We now move on to item 6, which is the debate by individual Members under Standing Order 11.21, and I call on Hannah Blythyn to move the motion on LGBT History Month.

Motion NDM6204 Hannah Blythyn, Jeremy Miles, Suzy Davies, Adam Price

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Notes that February is LGBT History Month, an annual opportunity to promote diversity and equality across Wales.

2. Further notes the contribution that LGBT plus people have made to our communities and country.

3. Recognises the role played by Welsh LGBT icons and allies in Wales as illustrated in this month’s LGBT icons and allies exhibition in the Senedd.

4. Welcomes the progress made in the past few decades on LGBT rights and acceptance.

5. Believes that vigilance is needed to ensure that LGBT plus rights are protected.

6. Takes the lead in continuing to progress equality and challenging discrimination and division, ensuring Wales is a welcoming nation for LGBT plus people.

Motion moved.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you to colleagues for supporting this individual Members’ debate, enabling us to have the opportunity to mark LGBT History Month for the first time on the floor of the National Assembly for Wales. LGBT History Month is celebrated in February across the UK and is a now annual event that provides us with an opportunity to promote diversity and equality across Wales and recognise the contribution that LGBT people have made to our communities and our country. Indeed, we’ve come a long way in the past few decades alone when it comes to LGBT rights. If I think back myself, growing up in north-east Wales, going to school in the constituency that I now serve, if you’d told me I would be standing here today opening a debate on LGBT equality, led by openly lesbian and gay Assembly Members for the first time in the Assembly’s history, well, for starters, the Assembly didn’t exist when I was a teenager, but I genuinely never imagined I would have the courage or the confidence to be part of this as one of the first out Assembly Members.

The Presiding Officer took the Chair.

Whilst there is still more that we can do on LGBT rights, we must not and never should be complacent, but it’s right today that we take time to celebrate our diversity and progress as a society. I hope that today’s debate provides a chance to present the positives and offer an all-important message of hope to LGBT people in Wales, in particular younger LGBT people, whilst, at the same time, outlining the challenges that remain and the next steps needed.

The themes of LGBT History Month this year are citizenship, personal, social and health education and law, and there are over 1,000 events happening across the UK. Schools that celebrate difference and take a positive approach to including LGBT issues in their teaching across the curriculum see lower rates of bullying and high achievements amongst LGBT pupils. The introduction of the new curriculum in Wales provides an opportunity to show that all schools can incorporate a positive approach to LGBT inclusion in their teaching and deliver LGBT-inclusive sex and relationship education.

We need to see statutory guidance issued to all local authorities, schools and education consortia on age-appropriate sex and relationship education. At secondary schools, they should ensure that issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans young people are covered in topics such as consents and online safety. In primary schools, this should involve talking about different types of families, including same-sex parents, making young people aware of the diversity of family life and relationships before entering secondary school, and work to tackle gender stereotypes in lessons and activities. In addition, there needs to be a clear commitment to train teachers and other school staff in tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying. We know that the majority of school staff want to tackle this bullying, but often feel they don’t have the tools, confidence or right resources to do so. On that note, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Cabinet Secretary for Education for taking the time to meet with myself and Jeremy Miles and for her commitment to tackle these important issues.

At lunch time today, I hosted the launch of the Pride Cymru LGBT Icons and Allies exhibition here in the Senedd. The exhibition features 20 role models and allies from LGBT history and today. Supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, it celebrates artistic, literary, business, military and charitable as well as campaigning figures. It will perhaps come as no surprise to colleagues here that the exhibition features a number of political activists and campaigners. I’d like to pay tribute to the courage and the commitment of those people who campaigned and fought, over a number of years, so that we would shift the political debate and legislate on equality.

I often get asked when I go to Pride events, ‘Why have you got politics at Pride? It’s meant to be fun.’ Well, at its best, politics has the potential to change lives, and I am proud to represent the party today that led the way on legislating on equal rights, on LGBT rights, enabling people like me to be able to stand here, to live our lives as who we are and for how we are. On the subject of Pride events, I just want to get in a shameless plug. It would be remiss of me not to mention that the first ever Flintshire Pride will take place on Saturday 27 May this year in Mold rugby club in my constituency. I will obviously be attending. [Laughter.]

A sense of history is important to community cohesion, as well as providing role models who inspire young people and demonstrating positively the role of LGBT people as part of our society. I’m incredibly and eternally grateful to those who were prepared to be the pioneers in much more difficult and turbulent times, who paved the way that enabled people like me to be more inclined to stick up our heads above the parapet today.

When I was first approached to sponsor the launch of the LGBT Icons and Allies exhibition, I was actually taken aback to realise how little I knew personally about those who were part of the exhibition. It got me thinking how much, as a teenager, growing up, I definitely struggled to find people that I could identify with or prominent LGBT role models. I’m proud to be one of the first out Members of the National Assembly for Wales and, for me, actually, I wanted to be open and honest in the way that I approach politics. For me, it was important to be open and honest about who I am. Because we know that visibility is important. There’s a saying that you cannot be what you can’t see. This was brought home to me just a couple of months after I was elected, when I was attending a local event, and somebody came up to me and said about two teenagers who were gay and had said to them that they’d just found out on social media recently that I was too, and it had made a massive difference to them. What moved me was not what they said about me, but actually the fact that we have moved so much as a society since 20 years ago, when I was a similar age, that teenagers feel they are able to be open about their sexuality.

But we shouldn’t forget that the decision to come out is unique to each individual and almost always fraught with anxiety. We’ve come a long way, but coming out, whether personally, publicly and/or politically, still remains a deeply personal and unique moment for most LGBT people. Our choice to reveal this part of our identity comes with a fear of how others will react, how it will impact on us, on our lives or the lives of those around us, and I believe that our message today to every LGBT person in Wales must be: you are amazing, you are valued and you have a contribution to make to your community and to our country as you are and for who you are. I hope that, one day, we live in a world where every LGBT person can find a network of friendship and support that allows them to be themselves and, in turn, challenge isolation and hate.

In coming to a close I just want to recap a story. Recently, I went back to my old school to an annual awards evening. You can stand up on numerous occasions in this Chamber, you can give interviews in the media, but I know that when I walk through those doors at my old school, I am a nervous, shy 15-year-old again. One of the questions they asked me in the questions and answers—the final question—was, ‘What advice would you give to students here today?’ The advice I gave was, ‘Be yourself and believe in yourself.’ Because it can sometimes seem like the worst thing in the world to be different, particularly when you’re an awkward teenager, but it does get better, trust me—which I know is quite an ironic thing to say as a politician. [Laughter.] Trust me; seriously, it does get better.

Just before I was elected I actually took part in the Stonewall Role Models programme in a previous life as a union representative. The quote that was taken from that, which I had no—. I didn’t realise at the time how prophetic that was going to become. I said that I wanted to be part of creating a more, more representative Wales. I think today, and going forward, we have a defining opportunity as the National Assembly for Wales to lead on LGBT equality, and lead we must. Diolch yn fawr. [Assembly Members: ‘Hear, hear’.]

It’s a real pleasure to follow Hannah Blythyn and to speak in this first opportunity that this Assembly has to celebrate LGBT history in Wales. I, once, at a Pride event in Cardiff, claimed that the Welsh had actually invented homosexuality. I prayed in aid, Emlyn Williams’s 1937 play, ‘He was Born Gay’, and indeed Ivor Novello’s musical—his last musical—’Gay’s the Word’ in 1950. Of course, they were both members of the LGBT community. In fact, Emlyn Williams wrote a very brave autobiography, a way ahead of its time, actually presenting, I think, for his time, the searing conflict for somebody who was from a mining village from north Wales in trying to reconcile the different elements in his identity—the mosaic of his identity.

In some ways, actually having a word for being who we are was the first step—the naming of things. There was power, actually, in that word: ‘gay and lesbian’, ‘LGBT’. That was the first step. But, actually knowing our history is the next necessary stage because, in some ways, we in Wales have experienced this in a different dimension: as Welsh gay and lesbian people, we have been written out of our own history—out of Welsh history. We are invisible in large tracts of time. Centuries go by. You will find the word ‘hoyw’ in the poetry of the middle ages, but of course, it’s not with its modern reference. You have to go right back, actually, to the founding period—or the founding myths—and actually some of the sneers that were thrown at us, supposedly because of their own homophobia. Actually, we are told that homosexuality was the national sin. Gildas tells us that Maelgwn Gwynedd was guilty of it. It’s repeated, of course, in Geoffrey of Monmouth and in Gerald of Wales. In fact, in reference to the Celts, you can go back as far as Aristotle. It was used as an imperial smear, and I wonder whether that, actually, has cast a shadow in terms of our relationship with our LGBT community. Ironically, of course, as we are hearing about the Synod at the moment, even John Peckham, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury, in his series of letters to Llywelyn ein Llyw Olaf, one of the insults that he throws at Llywelyn is this repeated idea of the Welsh being homosexual. It is there, right at the beginning of our history, this smear. Ironically, of course, Edward II, the Prince of Wales that was held up in 1284, his lover is one of the icons that is outside here. They were captured together, of course, fleeing from Neath abbey to Llantrisant. Hugh Despenser the Younger was executed immediately; Edward II later. Martyrs—not the first and not the last in the history of the LGBT community worldwide, and neither here in Wales. Invisible, then, for large swathes of our time.

You get, then, to the twentieth century, and some of our writers, as I referred to: Prosser Rhys winning the crown in 1924 with a poem about his own grappling with his sexual identity. The Dictionary of Welsh Biography records it thus:

In 1924, at the national eisteddfod held at Pontypool, he won the crown for his poem ‘Atgof ‘, a poem which was unusual in its form and its content and which caused a stir at the time.’

Classic Welsh understatement. [Laughter.] It’s the poets and the writers of Wales that have to tell those untold invisible stories: the Dave Llewellyns, the Mihangel Morgans, the Dafydd James, the Sarah Waters, the Peter Gills, Roger Williams, Paul Burston, Jan Morris and others. They have to tell the stories that were unwritten. We know that we were there. If you go back to the sixth century, among the penitentiaries that are offered is, again, one for the sin of sodomy. From the sixteenth century on, we know that people in Wales were convicted wrongly for being none other than who they were. So, we have always been here. We are part of this nation. We are part of its history. And, we are part of its future too.

Stonewall Cymru have stated that 55 per cent of LGB pupils have experienced bullying on the basis of their sexual orientation; 83 per cent of trans young people have experienced verbal abuse and 35 per cent have experienced physical assault. When I pursued the case of a Flintshire schoolboy victim of homophobic bullying, I was told by a chief education officer that the secondary schools in the county had benefited from extensive training in healthy schools and anti-bullying approaches, but the mum then told me, ‘I’m totally and utterly frustrated at just how much disinterest has been demonstrated by the individuals assigned to deal with my son’s case, my questions remain unanswered, and so, therefore, the issue remains unresolved’. This is about understanding and acceptance.

LGBT people in Wales continue to face significant health inequalities, with only one in 20 health and social care professionals having received training on LGBT people’s health needs, according to Stonewall. For this debate, the Terrence Higgins Trust sent me a briefing, stating that rates of HIV and sexually transmitted infections continue to rise, and that gay and bisexual men and young people continue to bear the brunt across Wales, yet access to sexual health services across Wales, including for the LGBT community, continues to deteriorate. They said there’s currently no statutory sexual health service provision in Powys, and that sexual health prevention and health promotion services have been decommissioned in Betsi Cadwaladr, Cwm Taf and Hywel Dda health boards, despite these areas being, they say, the most deprived.

In November 2016, the Welsh Government announced a comprehensive review of sexual health services in Wales, led by Public Health Wales. The Terrence Higgins Trust states it must be done in partnership with communities affected by HIV and sexual ill health and fully meet the needs of these groups, including gay and bisexual men. The Welsh Government national action plan on sexual health and well-being has come to an end, and with no new strategy in place. The Welsh Government, they say, must use the findings of its current review into HIV and sexual health services, as well as evidence around the need for sex and relationship education, to update its expired action plan and set out how it will tackle increasing rates of sexually transmitted infections, support people living with HIV to manage their health and well-being, and ensure that all young people receive the sex and relationship education they want and need. The new action plan should address the current and emerging issues around HIV and sexual health, including sexualised drug use and the availability of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, described as a game changer in the fight against HIV, protecting HIV-negative people from acquiring HIV by taking anti-HIV drugs when they are at risk of exposure to HIV.

A new Terrence Higgins Trust report, ‘Uncharted Territory’, shines a light on the needs and experiences of people living with HIV aged over 50, including the needs of gay and bisexual men living with HIV. The effectiveness of modern treatment means that people living with the condition can expect to live a full life. This is to be celebrated. However, this success brings with it a set of new challenges. Fifty-eight per cent of people living with the condition aged 50 plus were defined as living on or below the poverty line—double the levels of poverty seen in the general population. Eighty-four per cent of people living with the condition aged 50 and over were concerned about how they will manage multiple health conditions in the future. People aged 50 plus have faced discrimination from social care professionals due to their HIV status, and a third were socially isolated, and 82 per cent experienced moderate to high levels of loneliness. Although social isolation and loneliness are not confined to people living with the condition, those over 50 living with HIV see both social isolation and loneliness as significant concerns, now and for the future. It is therefore essential that HIV organisations, as well as health and social care professionals, consider how isolation and loneliness can be alleviated in older people.

Prejudice and discrimination at the end of life have a devastating impact on LGBT people. At its very worst, it means someone will spend their last days feeling isolated, alone, angry and unwelcome. For those who lose a loved one, not being able to say goodbye in a respectful and peaceful environment can make grief and bereavement that much harder to bear. So, let us tackle inequality and promote diversity across Wales together.

I’m really pleased to make a contribution to this afternoon’s debate, in part to celebrate LGBT History Month, and I speak today as the Assembly Commissioner with responsibility for equality and diversity. I want to thank Hannah Blythyn for bringing forward this important debate today, which has also been supported by Jeremy Miles, Adam Price and Suzy Davies. It is hugely important that, as Wales’s principal democratic institution, we celebrate diversity and provide a platform in a public arena to air and to share our views in light of the increased reporting on hate crimes. The Assembly has received external recognition for being an inclusive employer across a range of protected characteristics—for example, the Autism Access Award, an Age Positive champion, a Top Employer for Working Families, Investor in People Gold, and an award from Action on Hearing Loss, and has been recognised in ‘The Times Top 50 Employers for Women’.

However, today I would like to concentrate my contribution on the Assembly’s successes as an LGBT-inclusive employer and service provider. As an Assembly Commissioner, with responsibility for equality, it’s important to me that we set an example to other organisations in Wales and beyond, that we provide a safe and an inclusive environment for staff and visitors. This sentiment is shared by the Assembly’s senior managers and its staff through the provision of a range of policies and approaches that have helped shape a culture that’s been recognised as among the best in class. Last month, the Assembly was recognised in Stonewall’s workplace equality index as the fifth best employer in the UK. We’ve been placed in the top five for the last three years, and for the fourth year running we’ve been awarded as the top public sector employer in Wales. I should also like to pay tribute to Ross Davies, one of the Assembly’s diversity managers, who was awarded Wales Ally of the Year at the Stonewall Cymru awards in recognition of the work he does to promote LGBT equality.

The workplace equality network for LGBT staff, OUT-NAW, was established in 2008 and has worked hard to make our Assembly more LGBT-friendly over the years. It annually plans the Assembly’s contribution to LGBT History Month and the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. It takes the Assembly’s outreach bus to events such as Pride Cymru, with OUT-NAW members volunteering to staff it throughout the day. The Assembly marched in the Pride Cymru parade for the first time in 2016 and was joined by the chief executive and members of the management board, who are all allies of the staff network. Attendance at Swansea Sparkle, a trans-inclusive event, is now a regular feature on the annual calendar of events. OUT-NAW developed a business case that has seen the introduction of gender-neutral toilet facilities across the Assembly’s three buildings in Cardiff Bay. Its co-chair has introduced a coaching and mentoring scheme for LGBT staff, as well as an opportunity for young LGBT people to gain work experience, which now takes place annually.

I think it’s fair to say that LGBT equality has become a mainstream feature of the Assembly given the commitment of the OUT-NAW network, the Commission’s diversity strategy, and the commitment of the people who work here to make it a place where diversity thrives. Finally, I’d like to add that, although it’s a pleasure to receive external recognition for progress and our achievements for creating an LGBT-inclusive institution, what actually makes it even more special is that the staff make the time to share their experience and their resource with others. The vision therefore goes beyond the Assembly itself and most importantly reaches out to other organisations to help them to create inclusive working environments for the benefit of service users and their employees. As Stonewall says:

People perform better when they can be themselves’.

I’m sure Members in this Chamber will agree with me that we want everyone to be themselves, and to do so in a safe, supportive and nurturing environment. The achievements that I have spoken about today give me a great sense of pride and I’m delighted to be able to put them on the record as we debate and celebrate during LGBT History Month.

I congratulate the individual Members who have obtained this debate today, one of whom I studied with at university. I would like to emphasise the support of my party for this motion as a whole. I intend to focus my remarks on point 4, to welcome the progress made in the past few decades on LGBT rights and acceptance, because it’s less than three decades ago since the issue that first caused me to campaign on this issue—when the Westminster Parliament passed clause 28, which legislated against teaching the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’.

During the 1980s, I felt there was a greater recognition and acceptance of homosexuality and it was an issue that was at least beginning to settle down within our country. I think that that process was, if not halted, at least, I think, set back by up to a decade, by that piece of legislation.

I first campaigned on the issue when I was a parliamentary candidate and there was a couple, a gay couple, in the constituency I was seeking to represent who went on hunger strike. They stuck with this for the best part of a week and established very significant media attention, and they were protesting for the right to register their relationship with the local council. Ken Livingstone, in London, had just introduced a register to allow gay couples to do that and perhaps be able to visit their partner in hospital and have some other rights where some public bodies at least would give recognition to that. I was proud when that couple succeeded and, actually, Medway Council in Kent I think became the second council in the United Kingdom to have such a register.

But it was a double-edged campaign victory, because the couple involved, due to responses at least from some people on their local estate, and homophobic bullying that resulted from that, felt they had to leave their home and the next thing was trying to help them be rehoused with the council. At that time, I think 2001, clause 28 was still on the statute book. In Scotland, when the Scottish Parliament began, one of their first legislative acts was to remove it. In Wales, we did not have the power in this Assembly to do that and, for reasons I’m still slightly puzzled by, it took until 2003 before the Westminster Government legislated to remove section 28 from the statute book.

Perhaps one of my proudest moments, which I felt was most meaningful, as a Westminster MP, was to vote on 5 February 2013 for equal marriage. The party I now represent opposed that legislation, but we now support it, and I think most members within UKIP, as within other parties, would support that. At the time, the majority—or at least more MPs of the party I was then a member of voted against that legislation than voted for it. But I think very few of them would do that today.

I hope, even as we celebrate the progress that we’ve had in such an extraordinarily really short period of time, at least in the span of human history, that we don’t seek to be over critical or condemnatory of people who perhaps have taken a few years longer perhaps than us to revise their view. There’s a lot of criticism of Donald Trump, much of which I agree with, but, on this issue, he did, in a Republican convention, insert parts in his speech that got that audience to stand up and to applaud gay rights and to recognise the gay community in a way the Republican party in the US never had before. And, in 2008, Barack Obama certainly wasn’t campaigning for equal marriage on the terms we understand it today.

I also note that, in the vote when we had equal marriage, there were four Liberal Democrat MPs who voted against that and I think at least a couple of dozen Labour MPs who did that. I hope it’s possible for people to maintain, at least in the private sphere, religion, and many people and MPs found that vote incredibly difficult because of either their religious views and conscience or because of the pressure they felt under from some constituents and those who spoke out most strongly about it to them. We saw, I think, with the new Liberal Democrat leader last year, him coming under great pressure, being asked whether he considered gay sex to be a sin, and that was a question he didn’t want to answer and I think that should be respected. I don’t think anyone really thinks that the Liberal Democrats are insufficiently committed to LGBT rights. And similarly, when Jeremy Corbyn, I think a few weeks ago, said that people chose to be gay, I think that was unfortunate and I think he misspoke and is from a generation and has a view as to what things are. I don’t for a moment think that he is insufficiently committed to LGBT rights and I wouldn’t want to criticise him in any way. So, I just hope we also don’t look back to the past, while we try to do as Adam Price says and celebrate LGBT people and what they contributed in the past without being able to be open about their sexuality—I hope we won’t overly try to condemn previous generations who, on this issue, had a different perspective than we did and, instead, celebrate how quickly things have changed and welcome this motion. We should have Wales as a welcoming place for the LGBT community and do as Hannah Blythyn said—particularly what you said about work in schools—compared to how I started my contribution, with what was done 29 years ago. How far we have come.

Can I also say I’m very pleased to be able to speak in this debate, and thank Hannah for bringing forward the motion—and the support from other Members? In the previous debate, a number of Members spoke on the importance of education in raising awareness among young people on the issue of gender-based violence. Well, the role of education in tackling prejudice and bullying around LGBT issues is no less significant, and that was something that Hannah referred to when she was moving this motion. But, before I go on to cover the main points that I wanted to talk about, can I just mention the Icons and Allies exhibition that we visited at lunchtime? It was very interesting to see Illtyd Harrington there, who was the Labour deputy leader of the Greater London Council, who was actually from Merthyr Tydfil. He’d lived openly gay with his partner in London way back in the 1980s, and I tweeted about that, and it was lovely to get a reply from a very good gay friend of mine from Merthyr, who said, ‘It’s good to see that things have moved on and that people no longer have to leave their area just to be themselves’. And that just made me smile and made me recognise how much things have moved on.

However, I want to focus on two particular areas of education, and that is the role of school staff and the role of school governors. I don’t generally like to rattle off statistics, but a school report by Stonewall in 2012 identified that 55 per cent of lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils had experienced some form of bullying based on their sexual orientation, and 83 per cent of trans young people have experienced verbal abuse, with 35 per cent suffering physical assault. And the vast majority of staff in schools, I think, do want to be able to deal with homophobic, biphobic or transphobic bullying in their school, but all too often don’t feel that they have the tools or the confidence to be able to do so. As Mark Reckless mentioned, it’s now over 13 years since we scrapped section 28, but there are still many staff working in our schools today who had to deliver education services under the threat and fear of prosecution from that pernicious piece of legislation, and for some, working in a new environment of openness around LGBT issues—they can still present a challenge as it’s conflicting with those who are more comfortable in actively wanting to tackle homophobic, biphobic and trans bullying.

Unsurprisingly, there is clear evidence of lower rates of bullying and higher rates of achievement amongst LGBT pupils in those schools that have made positive strides towards including LGBT issues within their teaching, but if school staff feel they need more support in tackling these issues, then surely school governors must have a role to play. There was another Stonewall report in 2014, which identified that only one in five secondary school teachers and one in six primary school teachers in Wales said that their governors had a directed, clear leadership role when it came to tackling bullying of LGBT pupils. I guess the first step in addressing this problem is probably to ensure that, as far as possible, the make-up of our school governors reflects the local community and that all school governing bodies should be looking to recruit more LGBT members who can make a significant contribution to reducing bullying as their own life experiences would more readily equip them to do so. But regardless of this, all school governors, whether LGBT or not, have a clear duty to tackle all forms of bullying in their schools. There are many measures that they can take to ensure that LGBT pupils do not become the victims of bullying, and that includes: ensuring that schools’ anti-bullying policies include specific reference to LGBT-related bullying; ensuring that governing bodies are regularly presented with figures on LGBT-related bullying and incidents; asserting what training has been provided to school staff on how to prevent or deal with LGBT bullying and support for victims; ensuring the training of all governors in school on LGBT issues; and getting the school to sign up to Stonewall’s school champions programme.

I also made reference in the last debate to the development of the new curriculum and I’ll add a further plea. There’s a golden opportunity for LGBT-inclusive sex and relationships education to be a part of this new curriculum. This would make it compulsory for school governing bodies to take fully into account LGBT issues and any commitment to moving in this direction would give a greater incentive to school governors to embrace the sort of initiatives I’ve outlined.

So, as someone who’s been a lifelong campaigner for equality in all its streams, I’m delighted to be supporting this motion that celebrates LGBT history month and recognise that progress has been made. But there is also a need for continued vigilance and for Wales to continue to take a lead in this area.

Russ George and I have done a little wager on who Mark Reckless went to university with. You got us thinking earlier. I could see Hannah Blythyn shaking her head furiously when it was raised. But there we are. Can I also thank Hannah Blythyn for bringing this important issue to the Assembly today? I also concur with the thoughts of Joyce Watson as a commissioner. Suzy Davies couldn’t be here for this debate today but she wanted you to know that she fully supports this motion.

I would say that, although we are supporting this motion, I do think that often we promote diversity and equality across Wales every day rather than properly celebrating it. There is a difference: a bit like the old difference between toleration and acceptance. I think we should relish diversity and appreciate our many tribes without the bitterness of tribalism. We are more than the sum of our parts. It’s become easy for us here to promote LGBT rights. Here we are in this Assembly, a very forward-looking organisation and institution, quite rightly recognised for its work and success in promoting equality and diversity. I am an ally; I have my little card on my desk, which I know other Assembly Members have as well. This institution never stands still and shouldn’t do so. We should be proud that our legislature is leading the way.

Hannah Blythyn mentioned the exhibition in the Senedd upstairs earlier. I think that is genuinely inspiring, regardless of your sexuality or your gender. We as Assembly Members have easy access to that. We’ve got easy access to people in our community who want to tell us about their lives, their successes against prejudice, their wins against discrimination, their desire to educate against bullying and their zeal to advocate for those who live with hidden pain because of difference. It’s easy for us as politicians to believe the right thing, to say the right thing and, maybe a bit less easily, to do the right thing. Legislating on the age of consent, marriage, parenting and adoption—I welcomed Mark Reckless’ support for gay marriage when that came through Parliament—on pensions, on property, employment and even criminal offences to avoid discrimination on LGBT grounds: it’s easy because we here have the power. I think it’s right that the motion recognises the progress made on LGBT rights and acceptance. Rights and acceptance are, though, as I said before, different things. It’s still possible to have either without the other and this may always be the case where rights crash into each other in a secular or multi-religious society. Exercisable rights and acceptance can only arrive after understanding and, even now, in the LGBT-friendly bubble that we’re lucky to be in, we stumble across our own benign ignorance.

It’s 60 years since the Wolfenden report was published; 60 years since the words ‘homosexual’ and ‘prostitute’ were considered so indelicate that they had to be substituted during the inquiry with the words ‘Huntley’ and ‘Palmer’, tainting custard creams with a touch of lewdness for ever after. [Laughter.] I’m glad you got that joke. It still took 10 years to introduce the legislation to decriminalise consenting homosexual behaviour between adult men, and it’s taken 60 years to pardon Alan Turing, whose trial was one of those that prompted the inquiry. This is why the vigilance required by the motion is every bit as important as the promotion, the celebration and the progress—and not just the rights, but the depth of the acceptance.

Anyone who looked at the Marie Curie report ‘Hiding who I am’ will be brought up sharply as to quite how many holes there are in our acceptance, or at least our understanding of the experience of being LGBT, particularly in old age—that benign ignorance I mentioned earlier. The Wolfenden report was not a magic wand. Our older population still grew up in a time when being LGBT carried a heavy stigma, and could lead to exclusion, violence and even arrest. Coming out to health and social care professionals is still not an easy thing. Those with later stages of dementia can begin to re-experience feelings of shame and fear they had in their youth. They may even profess anger and revulsion for homosexuality, reflecting what was socially required when they were young.

So, in conclusion, Presiding Officer, it’s not as easy as we may think to celebrate equality and diversity. It’s not just some of the horror stories we hear about in other parts of the world. Cultural loyalties and ignorance remain the parents of discrimination, and casual prejudice in many of our own communities. Add to that the quiet re-stigmatisation of those who fought and beat stigma post Wolfenden and I can see why this motion is about promotion, not celebration. I do, however, feel that it’s an excellent motion to be brought before the Assembly, and I think it shows what this Assembly can be when it’s at its best, and when Members have the best interests of this institution and Wales at its heart.

LGBT history month gives us the opportunity to look back and reflect on the progress made in advancing equality for LGBT+ people.As other speakers have noted, 2017 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of the Wolfenden report, and the fiftieth anniversary of the passage of the Sexual Offences Act 1967, decriminalising sexual acts in private between two men. And in remembering both events, we can bear witness to the importance of this year’s theme of icons and allies, noting the role played by John Wolfenden, Leo Abse and Lord Arran. Of course, the Sexual Offences Act 1967 was part of that transformation in social attitudes that took place during the first Wilson Government, and I am proud to be able to stand here today as a Labour AM when so many of the advances in LGBT equality have taken place as a direct result of the intervention of Labour Governments.

The record of the Blair and Brown Governments are especially impressive, with achievements including: the equalised age of consent; civil partnerships; adoption rights; banning discrimination in the workplace and access to goods and services; ending the ban on LGBT people serving in the armed forces and section 28; fertility rights for lesbians; rights for trans people to have their gender recognised in law; action against hate crimes; and the critically important Equality Act 2010.

I am equally proud of the role played in moving forward the LGBT rights agenda by the National Union of Miners and its members in south Wales. I am sure that many of us here will have seen the film ‘Pride’—and if you haven’t, I would urge you to watch it—which shows the remarkable way in which two communities, alienated and marginalised by Thatcher’s Government, supported each other. That final scene, with the 1985 London Gay Pride march being joined by miners from Aberdare, the Phurnacite plant and Mountain Ash, all within my own constituency, captures the way in which both groups had come together to support one another.

I also want to draw today on my experiences as a secondary school teacher. There was a significant pastoral element to my role, and this could at times involve dealing with and supporting students coming to terms with their sexuality, and facing the dilemma of whether or not to come out in what could be a highly charged and highly challenging school environment. Challenges could come from peers, from parents and other family members, but students and young people may also struggle to accept themselves and their own sexual identity, let alone face having to seek the support and approbation of those around them.

Stonewall Cymru did some work a few years ago highlighting some worrying statistics around homophobic incidents that had been experienced by LGBT young people, and although I am glad to say that I didn’t personally witness any homophobic bullying during my teaching career, Stonewall also refers to the sense of isolation LGBT young people may feel.

So, how can we tackle this? It is really important that schools teach acceptance of sexuality through their personal and social education programmes, and I fully support what Dawn Bowden said earlier about teachers needing more support and training in order to deliver those kinds of lessons appropriately. It’s also important that schools have stringent anti-bullying policies in place, and that sufficient support is provided to teachers and other school staff so they’re able to support young people during what can be a very difficult time. There may also be opportunities in the work the Welsh Government is doing now around teacher training and Successful Futures, and I hope that this can be fully investigated.

It is also important that we offer our young people positive LGBT role models, and I hope that the Members for Delyn, Neath and Carmarthen East won’t mind me welcoming their important role in this regard, although it is a shame that it’s taken 17 years for the Welsh Assembly to elect its first openly LGBT AMs, and also sad that we still lag behind both the Scottish and Westminster Parliaments with regard to that representation. Other LGBT role models may be found across all walks of life, many of them covered by the icons element of today’s exhibition and many of whom are emblematic of the changes in attitude we’ve witnessed during the past few decades.

Data from the 2016 Welsh election study did show that some unacceptable hostility to LGBT people still remains, but this was vastly outnumbered by those having favourable attitudes. Some important work done by my former student Jac Larner, now of the Wales Governance Centre, showed that younger people displayed overwhelmingly more favourable attitudes towards LGBT people than their older cohorts. This must give us great encouragement for the future of our nation, but as Ivor Novello, one of the icons celebrated today, said:

Things which do not require effort of some sort are seldom worth having.’

Improving equality and eliminating discrimination do indeed take effort, and they are very definitely worth having.

I’m very pleased to take part in this debate today, and congratulations to the Members who have put it forward. I think this does give us an opportunity to celebrate the advances that are being made towards equality and to celebrate the individuals who’ve made this possible.

First of all, I want to say I think it is so important that we have gay and lesbian Assembly Members leading the debate today. Hannah said in her introduction, ‘You can’t be what you can’t see’ and I think that is such an important message. I think we are more credible as an Assembly now in having this debate being led in the way it is being led.

I wanted to use the time I had to mention two individual women who I know very well, who have made significant contributions to making Welsh life more tolerant and open-minded. The first is my constituent Janet Jeffries, who set up FFLAG—families and friends of LGBT people—after her son came out, and she has campaigned for many years for equality. She told me that her aim in all the work she’s done is to help parents and families to relate to their children with love and pride. At the time Janet set up FFLAG in 2001—sixteen years ago—it was a very different world, and many of the Members who have spoken today have referred to that. She said then that parents’ attitudes were fear of the discrimination that their children might face, their fear of AIDS, fear that they wouldn’t be able to get a job, and every day they were worried about issues they would have to face: gay couples were turned away from hotels, and there was none of the legislation that we’ve heard about today.

I’m also very proud that Labour did lead the way in passing many of the groundbreaking legislation, because politics does make things happen, and Labour certainly had led the way. I was very pleased to be in the House of Commons to vote for the age of consent to be equalised, to vote for the repeal of section 28, which, as many people have said here today, was the most pernicious bit of legislation I think that we can ever think about, and also very pleased to vote for the Civil Partnership Act in 2004 and the Gender Recognition Act in 2004, and, of course, the adoption Act.

At the time Janet was working, she said that it was commonplace for literature that they produced to be sent back from the printers. She said they sent a banner off to the printers for the organisation, and it was sent back because the word ‘gay’ was on it. You still hear of incidents like that, such as the bakers in Northern Ireland that refused to bake a cake with pro-gay marriage messages on it. But I think that is becoming much less often—it’s much more rare now. As Janet has told me, the world has changed now, but, of course, there’s still a long way to go, as we heard from the discussions in the church that have been taking place over the last couple of days. Janet was awarded a British empire medal in the new year’s honours list for her campaigning work, and I’m very proud to have her in my constituency, and wish her a speedy recovery from her illness.

The other woman I want to mention is Gloria Jenkins, who features in the exhibition Icons and Allies. She, with Janet, set up FFLAG, and she’s been a campaigning force in south Wales for many years. She was the co-chair of Stonewall Cymru and is one of the key people to establish it firmly as an organisation in Wales. I’ve known Gloria for many years, and my husband, Rhodri Morgan, at the time MP for Cardiff West, with Kevin Brennan, his assistant at the time, campaigned with Gloria and with her family and friends for Gloria’s daughter’s Canadian partner, Tammy, to be able to stay in the UK. This was a very high-profile campaign and it was successful, and Tammy was one of the first lesbians to be granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK because of a meaningful same-sex relationship. So, that was what Gloria started to campaign on, and she has campaigned ever since. It was fantastic to see her there up in that Senedd reception today, and I want to congratulate her on all she’s done. So, I just wanted to use the opportunity to mention these two women who’ve been great allies and have worked really, really hard, making a tremendous contribution.

I’d just like, finally, to end on a policy level, echoing what many people have said in this debate and the previous debate. I want to give a plea for meaningful sex and relationship education to be given in schools. As the Terrence Higgins Trust says, good-quality, age-appropriate LGBT-inclusive sex education should be available in all schools in Wales.

I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children, Carl Sargeant.

Llywydd, it’s a pleasure to respond to this afternoon’s debate, having listened to the contributions from all across the Chamber. Today’s debate on LGBT History Month is not the first time we’ve had to discuss LGBT equality in the Senedd, but it is very significant that, for the first time in our history, the debate has been led by openly lesbian and gay Assembly Members: Hannah Blythyn, Adam Price and, shortly, Jeremy Miles. I am grateful to them all, and Suzy Davies, indeed, for bringing the motion forward today, and also for many other Members’ contributions, too. We’ve heard personal stories, we’ve heard about the ongoing work towards LGBT equality and we’ve heard about, still, what needs to be done.

Those who are not LGBT cannot know the full extent of the pressures that our friends are facing in discovering, accepting and finding the freedom to be who they are, but all of us, I hope, can be good allies in empathising with the experience and fear of not being accepted or, worse, facing direct discrimination. Friends, the Welsh Government stands committed to enhancing the lives and opportunities of lesbian, gay, bi and trans people across Wales and, through our equality and inclusion grant, we have supported projects to challenge homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools. We work across agencies on increasing the reporting of anti-LGBT hate incidents, and we’ve supported the setting up of groups like Trans*form Cymru for young trans people.

In the last Assembly, my predecessor Lesley Griffiths brought forward a transgender action plan. A priority within the plan is the implementation of the NHS Wales transgender strategy for Wales, which will include a care pathway and guidance for healthcare practitioners to support the pathway; £0.5 million has been allocated in 2017-18 to improve gender identity services in Wales.

The Welsh Government’s decision in 2011 to seek additional and specific public sector equality duties in Wales has also brought an important cultural shift in the way our public bodies serve the needs of people across all protected characteristics.

Llywydd, consequently, there has been a demonstrable improvement in how organisations seek to support the LGBT people, both in service delivery and as employers. Just two weeks ago—congratulations to this Assembly on receiving an award for being the top public sector employer and fifth best employer in Britain for LGBT people. Despite such success, there’s much more to do, and we’ve heard that from Members today. Members here are making sure that action is firmly on the agenda. I know that Jeremy has raised trans healthcare with the Cabinet Secretary for health, along with Hannah, who has met the Cabinet Secretary for Education to discuss LGBT issues in our schools, and sex education, relationship education, which Julie Morgan talked about.

We cannot take progress for granted, however. In countries around the globe there are people committed to rolling back LGBT rights. We are committed to advancing them, just as we did in 2002, when this Welsh Assembly Government released guidance to schools that effectively ended the homophobic section 28, a year before its full repeal in Westminster. I mentioned section 28 because I think it still hits at the heart of this debate, brought up by Members in this Chamber. In practice, what it meant was that gay pupils were never told, ‘It’s okay to be who you are.’ They never learned about different ideas and identities. They were never told or had role models such as Gareth Thomas, Nigel Owens, Jeremy Miles, Hannah Blythyn or, indeed, Adam Price. Instead, they learned to be isolated, to be hidden, to be silent. A generation of young LGBT people were opened up to bullying sanctioned by the state. The generation that came before them were told that being LGBT was illegal and wrong. The impact of that history is still felt today. Although we may now live in a country that celebrates equal rights, same-sex marriage and protection from discrimination, we must not forget the thousands of lives hidden and lost to the past that treated lesbian, gay, bi and trans people as less than equal. This LGBT History Month, we remember their history, Llywydd, and we celebrate the love and humanity that we all share here today. Diolch.

I call on Jeremy Miles to reply to the debate.

Thank you, Llywydd, and thank you to all contributors this afternoon for the wide range of contributions that have been very thoughtful. If you had told the version of me 10 years ago that I would be standing here as a proud gay man on the floor of the Assembly in Wales, he would have been shocked and would have been frightened. Frightened at the shame that the 10-year-old version of me would have felt. That’s a long time ago now.

Finding out that I was a gay man in a very close Welsh community at the beginning of the 1980s wasn’t a very pleasant experience. I didn’t have any gay role models, no discussion, no awareness, no support, only a sense of being isolated. So, when people say, ‘Well, it’s not news anymore that we have politicians who are gay’—well, no, fair enough, but we should all take the opportunity, when we can, to shed light on those who are still battling, and some are still doing this, and offer some hope to the family, parents, neighbours and friends who are seeking comfort, or seeking the right words to say, or just an opportunity to raise the subject. So, it’s excellent to have an opportunity to talk here and to acknowledge the role of the LGBT community in our history and in Wales today.

Mae’r ddadl hon heddiw yn ymwneud â gwerth sylfaenol cymdeithas wâr, sef cydraddoldeb. Mae cydraddoldeb yn anwahanadwy. Fy mrwydr i am gydraddoldeb yw eich brwydr chi dros gydraddoldeb. Efallai mai ni yw’r Aelodau Cynulliad agored hoyw cyntaf yng Nghymru, ond rwy’n aml yn edrych yn ôl ar y gwleidydd agored hoyw cyntaf y bydd llawer ohonom yn ei gofio: Harvey Milk, a oedd yn aelod cynulliad yn San Francisco ar ddiwedd y 1980au. Rhoddodd araith bwysig am werth gobaith:

Yr unig beth sydd ganddynt i edrych ymlaen ato yw gobaith. A rhaid i chi roi gobaith iddynt. Gobaith am fyd gwell, gobaith am well yfory, gobaith am le gwell i ddod iddo os yw’r pwysau gartref yn rhy fawr. Gobaith y bydd popeth yn iawn. Heb obaith, nid yn unig y mae’r hoywon, ond y bobl dduon, yr henoed, yr anabl, y ‘ni-oedd’.

Bydd y "ni-oedd" yn rhoi’r gorau iddi.

Mae cydraddoldeb yn anwahanadwy. Nid rhywbeth ar gyfer pobl sydd wedi brwydro’n gyhoeddus iawn dros eu cydraddoldeb yn unig ydyw: pobl dduon, yr henoed, yr anabl y soniodd Harvey Milk amdanynt. Mae’n cynnwys y ‘ni-oedd’ hefyd—pob un ohonom. Rydym yma i ddathlu gwahaniaeth heddiw, ac mewn sawl ffordd, rydym i gyd yn wahanol. Weithiau, mae’r gwahaniaeth hwnnw’n cael ei ddeall yn well. Weithiau, mae’r gwahaniaeth hwnnw’n anos i’w oddef nag ar adegau eraill. Roedd yna adeg pan oedd bod wedi ysgaru, bod yn fam sengl, cael wyron hil gymysg yn achosion cywilydd a gwahaniaethu. Hyd yn oed heddiw, mae yna stigma mawr a gwahaniaethu, ynglŷn â sgyrsiau agored am iechyd meddwl, dyweder. Lle y gwnaed cynnydd, ni fuasai wedi digwydd heblaw bod pobl ddewr, pobl ymrwymedig, wedi ymladd. Maent wedi gwrthod eistedd yng nghefn y bws. Siaradodd Jonathan Sachs, y cyn-brif rabi, am urddas gwahaniaeth—ein bod yn rhoi gwerth ar ein gilydd, nid yn unig oherwydd yr hyn sydd gennym yn gyffredin, ond oherwydd ein bod yn adnabod rhywbeth yn ein gilydd nad yw gennym ni. Mae urddas gwahaniaeth o’r fath dan fygythiad yn y byd heddiw.

Mae gwleidyddiaeth yn ymwneud â’r hyn y dewiswch falio yn ei gylch—y cwestiynau y dewiswch eu gofyn, nid a ydych yn rhoi’r ateb cywir i’r cwestiwn pan fydd rhywun yn ei ofyn i chi. Mae cryn dipyn o gefnogaeth yn y Siambr hon i gydraddoldeb LHDT+. Mae cryn dipyn o gefnogaeth yn San Steffan. Ond gan mai Mis Hanes LHDT yw hwn, efallai y maddeuwch i mi sôn am un atgof. Roeddwn i’n byw yn Llundain yn y 1990au cynnar pan oedd gorymdeithiau Pride yn orymdeithiau yn erbyn y Llywodraeth am orthrwm yn erbyn y gymuned LHDT. Nid dim ond Llywodraeth nad oedd yn ariannu’r rhaglenni iawn neu’n dweud y pethau cywir oedd hi. Pan oeddwn yn fy arddegau, roedd hi’n Llywodraeth a oedd nid yn unig yn goddef gwahaniaethu, ond a oedd wedi mynd ati’n weithredol i ddyfeisio ffyrdd newydd ac arloesol o wneud bywydau pobl hoyw yn llai goddefadwy. Felly, heddiw, rwyf am ddiolch i’r holl bobl a frwydrodd dros hawliau yr ydym yn eu mwynhau heddiw ac sydd wedi arwain drwy esiampl. Rydym wedi cofio am lawer ohonynt heddiw yn y Senedd.

Rwy’n falch o fod yn Aelod Cynulliad dros Onllwyn, a dyna ble y seiliwyd y ffilm ‘Pride’. Clywsom heddiw am Dai Donovan, a weithiodd gyda Grŵp Cefnogi Glowyr Cymoedd Nedd, Dulais a Thawe i ddod â’r LGSM—Lesbiaid a Hoywon yn Cefnogi’r Glowyr—i Gwm Dulais. Fel y gwnaeth Vikki, hoffwn gydnabod gwaith Undeb Cenedlaethol y Glowyr yn rhoi cydraddoldeb LHDT ar yr agenda gyhoeddus yn y 1980au. Hoffwn gydnabod gwaith Llywodraeth Lafur 1997, wedi’i chefnogi gan bleidiau blaengar eraill, a ysgubodd ymaith lu o gyfreithiau gwahaniaethu a chyflwyno llawer o’n hawliau cyfartal. Wrth wneud hynny, crewyd hinsawdd wleidyddol i lawer o Geidwadwyr allu mynegi eu cefnogaeth i hawliau LHDT yn ogystal.

Ond nid gwlad heb wahaniaethu yn ei deddfau yw’r pen draw mewn cymdeithas wâr. Dyna’r man cychwyn. Mae gennym lawer ar ôl i’w wneud o ran newid agweddau. Heddiw, rwy’n teimlo bod gennym ffordd bell i fynd, er enghraifft, yn ein hagweddau tuag at y gymuned drawsrywiol. Rydym yn bell o weld agweddau teg ac iach yno. Hoffwn gydnabod gwaith Ysgrifennydd y Cabinet dros Iechyd, Llesiant a Chwaraeon, sydd wedi cael ei grybwyll eisoes heddiw, am y gwaith sy’n mynd rhagddo ar symud yr agenda iechyd yn ei blaen i bobl drawsrywiol, a’r cytundeb rhwng Llywodraeth Cymru a Phlaid Cymru oedd y sylfaen ar gyfer hynny.

Mae yna bobl heddiw sy’n gwylio’r ddadl hon sy’n dal i aros am gydraddoldeb—yn ymarferol, os nad yn y gyfraith. Byddant yn aros ac yn gwylio am anogaeth, ac am ymrwymiad gwleidyddol. Ein gwaith, fel y dywedodd y gwleidydd dewr wrthym am ei wneud, yw rhoi gobaith iddynt.

The proposal is to agree the motion. Does any Member object? The motion is therefore agreed, in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

Motion agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.