Global LGBTI+ Rights

Baroness Goudie Excerpts

Thursday 17th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

The noble Viscount is absolutely right: Covid-19 affects everybody, whatever their sexual orientation or their gender identity. The Baring Foundation report explores some of the particular impact that the virus has had on LGBT people around the world. We are very clear that states must not use the pandemic as cover for repressive action. On Hungary, our embassy in Budapest is closely monitoring recent developments there, and we will be discussing them with Hungarian officials and civil society groups.

[Baroness Goudie (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, the evidence shows that sustained funding for development work is more cost efficient and leads to better-quality programming, allowing the underlying causes of crises to be addressed and resilience in communities to be built. Much of the Government’s funding of LGBT issues has been short term, which limits its impact. Will the Government commit to putting their funding of LGBT issues on a much longer-term footing, which will increase its effectiveness and give the organisations it funds much greater certainty?

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

The noble Baroness makes an important point about sustainable funding, which I know is informed by her own extensive work in this field. That is why, notwithstanding the global pandemic, we are continuing to fund the projects which are running this year, and why we are determined to do better across government, delivering the maximum impact for every pound that we spend and continuing to make a world-leading difference.