For two decades Labour has celebrated that it repealed Section 28. It is worth remembering that Thatcher’s government introduced it following a campaign by its backbenchers including Jill Knight. In 2024 during a Labour government, we now see its backbencher posting this 👇 Two of my nieces are at primary school. They have a lesbian grandma, gay uncles, lesbian cousins and a trans cousin. When our son is at primary school he will have gay Dads. It’s important that all family types are recognised for everyone to feel welcome.

You tried your best BBC News and other legacy media to stop the progress for LGBTQ+ rights by spreading false information but you failed. The only thing that’s ‘controversial’ about the law is that it’s not happened for trans people in the rest of the UK. Given the law passed by a larger margin than most laws in the Scottish Parliament it is the very opposite of ‘controversial’. Accurate reporting here from @PinkNews thepinknews.com/2022/12/22/sco…

Last week Kemi Badenoch omitted trans people from a list of those protected by the Equality Act. Now it is being briefed that Rishi Sunak wants to remove protections from legislation we’ve had in place for 12 years. Coincidence? 🧵 My gut is that Sunak won’t try to remove trans protections because there isn’t a majority in the Commons for this. He couldn’t even count on the support of a majority from his own MPs including former PM Theresa May, some current cabinet members + other ‘big beasts’

Kemi Badenoch who described trans women as “men”, banned gender neutral toilets at her failed leadership bid launch and abstained on same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland is the new cabinet Minister for Women & Equalities. This is the appointment many LGBTQ+ campaigners feared🧵 Badenoch’s views on trans people are in complete contrast to new Education Secretary Gillian Keegan. It is though Badenoch wanted to be Educations Secretary + Equalities instead of Trade Secretary + Equalities

https://twitter.com/benjamincohen/status/1584950857371484162?s=46&t=5aMZxkjSytWrNepFa0ZK5w

New Education Secretary @GillianKeegan said: "Trans women are women and trans people deserve equal and fair access to healthcare, safe spaces, and opportunities, as well as to live their life with dignity." Positive but interesting how that will go down with cabinet colleagues 🧵 @GillianKeegan Suella Braverman who opposed gay couples in Northern Ireland marrying and over the weekend called on Sunak to attack the "transgender ideology" in schools has been re-appointed Home Secretary

As a child for my birthday, my parents took me to the National Theatre and I saw Frances Barber (below) strip off in a scene of Pygmalion. I think it was the first time that I’d ever seen a woman other than my mum or sisters undressed. Nudity is sometimes used in the arts. In more friendly days, I’d joke with Frances when we met a few times at opening night parties that seeing that scene sealed the deal on me realising I was gay but in truth I knew I was gay, I just didn’t know the word back then.

I can’t count the number of people who told me that it was just a “phase” that I was gay as a teenager in the 1990s Section 28 Britain. History doesn’t always repeat but it most certainly rhymes👇 To the transphobes commenting, I don’t have the time to reply, so please watch @OwenJones84’s speech to #pinknewsawards instead

As a charity trustee for over a decade, it is clear to me that Mermaids must review its governance procedures following this disturbing revelation. (1/3) pinknews.co.uk/2022/10/04/jac… Mermaids told @PinkNews that the conference Breslow spoke at “is completely at odds with our values”. Adding: “Safeguarding is of the utmost importance to Mermaids and the safety of the young people we support is our highest priority” (2/3)

The Times does its absolute best to imply that inappropriate sexual images were shared to children on @Mermaids_Gender forums before admitting 7 paragraphs down that these were on the unrelated US multi-billion dollar platform Discord. Is this actionable? The paragraph that admits that the inappropriate sexual image was posted on the unrelated Discord, is behind The Times paywall. This means that the ‘ordinary reader’ shared a link would not have necessarily known the facts.

If you didn’t know, Therese Coffey, the new Deputy Prime Minister and Health Secretary voted against same-sex marriage and continues to say that she opposes equality for gay couples. How will this impact how she will handle the monkey pox outbreak among gay + bisexual men? Appointment number two by Liz Truss is Kwasi Kwarteng, as Chancellor. He also voted against gay couples like me and my husband @DrAnthonyJames getting married.

Sending love to all the newsrooms currently finishing ‘Rishi Sunak becomes PM in shock result’ pieces. The @PinkNews draft vault is an alternate reality where Jeremy Corbyn is Prime Minister, Hilary Clinton is US President and Scotland has left the UK etc By the way, @IainDale has an excellent series of books on alternate political realities

2022: @PennyMordaunt uses a dog whistle trans joke "I think it was Margaret Thatcher that said every Prime Minister needs a Willie. A woman like me doesn't have one.”
2020: @PennyMordaunt: Trans people are being attacked like gay men were in the 1980s

https://twitter.com/benjamincohen/status/1546943090031792131

I think that it is ok for politicians to change their mind, in this case it would be disappointing but own up to it is all I say. This is a leadership election called due to the integrity of the PM.

Breaking: @PennyMordaunt says that she didn’t ever support changes to the Gender Recognition Act to de-medicalise the process. This will surprise many in the LGBTQ+ community as it was the policy of the department she was the cabinet minister for (1/ In her full answer, @PennyMordaunt implies that it was the policy of her predecessors and ultimately Theresa May but not her. As someone who first met Penny a decade ago, it’s the first time I’ve heard that she didn’t agree with this (but I may have been out the loop!) (2/

Refreshingly @grantshapps gives the only half decent answer on the anti-trans culture war questions
"Let people live their lives… I just don't think we need to get caught up in some US-style debate and aggressive war on these issues. It's just not necessary." In absolute fairness to @grantshapps, whatever you think about other policies and positions of his, he’s actually been supportive of LGBTQ+ issues

The ‘LGB Alliance’ has been spreading some vile anti gay and bisexual tropes. Thankfully this then happened

It is certainly the case that some incidents of monkeypox have been spread at these gay venues but there is no link to the sexual behaviour of gay people that medical professionals have made.

My wonderful Grandma Norma passed away yesterday aged 90. You may remember her and my late Grandad launching the @Out4Marriage campaign for same-sex marriage. After @stephenfry shared it, politicians, celebs + religious leaders followed 🧵👇 This wasn’t her only time in the spotlight, a few years earlier, she joined me on @Channel4News to try out the XBox Kinect (and beat me in a Lady Gaga dance-off)

Impressed! Within hours of testing positive for Covid, the NHS sent me antivirals and an oxygen monitor. Symptoms really mild, but due to my MS, I need to be cautious. The clear advantage of now recording positives from LFT is that I started my treatment 24-48 hours earlier than when the NHS required a PCR confirmation. I do think that this is sensible and greatly reduces the risks of complications.

I love how @NadineDorries justifies privatising Channel 4 by claiming that Channel 5 was privatised 3 to 5 years ago. Channel 5 launched in 1997 as a private business as a result of a franchise auction but I guess you couldn’t expect the Culture Secretary to know this 🤷‍♀️ What I think @NadineDorries is referring to is that in 2014, Richard Desmond sold Channel 5 to Viacom, (now called Paramount), a US broadcaster, which I guess is the model she is looking to with Channel 4- for it to be US owned

Happy Pride from the Mail on Sunday. The TLDR of this article is: One of the 172,000 staff at @sainsburys complains that trans colleagues are using the appropriate toilets as they have done for decades. Our mainstream media is not fit for purpose. Also, I’m pretty sure, because it would be in breach of the Equality Act if not, that trans people can use the appropriate toilets at the Daily Mail’s offices. When I’ve been there and used the men’s loos, no one asked me to prove my gender identity.

The latest Sunday Times trans lie is quite a whopper. The question on sex has never left the census and has been unaltered since the reign of George III. This year new questions are being added on sexuality and gender identity so it’s not a “blow to trans rights” (1/3) In his article @ShippersUnbound claims that the 2011 had a question on gender identity. It didn’t, the National Archive has last year’s census on its website. The question has been unaltered since the first one in 1801. (2/2)

BBC staff are allowed to attend Pride 'Parades', as long as Pride isn't a protest, which it is. At Pride, we are not 'parading', we are marching for our rights and the rights of others. BBC proving once again that it fails LGBT+ people pinknews.co.uk/2020/10/30/bbc… A reminder, the BBC has often been terrible on LGBT+ issues. A few from the archives: 1) the BBC hosted a debate on whether gay people should be executed