As part of the Cardiff Pride: More Than A Month campaign, we attended Pride Cymru in Cardiff and spoke to young people about all things LGBTQ+ related. This blog shares their answers to the question ‘what changes need to be made in the UK to help LGBTQ+ people?’.
LGBTQ+ rights
Echo, 20 – Non-binary rights need to be enshrined in law because they’re currently not. It is still totally legal to discriminate based on being non-binary. Also, conversion therapy needs to be banned for trans people.
Molly, 22 – I just think that there still needs to be a level of acceptance across the board that just isn’t there. I think that gender expression is something that’s being particularly still oppressed in the country at the moment in terms of changing legal documents and stuff to suit who you are inside.
Matthew, 23 – I feel that trans people have a lot of like rights to get. It’s not their fault. They don’t need to do the hard work, to be clear, but I do think that trans rights should take the spotlight for a minute.
LGBTQ+ healthcare
Chloe, 21 – Definitely. I think that as much as now same-sex marriage is allowed, I still think that there should be more. There’s definitely more to do. There’s more advocating to do, more campaigning to do, more things to fight for. Particularly medically, I think that there’s a massive space in the medical profession for improvements and to be more inclusive definitely.
Molly, 22 – If you’d asked me a couple of weeks ago I’d have said fertility rights but obviously recently that’s changed quite a lot.
Echo, 20 – Getting gender-affirming surgery and hormones need to be way easier. There needs to be more funding in the NHS in general because that will help that in particular.
LGBTQ+ education
Avery, 19 – I think it’s just really a critical thing to learn about [LGBTQ+ sex ed] because we’re going into a more sex-positive world. I think we need to be taught and embrace more about the fact that sex is a thing that people are going to do and want to do. And learning about how to do it safely is a key thing that just needs to happen.
Mal, 18 – People just need to be educated really like especially the older generation, some of them are so far back in time it’s crazy. It’s like they’ve got a time machine. I think educating ignorant people will help a lot, especially the younger youths who have grown up with those ignorant parents and now are the new ‘I hate you – you’re gay’.
Nova, 19 – First off, a lot more acceptance for trans people. Things have come a long way and I appreciate that but there are just so many small things. Say for the older generations, I appreciate that yes, they may not understand at first, but some of them just haven’t even been exposed to it. They haven’t had it properly explained like ‘yes this is them being themselves, just let them be trans’. It’s nothing wrong. It’s just simple.
Tackling hate crime and improving safety
Matthew, 23 – And I also notice statistically as a researcher that hate crimes are ticking back up again and I’m not a fan of that.
Molly, 22 – Finding a way to make it so that we don’t just feel safe at Pride, we feel safe everywhere.
Jess, 18 – Probably like, the council could get involved more with like trans people and safety. Maybe just like safety precautions and stuff like that, that’s what I would say.
Related Information
Want more from the Cardiff Pride: More Than A Month campaign? Visit the campaign introduction.
Check out TheSprout’s LGBTQ+ information page where you can find loads of useful info on local and national LGBTQ+ support services.
If you’re sharing our posts from the Cardiff Pride: More Than A Month campaign on social media, remember to use the #MoreThanAMonth hashtag and tag us.
