Nigel Evans, MP for the Ribble Valley, has spoken in the House of Commons to raise awareness for issues faced by the LGBT community. Mr Evans paid tribute to the fact that the British Parliament has more openly gay members than anywhere else in the world.
Speaking in the Chamber, Nigel said:
“Can I pay tribute to you Mr Speaker (John Bercow MP) for the support that you have given to the LGBT Community ever since you’ve occupied that chair and prior to that.
“It’s absolutely right that this issue should be raised in this Parliament, as it has been determined that we have more openly gay members of parliament in this Parliament than anywhere else in the world.
“When I was asked in 2010 why I came out it was, partly, to send a signal to other people who were troubled about their own sexuality, to give them hope and confidence. If people like us can be open about our own gayness then hopefully they too would be able to take some form of moral support; that it may help them to do likewise.
“We have made fundamental changes around the rest of the world when we have looked at issues such as Climate Change. We have made massive advances when we have brought countries together on that particular issue. Can we not do the same on LGBT issues? So that we can have LGBT change throughout the world.
“Can I ask the Minister, one area that might be worth a lot of attention is the Commonwealth – where some of those countries which are part of our family of nations have slid back as far as LGBT rights are concerned. Can he give some concentration on that? And show that the British Government is going to lead the way on LGBT change throughout the world.”