Stonewall Cymru

Stonewall was founded in 1989 to campaign against Section 28 of the Local Government Act, a piece of legislation which banned the ‘promotion of homosexuality’ by schools and councils. We have been part of every major fight for LGBTQ+ rights since 1989 and are proud of the legal rights we have helped win.

In every community in the UK, and around the world, LGBTQ+ people are still being abused, thrown out of their homes, and bullied in schools and workplaces. The institutions that should protect us – our governments, communities, faith institutions and families – too often stand silent, or actively harm us. And for some LGBTQ+ people, these harms are particularly acute. From racism to ableism, misogyny to classism, LGBTQ+ people of colour, LBTQ+ women, LGBTQ+ people who are disabled, those of us living in poverty, who are of faith, and many more of us, are held back and pushed aside as we make our way through life. Stonewall will continue to stand with, and fight for, the freedom, equity and potential of all LGBTQ+ people. Until the world we imagine is the world we live in.

Stonewall Cymru’s mission is to achieve legal equality and social justice for LGBTQ+ people in Wales. Our mission is to help shape a Wales where people are free to be themselves, organisations help drive change, public attitudes improve, prejudice is challenged, and laws protect LGBTQ+ people. We facilitate sustainable improvement through role models, allies, business and community partners.We drive improvements in service delivery through providers across Wales. We work with legislators and policy leads to shape Wales’s framework of LGBTQ+ rights.

In recent years we have made significant progress, with Welsh Government embedding LGBTQ+ inclusive education, establishing a gender identity service in Wales and making us the first nation in the UK to offer the anti-HIV drug PReP free on the NHS. However, many LGBTQ+ people living in Wales continue to face significant barriers to participating fully and equally in Welsh society. In a survey Stonewall Cymru conducted in the summer of 2020 we found that:

• 78% of LGBTQ+ people in Wales have avoided being open about their sexual orientation or gender identity for fear of a negative reaction from others.
• 46% of LGBTQ+ people in Wales have experienced verbal harassment in the last year.

We are committed to working towards a world in which LGBTQ+ comm unities have freedom and equity. We believe that LGBTQ+ people, across the world and across every stage of our lives, have limitless potential.