I move on now to item 4, a statement by the Deputy Minister for Social Partnership on Pride and progress on the LGBTQ+ action plan. Hannah Blythyn.

Diolch. Pride Month this year marks 50 years since the first UK Pride; 50 years since Saturday 1 July 1972 when people came together to take that first step and bring Pride to the streets of London. Five decades on, we can be proud of how far we've come on LGBTQ+ rights thanks to the activists and allies that came before us. But, we cannot be complacent, with LGBTQ+ communities under attack and our hard-fought-for rights at risk of being rolled back around the world, including, shamefully, here in the UK.

Pride was born out of the need and the will to protest, to fight for equal rights, to be seen, to be ourselves, to be respected, to stand together as a community and to demand an end to discrimination. There is still more to do, and so we have a responsibility to redouble our commitment to continue to change history for the better, here and abroad, and to create a future where we recognise and realise Wales as the most LGBTQ+ friendly nation in Europe. 

As a Government, we stand with our LGBTQ+ communities. That's why LGBTQ+ rights are embedded in our programme for government, are a key component of the co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru, and why we are developing our bold action plan. This plan strengthens protections for LGBTQ+ people, promotes equality for all, and helps co-ordinate actions across Government, communities and the country. 

Our aim is to publish the action plan this autumn, and we are making progress not just on the plan itself but, importantly, putting commitments into practice. We are fulfilling our commitments to support Pride organisations in Wales. Our support for Pride Cymru continues and, for the first time, we have provided funding to grass-roots Pride events across Wales. We have already given support to Swansea Pride and North Wales Pride, and discussions are under way with Pride in the Port in Newport.

We are enabling more inclusive education, with Welsh Government providing national guidance for schools by the end of this year to help them fully support transgender pupils. This is being done as part of the whole-school approach to relationships and sexuality education, and we want to make it clear that Welsh Government has not endorsed any third party guidance in this area. Recently, our support has enabled Stonewall Cymru and Peniarth to translate into Welsh two books on LGBTQ+ families. The books, distributed to primary schools, will ensure classrooms have access to inclusive literature reflecting the diversity of Wales.

Progress has also been made in sexual health through the HIV action plan for Wales, published for consultation last week. The plan aims to reach the target of zero new HIV transmissions by 2030, to tackle stigma and improve the quality of life of people living with HIV. 

Forty years ago, gay people were subject to hateful slurs and prejudiced attacks. Trans people today are being subjected to a similar barrage of hate-fuelled tirades. Extending rights for one group does not mean eroding rights from another. We do not believe improving rights for trans women will damage rights for cisgender women and girls. Our trans communities are hurting, they're afraid, and they're experiencing harm. As a society, we can and must do better than this.

So, we continue to develop our gender service in Wales, which reports shorter waiting times for first assessment than comparable NHS gender services in England and is committed to reducing waiting times further. We are also committed to improving the pathway for transgender young people in Wales. The Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee, responsible for the service, will look at available evidence to further define the clinical service model for the future, and community voices will be front and centre to this work.

In line with our co-operation agreement commitment, we will also seek to devolve additional powers to improve lives and protect transgender people. Our commitment to support LGBTQ+ people seeking sanctuary in Wales and meet our international duty to show leadership on equality has never been more important. We have written to UK Government expressing our horror at their plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. This would be devastating for LGBTQ+ people, placing them at risk of ill treatment, discrimination, arbitrary arrest, and detention.

So, LGBTQ+ issues beyond our borders remain crucial to us and, whilst Wales's qualification for the World Cup is to be celebrated, the host country's appalling stance on LGBTQ+ rights cannot be overlooked. Many will not feel safe to travel, or will choose not to in support of Qatar's own LGBTQ+ communities, who cannot live openly and freely as themselves. We will look to use our platform to engage and influence on these important matters. 

We are committed to leaving no stone unturned when it comes to banning conversion practices for LGBTQ+ people. We will not abandon our trans communities, as UK Government has done, nor will we just talk the talk when it comes to action. Working with Plaid Cymru, we are undertaking complex work, including seeking legal advice to determine all the levers we have for a ban in Wales, developing our campaign to raise awareness of support services and the horrors of conversion practices, and our plans to establish a working group of experts are under way. 

During my recent visit to meet with the Digon group from Ysgol Plasmawr in Cardiff, I asked the students what message they would want me to share in a statement here to mark Pride Month. The message was clear: 'I don't just want to be tolerated, I want to be celebrated.' This Pride Month, and every month, the greatest tribute we can pay to the pioneers that paved the way is to continue to speak up, stand up and play our own part in achieving a fairer future where we feel safe, are supported, with our rights secured, and celebrated.

Thank you, Deputy Minister, for your statement, and can I offer my sincere thanks to all those who have worked so hard in producing the action plan so far? I have a few brief questions, if I may, regarding some of the actions. Minister, you will know that suicide is the biggest killer of young people under the age of 35 in the UK, and it disproportionately affects members of the LGBTQ+ community. Moreover, we know that, on average, over five young people take their lives each day, over 200 schoolchildren are lost to suicide every year, and that research has shown that, with the appropriate early intervention and support, suicide by young people can be prevented. It is mentioned in the proposed action plan that there is to be an undertaking of targeted public health work to combat issues for LGBTQ+ people who are disproportionately at risk, including on substance misuse, sexual health and mental health. We're also aware that there are those who are part of the LGBTQ+ community who live in fear of being outed by engaging with any project or being seen to be involved with initiatives, and I'm wondering what specific actions this Government is looking to take to tackle the mental health issues of those who are hidden within the LGBTQ+ community in order to help combat this.

Secondly, I want to understand better what is meant by creating

'a more homogenised approach to private workplace training resources' so that workplaces can become more LGBTQ+ inclusive. What do you actually mean by a 'homogenised approach'? Why have you decided this is the best course of action? I ask this because I've always taken the view that a one-size-fits-all approach does not allow for the flexibility that is needed, and a fixed model of training will not necessarily suit all the different industries and work cultures that we have. As you have said, discrimination in the workplace remains widespread, which, as we know, is driven by the fear of the unknown, and fear of something different. So, how will this training specifically aim to educate people and change discriminatory behaviour?

Finally, Minister, I wanted to add my words to your positive statement regarding Pride. Pride themes change not only year to year, but from place to place, to reflect and celebrate the community. However, the overreaching message is always the same—whilst we are different, we are also all the same. Although we like and are good at different things and we love different people, we are all human, and we should never be persecuted or judged or treated differently because of those differences. Instead, we should celebrate what makes us unique and what makes us individuals, because, if we do, we can achieve amazing things by including everyone and making the most of our diversity for humankind. Thank you, Minister.

Can I thank the Member for those warm words of support for Pride at the end of his contribution there, and also very much welcome the supportive comments around what we're trying to do in the LGBTQ+ action plan? I'd be more than happy, as we develop the plan, to discuss certain elements that the Member might have a specific interest in. As we do that over the coming weeks and months, I'm more than happy to do that, and I think it's really important that, in this place here, in this Chamber, we do take a very different tone and a very different approach than perhaps elsewhere in terms of standing together to do the right thing.

If I just touch on a couple of specific points you made, Altaf, in that contribution, you're right to highlight the very real challenges that the LGBTQ+ community face in terms of challenges with mental health, isolation. It can stem from a variety of things. We know that it has been exacerbated, perhaps, during the pandemic for people who may have had to remain living with people who they were maybe not out to, who they were not able to be themselves with, or perhaps in an environment that was less than friendly towards them. So, we have done—. As well as what's outlined in the action plan, there is a piece of work that we've been doing to look at the impact of COVID-19 on the LGBTQ+ community particularly. So, it's hoped that can feed into the broader work of the action plan. But I think you make a really valid point, which I'm sure our officials and our experts are already taking forward, in terms of actually making sure people know where the support and resources are and that, if they don't feel able to, they don't have to put their hand up and declare who they are if they don't feel comfortable at that point in life in doing it to be able to access certain services. So, I think there's a really, really important and valid point there. 

On LGBTQ+ friendly and inclusive workplaces, I think, absolutely, we spend so much of our time and our life at work, in a workplace, and I know from my own personal experience that, at the point when I was able to be out and be myself at work, I suddenly was not just happier at work, but I was probably more productive; I wanted to be there. And I think when you're in that situation sometimes where you don't feel that you can be yourself, you expend so much energy on that, rather than energy on more positive things, things that you could focus on. So, that's a really important strand of what we're doing. You talk about a homogenous approach, and I recognise what you say, that one size doesn't fit all, but I think it's about having that parity and equality of support and resource for workplaces, whether they be in the public or private sector—and the voluntary sector, of course. And we know that there are really good examples of best practice. We see it in those major organisations, businesses, in Wales who are recognised for their networks and their inclusivity. And we also know that, within the trade union movement, there are a lot of good equality courses there and support for members, and that's another way to facilitate and to disseminate that information within the workplace.

So, I think what we mean is making sure that we get that better practice and make sure that it's shared and everybody has the opportunity to access that support and to have that support at work as well. And, of course, it's central—when we talk about being a nation of fair work, of course, equality in the workplace and being able to be yourself at work is a key part of that in terms of your well-being at work as well. 

Thank you very much for the statement, Deputy Minister. 

I'm proud that the co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru commits the Welsh Government to making Wales the most LGBTQ+ friendly nation in Europe and to calling for the powers to legislate to improve the lives and protect the safety of trans people in Wales to be devolved. It's clear how crucial those commitments are, given how hate crimes against people based on sexual orientation have risen every year in England and Wales since 2016. And figures from Gwent Police, North Wales Police and South Wales Police retrieved by an FOI by BBC Wales have also shown this trend of increasing sexual orientation and transphobic hate crimes in the last year. 

I'm glad the Deputy Minister made specific reference in her statement to the way trans people are being made subject to rising intolerance and hate. We must have powers to better protect trans people here in Wales, and I look forward to further progress on this. I also believe that trans women are women and that the way that trans women are being excluded by sporting bodies, whether you agree with it as a method of ensuring fairness or not, is emboldening those who are using sport as a cover for their transphobia and prejudice. When considered together with the mental health issues and suicide rates for trans people, and the tiny proportion of trans athletes who compete in elite sports, it seems that decisions to ban transgender athletes are, in the words of one of America's foremost sports journalists, Dan Wolken, a solution in search of a problem. Sport has such a key role in promoting an inclusive, diverse reflection of our world's citizens, including transgender athletes. So, how are we in Wales, as so rightly put by the students of Ysgol Gyfun Plasmawr's Digon group, going to celebrate our trans citizens who are athletes? I would like to know therefore, Deputy Minister, what conversations you have had with sports organisations and bodies in Wales about the ramifications of the decision taken by FINA and the statements made by Nadine Dorries, that she will encourage UK sporting bodies to follow FINA's lead.

And staying with sport, I was also glad to hear the Deputy Minister reference our responsibility as a nation to call out prejudice and persecution beyond Wales, and the need to ensure our concerns about Qatar's awful record on LGBTQ+ rights are clearly voiced when our national team, and their supporting staff, and Welsh fans, travel there for the World Cup. 

So, could the Deputy Minister please outline exactly what conversations she's had with other Governments, the FAW, and other stakeholders regarding this issue? How will we engage with and try to influence a state that can prevent LGBT people from entering their country, or deport LGBT people from Qatar on the grounds of their sexual orientation and gender identity? How is the Government going to ensure that LGBTQ+ fans, those associated with the teams, members of Welsh companies and organisations, are able to play a full part in Wales's World Cup campaign without fear of persecution? 

Lastly, I would like to turn to your comments on how Wales is a nation of sanctuary for all—it's so apt that we do that in Refugee Week, and following the debate we've just had—and how Welsh Government has expressed its horror at the Westminster Government's plans to send refugees and asylum seekers to Rwanda. And Plaid Cymru supports your strong words, and shares your concerns on the consequences for LGBTQ+ refugees and the potential risks they would face. The Nationalities and Borders Act 2022 makes it even harder for LGBTQ+ people who are seeking asylum to be recognised and protected. The shameful treatment of some of the world's most vulnerable refugees is one of the reasons the UK has plummeted down the rankings for LGBTQ+ rights across Europe for the third year running. What is the Welsh Government going to do specifically to support LGBTQ+ refugees, and does the Deputy Minister agree with me that if we are to fully protect LGBTQ+ people who wish to make Wales their home, then we need, desperately, a Welsh bill of rights to help us incorporate the international legal protections that they deserve? Diolch.

Thank you, Sioned, for the support.

I think it really is well appreciated, and I think being able to stand and speak in solidarity on issues and matters that make such a difference to people—we're talking about people's lives aren't we—and being able to—. We talk about taking action, but you can't underestimate people speaking up and challenging and taking the right position on these things. There's very little for me to disagree with on anything you said there, particularly around supporting a nation of sanctuary and what we can do on that, and I wholeheartedly agree with your comments. 

If I touch first perhaps on what you said around transgender people in sport, and that is something that seems to have—. Like you say, I actually happily missed Nadine Dorries's comments, but I will go and look at that and see what she said once again. But, I think, one of the things you have to say is, we know, as we've said before, the transgender community appears to be one of the most ostracised and unprotected, and failure to recognise and address that, whether that's in sport or in other areas, is a failure in our duty and our mission to secure equality and inclusion. If we're saying our position is clear that LGBTQ+ rights, including trans rights, are human rights, then sport needs to be a place where everyone can take part, and everyone is treated with kindness, dignity and respect. And I think it has to start from a position of—. I could hear murmurs of support in this place here. Sport, in its very essence, is an opportunity to be inclusive and to include people in different communities. And we're not just talking about elite sport; we're talking right across the board as well.

And, I think, very much, we have to start from a position of compassion, fairness and transparency. Those kinds of conversations have already taken place with some of those sporting bodies, and I'm going to be working very closely with my colleague Dawn Bowden from that perspective. It's something that I certainly am going to take forward and move forward now, in terms of actually how we can make sure things are done in this way. I was at a PinkNews event—well, a Parliament reception, which wasn't in Parliament—last week, and I actually met with the cyclist Emily Bridges there, and I've actually invited Emily to come and visit us here to share her experiences, so that we can learn from that and better support and use people's lived experiences too. It's incredibly important that I'm an ally of that community, but I'm not of that community, and I think it's really important, like with anything we do, they are shaping our work and our way forward as well.

If I could just touch on the points you made around hate crime and the rise in hate crime, I think some of it is two-fold, that people are more willing to report it, but unfortunately there is an increase in hate crime. I think we've spoken in this Chamber before about raising awareness, through our Hate Hurts Wales campaigns and the work that we do, that hate crime takes many different forms. At it's extreme and horrific end, it is violent, and, as we've seen, it can lead to really devastating consequences, here in our own capital city. But it's also people thinking that they can say whatever they want to people, and I know I've spoken to things that I've experienced before, here. I find it very difficult at the moment that my wife is a target because of me. I know that she's had a phone call to her work number in this place by somebody who, essentially, was speaking in tongues, told her she was going to burn in hell. Our police forces are trying hard, and we're working very closely with them, but I do think there's more work to do in terms of actually how they handle and treat things like that, because it really wasn't dealt with adequately. And I think these things do need to be improved.

I think that support needs to be there in place for people to actually feel they can report things, because we're not going to change things unless people feel they have that support. And I think there are different ways of doing it—going through the process, from reporting to making it being registered as a hate crime, but actually what's done about it in the future. Also, it goes back to what we're trying to do around education as well. And I keep reading over and over, too often, about other people that are experiencing similar things. It goes back to what we were saying about calling things out. I think there is a challenge for all of us in this place, within our own communities, within our own organisations, within our own political parties, to have a difficult conversation—it can be, sometimes—to take the right approach, and to call this out and actually say, 'This is the impact some of the words, some of the so-called "debate" that people have, can lead to, and the impact and the harm and hurt that it can cause for individual people and whole communities.'

Minister, thank you very much for your statement today. I just wanted to say a little bit about local authorities in Wales and the important role that they have, and ask if you would agree with me that Newport City Council are actually doing a lot of good things at the moment and making real progress on these issues. I know they're fully committed to supporting the Welsh Government's LGBTQ+ action plan, and they have very strong links with communities across the city of Newport, and they have a Pride staff network within the authority, which I think is really delivering results in terms of their internal organisation, but also linking out then to the community.

They've been working with Pride in the Port, and I was pleased that you mentioned them earlier. There will be a march in Newport in September, the first Pride march organised by Pride in the Port, with the local authority in support. There are lots of activities now throughout the local community, the raising of the Progress Pride flag by the council leader and Pride in the Port to celebrate Pride Month. There's an awful lot actually going on at the moment, including an event and a safe space at the Riverfront Theatre, which was created, again, to take forward these activities—to send the right messages. Obviously, you want to work closely with local authorities in Wales, Minister, and I wonder if you would confirm what I hope is the case, that Newport City Council is showing a good example at the moment and doing lots of promising things.

Can I thank John Griffiths for that contribution? I think he's right to shine a light on the role, not just of Newport City Council, but actually the significant part that local authorities can play in our communities, in terms of not just supporting Pride events, but then going back to what Altaf said in terms of their own networks, how they support their own staff, and actually how they create inclusive spaces and opportunities for people in communities—it could be in a city, or whether that's in more urban, more rural communities as well. So, yes, I would very much like to join with you in congratulating Newport City Council, and Jane Hutt—Jane Mudd, sorry. Jane Hutt shows leadership on this as well. [Laughter.] Congratulations to Jane Mudd, as leader of Newport City Council. I was actually talking to Jane at the Wales Armed Forces Day in Wrexham on Saturday, because the baton's being handed over to Newport for next year. And we were talking very excitedly and animatedly about the potential Pride in the Port has, because, as I've said before in this place, and I'll say over and over again, those kinds of landmark Pride events, such as the one in our capital city, are important. We can't underestimate the value of events in communities and cities right across the country. So, Pride in the Port I know is 3 September. I hope to be there myself, and I know Jayne Bryant has actually been in touch with me to get that on my agenda, to make sure I can try and get it in the diary. And I would invite Members to join us on as many Pride marches as we can across the summer, as, actually, we are able to come together in this way as a community once again after the coronavirus pandemic.

Thank you, Deputy Minister, for this statement on the action plan today. Last week, we celebrated, as you said, what would have been the birthday of Welshman, Terrence Higgins, and remembered his passing 40 years ago from an AIDS-related illness. Terry was named as the first person in the UK to die from AIDS, but the crisis caused gay and bisexual men to face horrific homophobia and stigma. This undoubtedly contributed to many more lives being lost. 

And, whilst we have come a long way in acknowledging this homophobia associated with the HIV and AIDS crisis of the 1980s, it was alarming to see the tropes in the media and public discourse with the reporting of the monkey pox virus recently. The othering, the framing of queer people as a threat, the stereotypes, the negative connotations were reproduced in our mainstream media, as if the lessons from the last 40 years had never happened. And that's why we need governments to be active in tackling homophobia in all its forms, and that is why I welcome this update on the Welsh Government's LGBT action plan today. As you've said, it is about having a place of inclusion and solidarity, as opposed to division and alienation. Whether it is the systemic prejudice in our establishments, those holding public positions or online hate, we still have a long way to go to stamp this out, as we've seen.

So, Minister, will you agree with me, in endorsing the statement, to say to all people who may be struggling, facing discrimination or prejudice, 'There is nothing wrong with you; there is a lot wrong with the world in which we live'? Also, it's about emphasising and really coming out and saying to those people who are making those comments about the monkey pox virus that it's ignorant, it's absurd, it's dangerous, it's insulting, and to put the blame for that on the LGBTQ+ community is absolutely unacceptable.

Thank you, Sarah, for those very well-said comments there in terms of calling out the risk of history repeating itself in terms of ignorance. Do you know what? I don't actually think it's ignorance half the time, unfortunately; it's intentional. And that kind of othering and the homophobia, that kind of low level, almost, sometimes—. It's inferred homophobia that is latent in some of these things. I'm really pleased that 40 years after the AIDS crisis—. Also, you talked about Terrence Higgins, and I know my colleague Jeremy Miles sponsored an event in this place last week, to launch the Welsh Government's new HIV action plan. That demonstrates how far we've come, but also recognises that we still have a road to travel in terms of tackling stigma and homophobia. I very much would join in with you in what you said, and a message to all LGBTQ+ people in Wales and beyond that you are amazing, you are valued, you are loved for who you are.

Thank you. Before we move to the Stage 3 debate on the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill, I will suspend proceedings for 10 minutes, in accordance with Standing Order 12.18. The bell will be rung five minutes before reconvening. Please, could all Members ensure they return promptly, so that voting preparations can take place?

Plenary was suspended at 15:43.

The Senedd reconvened at 15:59, with the Llywydd in the Chair.