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’.]