“We want Wales to be a nation where everyone feels free, supported, and safe to live their lives as they would choose to do so”
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY INKDROP
Trans In The City, the world’s largest organisation for trans and non-binary people in business, presented the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, with the prestigious CEO’s award for the government’s work delivering Wales’ LGBTQ+ Action Plan at their annual gala evening.
The LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales was published earlier this year and aimed to help improve the lives of the LGBTQIA community. The Action Plan detailed several policy-specific actions relating to human rights, education, improving safety, housing, health and social care, sport, culture, and promoting community cohesion.
Bobbi Pickard, CEO of Trans In The City, said: “The CEO’s award is our flagship award. All our awards go to the most deserving, usually unsung people within our community, whether they’re trans, non-binary or allies. But the CEO’s award is the pinnacle, highlighting people who have gone above and beyond for the community.”
“Mark Drakeford, the Welsh Government, and everyone else involved with the LGBTQ+ Action Plan has delivered a phenomenal amount of work over the last few years to push the plan through and make Wales one of the most trans-inclusive places in Europe to live and work. Their defence of the trans and non-binary community and the active allyship they’ve shown through this plan, and at other times, has been exemplary, and they are so deserving of the CEO’s award.”
The Welsh government has already begun to implement a number of the changes they detailed in the LGBTQ+ Action Plan. They have set up a Working Group On Banning Conversion Practices to help ban conversion “therapy” practices in Wales. As well as this, they have implemented LGBTQIA-inclusive materials into the national curriculum.
On the award win, Mark Drakeford said: “On behalf of the Welsh Government, I am delighted to receive this award, an award that recognizes the ambition of our LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales, and the work of Welsh ministers, community groups and officials across the Welsh Government.”
“We want Wales to be a nation where everyone feels free, supported, and safe to live their lives as they would choose to do so.”
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