Pride Month

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Excerpts

Thursday 1st July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

May I start by congratulating the hon. Members for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn) and for Ochil and South Perthshire (John Nicolson) and my hon. Friend the Member for Wallasey (Dame Angela Eagle)? Indeed, my hon. Friend the Member for Wallasey, who has been instrumental in bringing forward this important debate, in particular deserves the recognition and gratitude of the House for her tireless pursuit of equality and justice for LGBT+ people: thank you very much. It has been an honour and a privilege to listen to contributions from hon. and right hon. Members today, in particular the moving and inspirational personal account of my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Walton (Dan Carden).

Pride Month is a welcome opportunity to reflect on all the hard work being done and the progress that we have made collectively on LGBT+ rights. I praise all the groups the individuals in my Slough constituency that are working to provide advice, services, safe spaces and advocacy for the LGBT+ community. That includes Slough Borough Council, voluntary groups, businesses and public services, and all the people who work hard for equality and human rights.

As we have heard this afternoon, we have made great advances as a society since the dark days of the 1950s and before—the days of homosexuality being classified as an illness, of the threat of blackmail, stigma, social isolation and imprisonment, and of the horrors of electric shock aversion therapy, electroconvulsive therapy and chemical castration.

We all know the story of one of Britain’s greatest heroes, Alan Turing—a man whose work, some academics argue, saved 14 million lives and shortened the world war by more than two years. He was a perfectly healthy gay man in his 30s, a brilliant mind and a great patriot, who was forced by the law into sickness and death. Alan Turing is just one of thousands of men and women harassed, arrested, imprisoned, tortured and killed by the British state’s homophobic laws. We owe each and every one an apology, and their families too.

Let us reflect on progress: the Sexual Offences Act 1967; the abolition of section 28; civil partnerships; same-sex marriages; the securing of LGBT+ rights in law, especially the Equality Act 2010. But we should also reflect that progress does not always travel in a direct line. For every two steps forward, there are those who want us to take one step back—for example, on trans rights.

In each generation, the struggle for rights takes on new forms. I am in particular thinking about the struggle against so-called conversion therapy. The idea that someone’s sexuality should be subject to forceable conversion into something different is shockingly insulting. I welcome the Government’s commitment in the Queen’s Speech to ban so-called conversion therapy, but where is the ban? I say to Ministers, we do not need more consultation; we need action. My great fear is that the Government are dragging their feet ahead of some kind of climbdown on their promises or in order to include exemptions. We must be clear that there can be no acceptance of or acquiescence to the proponents of gay conversion therapy. It must be swept into the gutter, where it belongs.

Let me address the international aspect of the debate. Around the world, there are nations where LGBT+ people live in fear and stigma, where violence and murder are commonplace and equality is outlawed. There are 69 member states of the United Nations where consensual same-sex activity is illegal. There has been some progress. For example, Botswana’s high court ruled in favour of decriminalising homosexuality in 2019; Mozambique and the Seychelles have scrapped anti-gay laws; and in 2018, a court in Trinidad and Tobago ruled that laws banning gay sex were unconstitutional. But unfortunately, Nigeria and Uganda have recently tightened their homophobic laws, and in Europe, as we have heard from other hon. Members, Viktor Orbán’s Government in Hungary have intensified their attack on the LGBT+ community. Why should our British Prime Minister be rolling out the red carpet for such an individual?

There are plenty of cities where Pride marches are not celebrations and festivals, not expressions of solidarity and love, but instead subject to bans, violence and hate. We must therefore ensure that the Government outline what they are doing to encourage our friends and allies around the world, especially in the Commonwealth, to repeal homophobic laws and bring in real and lasting equality for all. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr:

“No one is free until we are all free.”