On Monday, Conference debated our motion “Restoring Trans Rights”, and the motion passed overwhelmingly. As Chair of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats, I’m proud of that – proud of everyone who put the work in, proud of the people who got up and spoke, and proud that our party said clearly, again, that it stands with trans people.

But there is one thing I want us to carry forward from that debate.

We win the argument by making it. We win the vote by voting for it. We do not need to win it by shouting anyone down.
There will always be people at Conference who disagree with us. Sometimes profoundly, in ways that are genuinely upsetting or just plain wrong. But the right response to that is confidence, not volume. Speak up, challenge the misinformation, make the case properly – but let other speakers finish. A heckle has never changed anyone’s mind. Booing doesn’t make our argument stronger. Shouting over someone at a microphone doesn’t add anything. And we don’t need to do it.

Conference heard the arguments on Monday and made its decision. We should have enough confidence in our values, in our arguments and in Liberal Democrat members to allow a debate to happen and then win it.

This matters online too, where there are people whose entire political strategy is to provoke a reaction. They’re not trying to persuade you. They want the quote-tweet. They want hundreds of angry replies. They want the confrontation, because the confrontation is the content.

We should not give it to them.

I don’t mean go quiet. There’s plenty we should still call out – misinformation, prejudice, attacks on trans members, candidates and activists- and we should keep making the case for equality without apologising for it. But not every wind-up is worth our time, and sometimes the best move is simply not to play along.

So my ask, for future Conferences, is a simple one: when someone gets up to argue against us, hear them out, then make the better argument. Speak up. Vote for it. Trust Conference to decide.

Sometimes the strongest thing we can do is refuse to play somebody else’s game.

Liberals debate. On Monday, we did. And Conference overwhelmingly stood with us.

* Lucas North is Chair of LGBT+ Lib Dems