Olivia Bailey

I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for giving me that opportunity. I have congratulated my hon. Friend the Member for Jarrow and Gateshead East on her important work on this vital topic, and I do so again on the record. I also take this opportunity to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Llanelli (Dame Nia Griffith)—I have been in trouble on my pronunciation of her constituency before—for her phenomenal work as my predecessor in this role. She rightly challenged me to make the most of the European IDAHOT conference that we will host next year, and I would like to take that challenge from her and say that we will absolutely commit to doing so. I will say some more about that in a moment. On days like today I am reminded of the consequence of this place. As we have heard, it was hon. Members like us in this very Chamber who decriminalised homosexuality, scrapped section 28 and legalised equal marriage, but it was also here in this Chamber that those laws were first made. For me, that is an important reminder of the fragility of our progress and the importance of our role. In this place, we must never forget how important it is to make the case for our rights, and hon. Members have done that brilliantly today. I am very proud to be a member of the gayest Parliament ever and to be a member of a Government who will advance LGBT+ rights. We have righted the historical wrongs committed against LGBT veterans, funded LGBT+ violence against women and girls services and pledged to end HIV transmissions by 2030. This morning, I visited the fantastic 56 Dean Street, in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster, to take an HIV test myself to mark National HIV Testing Week. I thank the staff at 56 Dean Street for their fantastic work, and I urge all hon. Members to encourage their constituents to go online and get a free HIV test this week. While I am proud of the things we have done, I am most proud of the things that we will do, including fulfilling our manifesto commitment to equalise hate crime laws, bringing forward our trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices and supporting LGBT+ rights on the world stage. We are funding global LGBT+ partnerships, and we will be proudly hosting the 2027 European IDAHOT forum, taking our place on the world stage in the fight for LGBT+ equality. I am looking forward to doing all this in partnership with those in our wonderful LGBT+ sector, whom I was delighted to invite to Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister the other week. In LGBT History Month, we are encouraged to remember the iconic trailblazers who fought for our rights such as Mark Ashton, Maureen Colquhoun, Chris Smith, Roberta Cowell, the Tower Hamlets Lesbian and Gay Group and the others we have heard about today. I also think it is important that we remember the people who did not make it into the history books, because our history is one of everyday resistance and courage—people choosing to link hands in the street, people choosing to stand up for their community and people choosing pride over shame. I think it is important that we remember that everything we do in this place is built on that courage, and that courage is needed now more than ever.