It’s LGBT History Month and to mark its start, Lynne Featherstone, who as Equalities Minister, kicked off the process that led to same sex marriage in England and Wales, wrote a blog on the party website:

We must fight oppression in every form so that no LGBT+ person has to live in fear.

Our members make our policies, and incredible LGBT activists and allies have written comprehensive policies that will make our society a kinder and more equal place than it is today.

Our MPs, Peers and members are fighting for these rights every day:

• Trans people being able to change their legal gender and streamlining the Gender Recognition Act to make it easier.
• Businesses with more than 250+ employees to monitor and publish data on BAME and LGBT employees, not just gender.
• A standard curriculum addition for Sex and Relationship Education (SRE), which will include in SRE teaching about sexual consent, LGBT+ relationships, and issues surrounding explicit images and content.
• Gender neutral bathrooms, gender-neutral school uniforms, and ‘X’ option on passports, official documents and forms for those who do not wish to identify as male or female.

Let us celebrate our identities and our freedom of expression. Let us embrace people from all communities and be proud of who we are.

It was good to see her make the point that Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists have no place in the Lib Dems:

I also have a message to those people who believe they can restrict trans women’s rights, deny their human rights, or exclude them from women-only spaces in the name of feminism: You are not feminists. Your views are not welcome in the Liberal Democrats.

She did miss one thing out, though. I felt that she could have mentioned how brilliant Kirsty Williams, as Welsh Education Secretary, has been in introducing proper LGBT inclusive sex education.

This month we’ll be celebrating our LGBT heroes on LDV. And we’ll make sure that we include all strands in that. The B is often completely forgotten. LGBT+ Chair Jennie Rigg pointed that out yesterday on Twitter:

It's good to condemn homophobia and commit to working against it.
It's better to commit to eradicate both homophobia and transphobia.
But honestly, we need to root out ALL the prejudices that affect our communities, including those within and between our communities.

— 🤘 🏳️‍🌈 𝔍𝔢𝔫𝔫𝔦𝔢 ℜ𝔦𝔤𝔤 🦇🔸️ (@miss_s_b) February 1, 2019

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social