Sandwiches and Platitudes

On Saturday the 19th of July 2025, the LGBT+ Labour AGM was meant to take place, but instead, we got a ‘brunch’. No agenda. No minutes. No votes. No answers. Just coffee, breakfast sandwiches, and the kind of overly rehearsed small talk you deploy when you don’t want to talk about the real issues. I went in with an open mind. I hoped - maybe naively - that it would be a space to ask questions, to feel heard, and to start repairing what’s been broken. What we got instead was a performance. A hallowed-out shell of a democratic organisation, trying desperately to act like everything’s fine.

But everything is not fine.

There’s a lot I could say about the event itself. But I want to start with something that should never have been a question: accessibility. The venue - The Water Rats in King’s Cross - clearly states on its website that toilets are “in the basement” and “not accessible” due to the age of the building. This isn’t a criticism of the venue - it’s a reality for many older spaces. But it is a criticism of LGBT+ Labour. For an event supposedly designed to welcome members, accessibility should be a given.

Our group arrived just after the scheduled start time of 11am. Only one member of the committee was present - the Secretary. Nia Griffith MP, the guest speaker, arrived around 11:30am. Other members of the committee trickled in closer to noon, around an hour late.

Nia gave a short speech and mentioned the long-delayed ban on conversion therapy - something that was promised in the Labour manifesto, and again in the King’s Speech just over a year ago. I interrupted to ask: When? Her answer felt vague, evasive, and ultimately meaningless. Essentially, it’s coming, but we don’t know when. There was some suggestion that the House of Lords is deliberately delaying the government’s legislative agenda, particularly around the Employment Rights Bill.

Angela Eagle was also present, and during my intervention, she suggested that there are pro-trans members of the government - and I agree with her. But as I told her, it doesn’t feel like we have allies. And that feeling matters. As a friend pointed out to me later, there’s a difference between being “pro-trans” and being an ally. Allies show up, speak up, and fight. Nobody in this government has earned that title.

There’s still a lot I’m reflecting on, and I don’t have all the words yet. But I do know this for certain: LGBT+ Labour is not working. It is failing the people it claims to represent. A banner on stage read: “CAMPAIGNING FOR EQUALITY SINCE 1975”, but that just isn’t true anymore. It’s not campaigning for equality. It’s not holding politicians to account. It’s not amplifying the voices of queer people who need solidarity. It’s a brand. And brands don’t build movements. They protect themselves.

That’s why I founded Pride in Labour in July 2024 - because people like me were done waiting for someone else to advocate for us. Done waiting for silence to turn into action. Done being told to be patient while our lives are debated, deprioritised, or dismissed entirely.

We should not have to fight to be heard in our own spaces. But if we do have to fight, then let it be a fight worth having.

I want to end this by saying that as a cisgender gay man, I know the struggles facing the trans community right now are not isolated. They’re a sign of what happens when we allow prejudice to fester. The hostility towards trans people is transferrable. It’s a test run. And it’s part of a much wider programme of discrimination that threatens all LGBTQ+ people.

As a gay man, I have my own fears - about rising hate crimes, about the slow erosion of our rights, about the quiet, creeping normalisation of bigotry. I worry about what happens when we stay quiet, when we settle for less, when we tell ourselves “at least it’s not me” - until it is.

So no - I won’t accept brunch instead of democracy. I won’t trade justice for access. I won’t stay quiet just because it’s more convenient. We deserve better. And I intend to keep fighting for it.