LGBT+ History Month

Rachel Blake Excerpts

Thursday 12th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Blake (Cities of London and Westminster) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank my hon. Friends the Members for Nottingham East (Nadia Whittome) and for Jarrow and Gateshead East (Kate Osborne) for securing the debate and for their powerful remarks. I also pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North (Martin Rhodes) for his powerful speech calling for the change that we need. He reminded us of the horrors of the 1980s and the way that the LGBT community was represented at that time. I remember that really clearly, and I think it will take us a long time to recover from the horror put into young people at the time and the damage done over decades.

I am here as a proud friend and ally to the LGBT community, and to talk about what LGBT+ History Month means for my constituency and my constituents. The purpose of the month is to celebrate, reflect, learn, and plan what we need to do to secure rights going into the future. I am grateful to hon. Members for talking about struggle and about joy. I want to talk about the joy that I know takes place in my community and my constituency every day, and some of the struggles that we face.

I am so proud to represent a constituency with such historic ties to the LGBT community. It is home to London Pride, G-A-Y, the City of Quebec—the oldest LGBT venue, we think; I invite any historians in the Chamber to challenge me on that—and She Soho, and has been home to historic figures including Oscar Wilde, Alan Turing and Vita Sackville-West. I have had the joy of representing and talking to my constituents in the Westminster LGBT+ Forum, and I want to give a shout-out to that forum for the kindness that I have experienced—I have worked with Professor Pippa Catterall, its chair—as well as to Pride in the Square Mile. I also want to celebrate the Bishopsgate Institute and its incredible archive of LGBT history. If anyone has time over recess, I strongly recommend a visit; everyone here would be welcomed. We are incredibly proud, too, to host 56 Dean Street, an inspiring sexual health service based in Soho that has a pioneering approach to securing excellent sexual health services.

It has been truly inspiring to hear about the progress that has been made over the years; support for gay marriage has gone up from 54% in 2010 to 78% in 2023. We have also heard this afternoon of incredible stories of sacrifice. It is less than 30 years since the horrendous attack at the Admiral Duncan pub. Many of us will remember that week and what it felt like to live in a city where people could be attacked—where people could be murdered—for who they were. I pay tribute to the National Hate Crime Awareness Week team, who are friends of people who lost their lives in the Admiral Duncan attack, to the Rev. Simon Buckley and to Councillor Patrick Lilley—the Westminster LGBT champion and lead member for Soho—for the work that they do at the annual remembrance event for the victims of the Admiral Duncan attack. I do not think there has ever been singing in the Chamber, but I cannot articulate how powerful it is to listen to the Pink Singers sing “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” at that annual remembrance service. All Members are welcome to join me there to show respect and celebrate the joy, but also to remember the terrible struggles that people have lived through.

Six months ago, a homophobic group marched through the very centre of Soho, attacking people for who they are and chanting hate. That is still very live for us.

We are also now facing an attack on trans rights. My constituents, like those of many other Members here, have contacted me in deep pain about what they are experiencing in the horrific culture war that we are living through—that many of us are fighting to get through. We cannot allow the current level of attack on trans people to continue, and we cannot allow the interim guidance to stop people living their life as who they are.

We in this Chamber are united in wanting to rally towards a position where people can live freely as who they are. We all deserve dignity in struggle. We all deserve dignity in love. We all deserve dignity in joy.