After this year’s Labour Party conference, we wanted to update you all on our activities and key LGBT+ moments from Brighton.

Fringe 1: Tackling LGBT+ Hate Crime

Our first fringe event was standing room only. Our National Secretary, Joe Vinson, chaired the event and we heard from Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds, Shadow Women's and Equalities minister Taiwo Owatemi, LGBT+ PLP Co-Chair Stephen Doughty, Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria Kim McGuinness and CEO of Galop Leni Morris.

The speakers spoke about the need to update our laws to make sure they protect victims and hold LGBT+ related hate crimes to the same standards other hate crimes are, praised the fantastic LGBT+ Action plan being delivered by the Welsh Labour Government and also highlighted that we need to hire more LGBT+ police officers so our police force to look like our local communities.

Fringe 2: Labour and LGBT+ Rights, where next?

Our second fringe event, which was jointly hosted by Stonewall, was also standing room only. This time Jasmine Andersson, journalist at the i newspaper, chaired the event. Our Chair Alex Beverley and Trans Officer Eden Ladley were joined by Angela Rayner, Anneliese Dodds, Dame Angela Eagle and Nancy Kelly, CEO of Stonewall.

The speakers discussed the need for a Labour Government to tackle the issues of inequality that LGBT+ people face daily including access to healthcare, housing and pensions.

Socialist Societies Reception

Both our Chair Alex Beverley and NEC Equalities Chair James Asser spoke at the successful Socialist Societies Reception. Thank you to all who attended and supported our committee members.

Record fundraising at LGBT+ Labour’s Legendary Conference Disco

Thank you so much to everyone who came along to our annual conference disco. It was once again the best night of conference. We raised £5,512.68, which is a record amount of funds that will all go towards supporting LGBT+ candidates across the country. This was particularly important as we haven’t been able to fundraise at all for the best part of the past 2 years. Keep an eye out for details of our future fundraisers.

From the conference floor: Unanimous support for LGBT+ rights

We want to say a massive thank you to our delegate, Cllr Kevin Brady, for all his hard work in the compositing meeting getting all of the wording from our LGBT+ healthcare motion into the NHS composite motion that was debated on the conference floor. You can see his speech here.

It was fantastic to see so much support from across our movement for the rights of all LGBT+ people. Both the NHS Motion and LGBT+ Rights motions passed unanimously.

We also had the opportunity to hear from Anneliese Dodds who presented the Equalities report. We were pleased to hear her express that Trans rights are human rights, which was met with lots of applause, and highlight the difficulties that all LGBT+ people, particularly trans people face seeking secure employment.

Thank you once again for all your support. We are looking forward to continuing to work with you all as we continue our campaigns.