SW1 Bitesize: the LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales
Is Wales making itself into the most LGBTQ+ friendly nation in Europe?
In the aftermath of the Welsh Labour government’s Race Equality Action Plan comes their LGBTQ Action Plan, which intends to make Wales the “most LGBTQ+ friendly nation in Europe”. In his introduction the First Minister, Mark Drakeford, emphasises that, “issues being faced by LGBTQ+ communities are often multidimensional: that is why this Action Plan has a focus on intersectionality”; which includes gender, faith, disability, race and age.
The Deputy Minister for Social Partnership, Hannah Blythyn, adds that this includes support for “non-binary, intersex, asexual, aromantic, queer and questioning people” and attacks the “regressive position on LGBTQ+ rights being pursued by the current UK Conservative Government”, noting that the Welsh government has expressed their “horror at their plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda”. As part of the Co-Operation Agreement with Plaid Cymru, they will also ban “conversion practices” for LGBTQ+ people. She concludes with the message students celebrating Pride Month 2022 gave her: “I don't just want to be tolerated, I want to be celebrated”.
The plan itself is long and often abstract. Nonetheless, some elements are worthwhile spotlighting. These include support for pre-pubescent gender transition (p.26), letting male-to-female transgender women compete in women’s sports (p.31); using they/them pronouns in government documents (p.36); increasing the number of LGBTQ+ Police Community Support Officers (p.38); negotiating with Westminster to amend the ASF1 form used by asylum seekers to note their sexual orientation and gender reassignment (p.41) so they can be given specific safeguarding; improving access to IVF for trans people, including financially, so they can have children after their surgery (p.45); enabling GPs to initiate hormone therapy (p.47); and having government buildings raise the asexual and aromatic flags among others (p.52).
Although the trade unions welcomed the plan, the LGB Alliance Cymru have reacted with “anger and disappointment”, saying that although they responded to the call for stakeholder evidence they were ignored. Pink News praised the plan and referenced Mark Drakeford’s support for gender self-ID, which the Scottish government tried to implement before being blocked by Westminster. Oddly Pink News adds that the plan “comes just weeks after a Cardiff drag queen was found dead in the city centre of the Welsh capital”, for which a man has been arrested for manslaughter. An earlier story reveals that drag queen “CC Quinn” was previously known as Darren Sewell, who “was convicted of the rape of a 14-year-old boy” and sentenced to three years, as well as being banned from contact with children, only to later be convicted of breaching that by working as a dance tutor for children as young as nine.
The plan was produced with the assistance of stakeholders, beginning with Stonewall Cymru before being taken over by an Independent LGBTQ+ Expert Panel. A review of several members shows that the group is highly ideologically conformist and makes the following claims: that panel lead Lu Thomas, whose company Re:cognition was given a contract by the Welsh government to examine their Relationships and Sexual Education teaching in schools, is also a friend of the Minister for Education (and that Jon Luxton, the co-founder of the company and partner of Thomas, is a friend of Deputy Minister Jane Hutt); and that Kate Hutchison of Pride Cymru, Rania Vamvaka of Glitter Cymru (an academic studying refugee resettlement), and Lisa Cordery-Bruce of NHS Wales have all publicly criticised TERFs online.
Other stakeholders examined include: Dr Sophie Quinney, Clinical Director of the Welsh Gender Service set up by the Welsh government, is a GP who says that “sex is observed at birth” and that if a patient asks for gender reassignment surgery then “don’t delay”; Catherine Burton of Race Equality First, which is heavily funded by the Welsh government, is a male-to-female transgender woman who used to be a pilot for BA; Professor E.J. Reynold of Cardiff University studies “childhood studies, feminism and queerness” and is allegedly also involved in the Welsh government’s Relationships and Sexual Education consultation; and Crash Wigley, who provides “advice” to the panel is another male-to-female transgender woman and a barrister who volunteers at Welsh Women’s Aid.
The other members of the panel left out of this review are: Rahim el-Habachi, from Glitter Cymru, is a Moroccan asylum seeker and bellydancer who is also a Creative Associate at the National Theatre Wales; Numair Masud, also from Glitter Cymru, is a Pakistani academic at Cardiff University, where he studies fish welfare, who claimed asylum because he is gay; Iestyn Wyn, from Stonewall Cymru, is now the Head of Language Planning for the Welsh government; Joe Rossiter of Stonewall Cymru used to work for Labour MP Anna McMorrin and currently also works for the Institute of Welsh Affairs, which received only £2,505 of its income in donations but does receive at least one grant of £19,000 from the government; and Belinda Davies of South Wales Police.
It’s clear that on the controversial issue of transgenderism, the Welsh government has only chosen to hear from supporters, including several who seem to have personal or financial links to the Welsh government itself. Many of the groups involved are highly reliant on Welsh government funding and support, meaning that in effect they largely hear from those they agreed with enough to fund. Several proposals in the plan, such as pre-pubescent gender transitions and letting male-to-female transgender women compete in women’s sports, go against increasing evidence of their negative impact, which the plan fails to even discuss.