a member of the Edinburgh Seven. Sophia devoted her life to the advancement of women’s rights in the field of medicine and helped to lead the campaign to secure women’s access to university education. After qualifying as a doctor, she helped to found two medical schools for women, in London and Edinburgh, at a time when medical schools were training only men.
Sophia retired to Sussex in 1899, where she moved in with Dr Margaret Todd, a fellow physician who many believe was her partner. Sophia was never openly a lesbian, but upon her death Margaret published Sophia’s private musings, many of which confessed her love for women.
Another extraordinary and hidden story is the life of Sir Ewan Forbes. On the surface, his life might appear to be one of genericity. Born into an aristocratic family in Aberdeenshire, Ewan graduated as a doctor in his early 30s and began practising as a local GP. Not long afterwards, he married Isabella Mitchell. From a young age, Ewan was open about his transgender identity, at a time when being trans was not understood and certainly was not socially acceptable. Although registered female at birth, Ewan recognised that his legal sex was not his true self and, with the support of his family, was believed to have undergone pioneering gender-affirming care.
Upon marrying his wife, Ewan sought to make the marriage legal by seeking legal gender recognition in 1952. Although a taboo topic at the time, it was relatively smoothly awarded upon that request. However, Ewan’s legal recognition was later questioned when his older brother died and he was set to inherit the fortune and become a baron. At the time, this was seen as scandalous, as many did not accept the legal gender recognition. Ewan took the case to the Scottish Court of Session and won. Despite the case being conducted in secrecy, it marked a pivotal moment in transgender rights. The fascinating details of Ewan’s life were recently recorded in a book, “The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes”, which is a much-recommended read.
As others have said today, we should think not just about the past, but the future, and the present day. That gives me an opportunity to pay tribute to my colleague, Dr Michael Brady. Michael is a sexual health and HIV consultant at King’s College Hospital, as well as NHS England’s first ever national adviser for LGBT health, where he leads work to tackle health inequalities faced by the LGBT community.
Michael has long worked for better healthcare for LGBT people. Alongside his role as national LGBT health adviser, Michael spent 15 years as the medical director at the Terrence Higgins Trust. He played a huge role in advocating for the national roll-out of pre-exposure prophylaxis—PrEP—the HIV prevention drug. He consistently strives to improve healthcare provision and outcomes for LGBT people in his everyday role. I pay tribute to all the others we could mention under the theme of LGBT History Month.
I come on to some of the other points raised today, including the international picture. I absolutely recognise the great strides that many countries have made—colleagues have raised many important points—but, clearly, there are some awful things still happening. As many have mentioned, the laws in Uganda, Ghana, Hungary and Russia are extremely concerning.
I assure hon. Members that, as a Government, we continue to raise these issues whenever we have the opportunity. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has a new five-year, £40 million LGBT rights programme. That programme will hopefully transform the lives of millions of LGBT people around the world, by reducing the violence and discrimination that they experience, and by offering support to those who campaign, sometimes very bravely in hostile environments.
Kirsten Oswald
I am interested in the Minister’s point about the situation in different countries overseas. What are his reflections on the situation for LGBT+ people in Rwanda? Is he able to tell us his thoughts in relation to his Government’s plans there?
Stuart Andrew
My view is very clear. Wherever there are challenges for LGBT people, we have a duty to raise them at every point. That is not just in Rwanda. There are lots of other countries in which we have lots of different agreements. It is important to raise the issues, even with good friends of ours, when we think that they are making decisions that are not in the best interests of the community that we all want to support.
Elliot Colburn
I pay tribute to the FCDO’s work in this area. I was invited by the British embassy in Prague to go and speak with our sister party and parliamentarians in Czechia last year, to persuade them that the sky would not fall in if they passed legislation for equal marriage. I pay tribute to the work that our officials are doing internationally in this area.
Stuart Andrew
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. That is exactly the opportunity presented by the work of our colleagues in the FCDO in helping us to share our experiences. There are challenges bringing through these pieces of legislation and these reforms. I remember all those emails coming in when we were having the equal marriage debate, but the next day, as the hon. Member for Wallasey said, the sky had not fallen in, and most people cannot even believe that 10 years ago LGBT people could not get married. That is what we need to do to spread the gospel, as it were.
The hon. Lady also mentioned how far we have come on HIV and AIDS. Given the topic of this year’s history month, it is important to talk about that. She rightly said we are all aware of the scars that the HIV and AIDS crisis left on so many in the LGBT community and on their friends and family, and sadly we lost far too many. Thanks to the advancement of medicine, HIV is a preventable and treatable condition that is no longer seen as the death sentence it once was. Instead, it is easily manageable, and people can live long, happy lives post diagnosis. That is why I am pleased that we have committed to investing more than £4.5 million in our national prevention programme and to ending new HIV transmissions and AIDS and HIV-related deaths in England by 2030. It is an ambitious target, but we are on course for it.
Great progress has already been made through our national HIV action plan. NHS England has committed £20 million to expand opt-out HIV testing in emergency departments in local areas with the highest prevalence of HIV levels. That has helped identify more than 1,000 people with untreated or undiagnosed HIV in the first 21 months, which is truly fantastic. The message still needs to be that people need to keep testing, because the sooner someone is diagnosed, the sooner they can get treatment and live that happy and normal life.
I will move on to the issue of conversion practices—my favourite part. Hon. Members will know my personal views on the matter, and I am pleased to say there is a consensus among the vast majority that no one in this country should be harmed or harassed for who they are, and that extends to the threat of conversion practices. I want to make it clear that attempts at so-called conversion therapy are abhorrent. To stand up for LGBT people, it is key that we end any practice that falsely claims to cure or change a person’s identity. We are clear on our stance that such practices are harmful and simply do not work. That is why we are still committed to publishing a draft Bill on this topic for pre-legislative scrutiny soon. That will include targeting efforts to change someone from or to being transgender. It is a sensitive area and one of great debate. I have always wanted to do this, but even I have recognised that there are challenges, and I have to be honest about that.
I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Brighton, Kemptown (Lloyd Russell-Moyle) for the considered way he presented his Bill. I am sorry that I was not there; I was at a ministerial meeting in Glasgow. As I say, I recognise the considerable effort he took in drafting the Bill and know that he did that with criticism from both sides of the argument. The Government still want to introduce their own Bill, and that is why there was that decision to oppose it. The Government have rightly taken time to carefully consider the issues and ensure that our Bill is as robust as possible. Moreover, it is right and proper that the Government present it for pre-legislative scrutiny, so that we can have a further safeguard, ensuring that it does what we expect it to do.
In the meantime, I am keen to remind the House that the Government fund a victims support service, run by the anti-violence charity Galop. That enables those at risk of or undergoing conversion practices to report their situation and access tailored support and guidance. I keep repeating that because I want people to know that there is somewhere they can go to get help should they need it.
Dame Angela Eagle
I know how difficult it is for a Minister to get the entire Government to agree to do what they want them to do, when they want them to do it. However, that formulation of words has been used many times and we are coming to the end of the Parliament now. Can the Minister give us even a hint of whether this Bill will appear at all, or will we have to wait until after the general election?
Stuart Andrew
As I said, it is our intention to publish a draft Bill, but I cannot give a specific date. The hon. Lady helpfully outlined some of the challenges she faced as a Minister. I assure her that it is our intention to publish a draft for scrutiny. Equally, I have heard the message from my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington and others, and I will certainly relay that.
All Members have mentioned the issue of violence and hate crime, which is incredibly important. We are aware that, sadly, many LGBT people in the UK and across the world still experience violence and discrimination just because of who they are. The sentencing following the horrific murder of Brianna Ghey recognised that her death was caused in part by hostility towards her transgender identity. Once again, I send my condolences to her family, and I hope that no other families have to endure what they have had to go through.
We expect the police to prosecute the perpetrators of violence and the courts to consider the aggravating factors when determining sentences, in line with our hate crime legislation. We have been doing more to tackle hate crime head on. We have made hate crime a priority offence in the Online Safety Act 2023, and under new legal duties of care, technology companies must prevent, identify and remove illegal content and activity online. That means that illegal content, including content that incites hate on the grounds of race, religion or sexual orientation, will be removed quickly when it appears. However, I recognise that this is still a worrying time. Since the many attacks last summer, I have made it a priority to meet the Metropolitan police and others to understand what they are doing to make people feel supported during the process of reporting crimes, and not like they are the ones being grilled.
I will end by sharing how proud I am to stand in this House, to represent my constituency and to hold my ministerial positions as an openly gay man. We must remind ourselves how far we have come in progressing LGBT rights, but we must remember that we have some way to go. The hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald) referred to the footballer Zander Murray. As the Sports Minister, I am acutely aware that for many in the LGBT community, sport can sometimes feel intimidating. That is why making it more inclusive and welcoming as part of our strategy is a personal priority.
I hope that we can all take away the importance of remembering all those who came before us—all the LGBT people who made great contributions to the world around them, but were sadly forced to hide who they truly were, were never accepted or even persecuted for their true identity. Looking ahead, I look forward to the invaluable contributions of LGBT people that we are yet to see. If this year’s theme of LGBT History Month shows us anything, it is that LGBT people can make changes that better the lives of all of us.