Pride Month

Llinos Medi Excerpts

Monday 23rd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Llinos Medi (Ynys Môn) (PC)]

Let me start by wishing a happy Pride Month to members of the LGBT+ community on Ynys Môn and beyond.

Pride Month is, of course, a time for celebration, a time to reflect on the vital contributions of members of the LGBTQ+ community to our society, and a time to renew our conviction that everyone deserves to love and live freely and openly, without the threat of bigotry. But this Pride Month is also a time of deep unease for many members of the community; in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on sex and gender in the Equality Act 2010 and the ensuing interim guidance published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, many trans people are living in fear of what the future holds.

The words of the trailblazing Welsh trans author Jan Morris seem particularly pertinent today. She found fame in 1953 as the sole reporter on the successful British Everest expedition, and became a prolific historian and travel writer. In her groundbreaking 1974 autobiography, she wrote:

“I never did think that my own conundrum was a matter either of science or of social convention...What was important was the liberty of us all to live as we wished to live, to love however we wanted to love, and to know ourselves, however peculiar, disconcerting or unclassifiable, at one with the gods and angels.”

It is, of course, in this place that many of the landmark decisions on allowing people to live and love freely have taken place, but work remains to create a society that is fairer and more inclusive for all. One of my constituents is an LGBTQ+ veteran, discharged from the military owing to his sexuality—before 2000, when the ban on open service of LGBTQ+ people was lifted. The late Lord Etherton reported on a number of recommendations in 2023 to provide redress for the injustice, but shockingly, in response to more than 1,000 applications, only 24 payments had been made as at 21 May this year. I urge the Government to do all they can to expedite the process, and to apologise formally for this historic wrong.

This month we rightly reflect on the huge strides forward that have made our society a more open and inclusive place for the LGBTQ+ community, but as the injustices facing the trans community and LGBT veterans demonstrate, we must redouble our efforts to build a society in which everyone has the liberty to live as they wish. Let us all recommit ourselves to that work together.