Nadia Whittome

I beg to move, That this House has considered LGBT+ History Month. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for approving this debate. I am pleased that it has become a regular fixture of the calendar in the world’s gayest Parliament. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Jarrow and Gateshead East (Kate Osborne), who made the application with me and whose relentless work for LGBTQ+ rights inspires me every day, not least her victory at the Council of Europe, where her report on banning conversion practices passed with a resounding majority. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] I am pleased that the Government have confirmed that they will publish a draft Bill to that end, and I hope the Minister will use today as an opportunity to set out more details and timelines. I appreciate the irony of one of the younger LGBTQ+ MPs opening a debate about LGBTQ+ history. Luckily, I respect my elders, so if any of my colleagues who lived through that history would like to intervene, correct me if I am getting it wrong and reveal how old they are, they will be more than welcome—although I am confident that even the most senior among them will not be able to recall ancient Greece, which I will mention later. I do think, however, that it is appropriate for someone like me to open the debate, because in so many ways I am a product of LGBTQ history. The life I lead today —that I am able to be an openly queer MP, that I was taught in school about LGBTQ+ people, that I can marry my girlfriend if we so choose, that discrimination against me is banned—is because of the struggle of generation upon generation of LGBTQ+ people, from the Gay Liberation Front to those who overturned section 28, from Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners to those who set up Switchboard, and from anti-AIDS activists to the gay MPs upon whose shoulders we stand. They include Maureen Colquhoun, the first openly lesbian Member of this House, who fought tirelessly for gender equality and sex workers’ rights, and Chris Smith, who came out in 1984 at a rally against gay employees being banned from his local council. Thanks to the last Labour Government responding to the LGBTQ+ rights movement, the age of consent was equalised, section 28 was repealed, civil partnerships were granted, same-sex couples can adopt, trans people can have their gender legally recognised and the Equality Act 2010 was passed. I feel immensely grateful to those who came before me that I did not experience many of the horrors that they did. I wish that those who are no longer with us could see us now: the record numbers who are comfortable and safe identifying as their true selves and who live better and more equal lives because of everything that they fought for.