Helen Pitt

And they're trans, right?

Coming up, Kezia on the risk that gay rights go backwards in Britain and beyond.

And let's turn our attention to other issues.

You've already touched on this at the start, you know, how personally you're feeling unsafe, which makes me really sad to hear that, actually.

But what do you think are the most important issues facing LGBTQ people in the UK right now in 2026?

And you've kind of hinted at it, but I wonder how you view the political and sort of cultural climate right now.

And we're talking ahead of the Scottish elections, the local elections, the Welsh elections, where reform are expected to do very well.

And

They have campaigned very hard and what they see is like the nonsense of gender ideology.

And, you know, Farage slightly flip-flops on this, but he's made it quite clear that he thinks that heterosexual families are the best, that a deal family would have a mum, a dad and kids.

Do you think that reform pose a threat to LGBT people?

And I mean, I guess the fact that the reforms leader in Scotland is being held to account for his homophobic behavior.

remarks homophobic jokes you know suggest that there is an acknowledgement that that's not acceptable anymore but i wonder if you are noticing a sort of shift in the discourse i have a 17 nearly 17 year old stepdaughter and i was asking her about this and the sort of return of gay as a slur kind of playground slur also you know the sort of toxic masculinity influencers are very homophobic in their tone and do you think that we're going backwards

on homophobia?

And as we've already mentioned, Stonewall was instrumental in pushing for equal marriage.

The way things are going in the rise of populism, could you see a time in the not too distant future where that might be reversed?

That was Kezia Dugdale.

She takes up her role as Stonewall's chair in six months.

My thanks to her and also to Libby Brooks, who is also off to pastures new after a sterling stint as Scotland correspondent.

She will be the new lead writer of first edition our morning newsletter, which you should all subscribe to if you don't already.