6. Statement by the Deputy Minister for Social Partnership: Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality in Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:53 pm on 29 June 2021.

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Photo of Hannah Blythyn Hannah Blythyn Labour 4:53, 29 June 2021

Diolch—thanks. Thank you for that contribution—a really comprehensive and passionate contribution. I welcome you to your role, which you're so clearly passionate about, and I look forward to actually being able to work with you on these areas where there's a shared ambition to see true equality and inclusion across Wales. I'll do my best to try and cover all the points and questions that you raised there.

We talked again about sexual harassment in the workplace and, absolutely, we need to foster a culture where there's zero tolerance of that, and work has been done, but obviously there's still more work to be done. And I think there's a role across Government in terms of how we use all those levers of Government to make sure that is not just the message, but what's happening in practice. As I said in a previous response, there's a role for the public sector, there's a role for—. We see a lot of organisations who actually—. If you'd said to the teenage me when I was growing up that so many corporate organisations would be very quick to put the Pride flag on their Twitter profile in Pride Month and shout it from the treetops, how they are supporting—. But it's actually about how that works in practice within the workplace, and we have come a long way because they are doing that, because you could never have imagined that 20-odd years ago. But, actually, it's about what works in practice. And I think, actually, for us, as part of the action plan and the implementation of it, how we use all the levers we do have to make a difference, whether that's through just the public sector, but also through Government funding and our equality and inclusion grants as well.

So, in terms of the LGBTQ+ action plan, the aim is to consult on it, to launch a consultation in July over the summer, and then I would be very keen to work in partnership to take that forward and to involve organisations as part of that, as well, and then perhaps come back to this Senedd following that with more detail in terms of the time frame in terms of actually how we would hope to implement many of the actions outlined in that plan. I think one of the things you could say—it's probably something that's very fluid and about having milestones and having a living, breathing document that actually is something we do need to revisit. I'm very clear it's not something to say, 'Here is our action plan and now we're going to just put it on the shelf over here and then not do anything about it.' It's really clear that, actually, we could see those actions and would be able to measure them against successes and actually share people's lived experiences as part of that, because lived experiences shaped that plan, and, actually, to know whether we are having those right outcomes by hearing from people who are living through that as well.

You talked about online abuse. It takes you back; people of a certain age in the Chamber will probably remember the saying that perhaps your mum said to you, 'Sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never hurt you,' and I don't think that could be further from the truth. I think we have to be very mindful and I think we have a position of authority, all of us now in this Chamber, to use our position to actually not just call things out but to think before we tweet, think before we speak, and sometimes the words and some of the debates you referred to now can become very toxic on Twitter, especially on social media. I think it's a responsibility on all of us not just to call that out, but to actually think and act with compassion in how we treat each other with basic dignity as fellow human beings.