Diolch, Lywydd, a diolch i bob cyfrannwr y prynhawn yma, ac am yr ystod eang o gyfraniadau sydd, os caf ddweud, wedi bod yn feddylgar iawn. Petasech chi wedi dweud wrth y fersiwn 10 mlwydd oed ohonof i y byddwn i’n sefyll yma fel dyn hoyw balch ar lawr Senedd Cymru, fe fyddai fe wedi synnu ac wedi’i arswydo. Arswydo am y cywilydd, hynny yw, y byddai’r fersiwn 10 mlwydd oed wedi ei deimlo. Mae hynny sbel fawr yn ôl erbyn hyn.

Roedd darganfod fy mod yn grwtyn hoyw mewn cymuned glos, Gymreig, Gymraeg ar ddechrau’r 1980au ddim yn brofiad dymunol iawn: dim modelau rôl hoyw, dim esiamplau; dim trafodaeth, dim ymwybyddiaeth, dim cefnogaeth, dim ond synnwyr o fod wedi ynysu. Felly, pan mae pobl yn dweud, ‘Hei, nid yw’n newyddion, bellach, bod gennym wleidyddion hoyw’—na, digon teg, ond fe ddylem ni i gyd cymryd y cyfle, pan allwn ni, i gynnig rhyw lygedyn o olau i’r rhai sydd yn dal i frwydro, ac mae rhai yn dal i wneud hynny o hyd, a, gyda llaw, gynnig rhyw lygedyn o oleuni i deulu, rhieni, cymdogion a chyfeillion sydd yn chwilio am gysur, neu’n chwilio am yr eirfa iawn, neu chwilio jest am gyfle i godi’r testun. Felly, da yw cael cyfle i siarad yma ac i gydnabod heddiw rôl y gymuned LHDT yn ein hanes ac yng Nghymru heddiw.

This debate today goes to the fundamental value of a civilised society, which is equality. Equality is indivisible. My fight for equality is your fight for equality. We might be the first openly gay Assembly Members in Wales but I often look back at the first openly gay politician that many of us will remember: Harvey Milk, who was an assembly man in San Francisco in the late 1980s. He gave an important speech about the value of hope:

The only thing they have to look forward to is hope. And you have to give them hope. Hope for a better world, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for a better place to come to if the pressures at home are too great. Hope that all will be all right. Without hope, not only are the gays,’ but the black people, the seniors, the disabled, the ‘us-es’.

The “us-es” will give up.’

Equality is indivisible. This is not just for those who’ve had very public struggles for their equality: black people, the seniors, the disabled that Harvey Milk spoke about. It’s also the ‘us-es’—every one of us. We are here to celebrate difference today, and in many ways, we are all different. Sometimes, that difference is better understood. Sometimes, that difference is harder to bear than at other times. There was a time when being divorced, being a single mother, having a mixed-race grandchild were causes of shame and discrimination. Still today, there is great stigma and discrimination, say, about open conversations about mental health. Where progress has been achieved, it has only happened because people of courage, people of commitment, have fought. They have refused to sit at the back of the bus. Jonathan Sachs, who was the former chief rabbi, spoke about the dignity of difference—that we value one another not just because of what we have in common, but because we recognise in each other something that we don’t have. That dignity of difference is under threat in the world today.

Politics is about what you choose to care about—the questions you choose to ask, not whether you give the right answer to the question when you are asked it. There is a good measure of support in this Chamber for LGBT+ equality. There is a good measure of support in Westminster. But, since this is LGBT History Month, maybe you’ll forgive me a bit of a recollection. I lived in London in the early 1990s when Pride marches were marches against the Government for oppressing the LGBT community. It was not just a Government that wasn’t funding the right programmes or saying the right things. It was a Government, when I was a teenager, that not only tolerated discrimination, but actively devised novel and innovative ways to make the lives of gay people less tolerable. So, today, I want to thank all those people who fought for the rights that we enjoy today and who have led by example. Many of them we remembered today in the Senedd.

I am proud to be the Assembly Member for Onllwyn, which is where the film ‘Pride’ was based. We heard today about Dai Donovan, who worked with the Neath, Dulais and Swansea Valleys Miners Support Group to bring the LGSM—Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners—to the Dulais valley. I want to acknowledge, as Vikki did, the work of the NUM in putting LGBT equality on the public agenda in the 1980s. I want to acknowledge the work of the 1997 Labour Government, supported by other progressive parties, which swept away a raft of discrimination laws and brought in many of our equal rights. In the course of doing so, they created the political climate for many Conservatives to express their support for LGBT rights as well.

But, a country without discrimination in its laws is not the end point of a civilised society. It is the starting point. We have a lot left to do in terms of changing attitudes. Today, I feel that we have a long way to go, for example, in our attitudes towards the trans community. We are a long way from fair and healthy attitudes there. I want to acknowledge the work of the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport, who has been mentioned already today, for the work going on to move forward the health agenda for trans people, and the agreement between the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru was the basis for that.

There are people today watching this debate who are still waiting for equality—in practice, if not in law. They will be waiting and watching for encouragement, and for political commitment. Our job, as the courageous politician instructed us, is to give them hope.