 I call on Annie Wells to open the debate. Ms Wells, seven minutes please. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and to all of the members speaking today. I am extremely grateful to have secured a debate to raise awareness of LGBT History Month Scotland 2017, an event that I take part in every year, and one with an extremely important message. As many are aware, the month-long event is co-ordinated nationally by LGBT Youth Scotland, who have kindly come along here today, along with representatives from the equality network, Stonewall Scotland, and LGBT health and wellbeing. Not only is this event an opportunity to celebrate the contribution that LGBTI people make to local communities and cultures across Scotland, as well as the tireless work of campaigners, it is also an opportunity to reflect upon the progress that is still to be made. Legislation has no doubt provided a more positive picture for LGBTI people in Scotland. It is three years since same-sex marriage was legalised here, eight since same-sex couples have been able to adopt, and 13 since the Gender Recognition Act allowed trans people over the age of 18 to have their gender legally recognised. In last year, figures from the Scottish social attitudes survey showed that social attitudes were indeed changing, with those who viewed same-sex marriage in a negative dropping to under 20 per cent. In the political world, Scotland is now the only country in the world where the majority of its leaders identify as LGBT, and in both the House of Commons and the UK Cabinet we see more diversity and sexual orientation than ever before. This is, of course, a time to celebrate all that. Those markers highlight just how tolerant Scotland has become and something that I am immensely proud of. However, although progress is clearly being made, much of which I alone have benefited from, we should not be complacent when it comes to eradicating all the prejudices that still exist. We should always seek to further improve the life experiences of LGBTI people. When it comes to young people in particular, I feel especially passionate about removing any barriers in the way of any young people coming to understand their sexual orientation or gender identity. As a equality spokesperson for my party and a member of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee, I have spoken a lot on those issues, but I have never quite spoken in detail about my own journey to understanding and accepting myself as an openly gay woman. Not having the environment or support that I needed at the time, much of my younger years were spent in a fairly dark and confusing place. I came out at the age of 13 at an old girl's Catholic school, only to be told by those around me that it was just a phase and that one they could help me get through. With no support or guidance, that confusion led to even more confusion, whilst telling those around me that I now liked boys and that everything was okay, inside I did not really know what I wanted or who I was. Because I was not able to express my feelings for girls, something that I linked to my uncle's own transition from male to female, I assumed that I must want to change gender too. I got to 16 at a left school because it was merging with an old boys' school and I did not think that I could handle it. Then four years later, I married the father of my son and later followed some of the darkest years of my life and not wishing to lie to myself or my family and yet not wanting to hurt them either. Eventually things got so bad that I sought help. As well as seeking support from mental health services, I attended counselling through my work to try and come to terms with my sexuality and to work out what I wanted and how I wanted my life to be. I finally came out for the second time in 1997 at the age of 25. After an intensely difficult period of internal family tension, I finally began to lead the life that I believed I should be leading. If the right education and support had been in place to help me through that, I think sometimes of how that could have improved my situation and given me the confidence to have listened to what I truly wanted. Mental health is so intertwined with that. In a survey of young people across Scotland, nearly 70 per cent said that they had experienced bullying based on their sexual orientation at school. Of that percentage, over 40 per cent of those who experienced homophobic or biphobic bullying and nearly 70 per cent of those who experienced transphobic bullying considered themselves to have a mental health problem. That is why I have been so supportive of the TIE campaign, which seeks to introduce LGBTI in close of education as part of the school curriculum. I am pleased to see that that proposal is currently under review by the Equalities and Human Rights Committee, and that the Education Committee will also be hearing from TIE this week. To ensure that those who understand their sexual orientation or gender identity do not carry confusion into their adult lives, I sincerely hope that the Scottish Government will ensure that those proposals are progressed. When it comes to legislation, I am also pleased to see that the gender recognition bill is due to come to Parliament again this year, and I welcome any review on the lowering of the age and provisions to recognise non-binary people's identities. To finish today, I would like to highlight again the positive work of LGBTI groups across Scotland and to again note my thanks to those who campaign so hard on those issues. This Sunday, I shall be doing my own small bit by trying to run in the rainbow really with Glasgow front runners, and this Friday—I think that it is three kilometres, but I might do a couple hundred metres—I shall be showing my support for Purple Friday, an initiative that celebrates equality and the recognition of personal LGBTI purple heroes, which for me happens to be none other than the tennis player, Martina Navratilova, along with Ruth Davidson of course. Scotland, along with the rest of the UK, is doing well when it comes to promoting and improving the lives of LGBTI people, but we can always do better. I am conscious that people are still slipping through the net and understanding who they truly are and celebrating the fact that they have as many positive attributes to contribute to society as an ex-person. Along with the celebration that comes alongside the great initiative's LGBT history month, let's also reflect on what still needs to be done. Thank you very much. We now move to the open debate. I ask members who wish to speak in this debate to press the request-to-speak buttons now and I'll try to allow speeches up to five minutes. I call first of all Rona Mackay to be followed by Jamie Greene. Firstly, I thank Annie Wells for bringing this member to the debate forward and for her very moving opening speech. It is important that we discuss all aspects of LGBTI equality and history months to highlight the success of the movement, but crucially to focus on what still needs to be done. Scotland has been a world leader in promoting equality and bringing progressive legislation for a more inclusive and fair society. In 2005, discrimination-based and sexual orientation and gender was banned. In 2009, equal rights were given to same-sex couples applying for adoption. More recently, Scotland has been regarded as the best country in Europe for LGBTI equality. That is an incredible success and we should be proud of that progress. The Scottish Government's current review on hate crime legislation is welcome and our policies have improved the lives of LGBTI people in Scotland from that scene elsewhere in the UK, exemplified by Scotland meeting 92 per cent of the rainbow index's criteria, compared with 86 per cent for the UK as a whole. However, the experience of too many LGBTI young people do not reflect that, as Annie Wells has said. Our schools are still a focal point of discrimination and bullying, and that must not be allowed to continue. Research by the TIE campaign, Time for Inclusive Education, found that 90 per cent of LGBTI people experienced homophobia, biphobia or transphobia at school. Members of the TIE campaign have bravely shared their stories of this cruel and consistent bullying and of a school system that has rejected their identity and ignored their daily abuse. Many LGBTI children throughout Scotland are terrified of going to school, and children are harming themselves as a direct result of the abuse that they are receiving there. Stonewall Scotland's research has found that one in four of LGBTI children bullied in schools have attempted suicide. That cannot be allowed to continue. We need to not only recognise their stories but act upon them to bring more inclusivity and education to discourage the ignorance and bigoted views that are at the heart of the discrimination. It is the least that we can do. We must get it right for every child. Research done by Stonewall Scotland shows that 44 per cent of secondary schools staff in Scotland say that they either are not allowed to or are not sure that they are allowed to teach about LGBTI issues in their schools, and only 16 per cent of teachers have received any specific training on how to tackle homophobic bullying. Presiding Officer, that simply is not good enough. We must tackle this horrific inequality at the earliest possible age with sensitive education, because LGBTI bullying does not just happen in school but, sadly, that is where it starts. At a time when children should be building and developing their confidence and skills for the future, many are being broken down, losing their confidence and their sense of worth. We all have a collective responsibility to ensure that that stops happening to children, and it must stop now. This is 2017, and there is no place for discrimination or abuse of this nature. Thank you. TV evangelist Pat Robertson once described Scotland as, I quote, a dark land overrun by homosexuals. It is true that the weather can be quite gloomy on occasion, but as the skies opened up at this year's Glasgow and Edinburgh Pride events, a cornucopia of colour marched its way through our city's streets, and I was proud to march with them. My own personal journey from growing up in Greenock, where being gay was a very dangerous label to be given, to being here as an MSP and setting up and co-convinning this Parliament's first cross-party group on LGBTI rights and issues has been a very long one. When I was at school, being gay was, and sadly still is, an insult, that somehow something gay is stupid or pathetic. It's almost 23 years to the day since Sir Nicholas Fairburn stood in the House of Commons in a debate and said, why should there be an age of consent for an act of perversion at all? How far the Conservatives have come? How far politics has come? LGBT History Month is very personal to me. It brings back many memories. I remember calling the LGBT Switchboard in London as a teen and then panicking for weeks as I waited for the phone bill to arrive. I remember the support that I received from volunteers at the GGLC in Dixon Street in Glasgow, who ran the city's first gay and lesbian youth groups. As a then 17-year-old, it would have been a crime for me to have a boyfriend. And on that, your honour, I plead guilty. I remember my first warm summer's evening in Soho in 1999. I nervously went into a bar and ordered a pint and there were balloons everywhere. What are we celebrating? I asked the barman. Today is our reopening, he said. It was the Admiral Duncan and just nine weeks earlier, our nail bomb had exploded, killing three people and injuring 70. It is sad that so many lives have been lost over the years in homophobic attacks. So behind the colour and pride of LGBT History Month are serious messages, political ones. And whilst we might have marriage equality in Scotland, our friends just a few miles across the sea and Northern Ireland still do not have that equality. It is a sad reflection of the prejudice that still exists in this country. As it is in Australia, a country I once called home. I'm starting off so that it's time for politicians to give LGBT people the right to marry the person they love, no us, no buts. I've had the great privilege of meeting many people who are part of the fabric of LGBT history, like Lord Montague of Bully, who's arrest for being gay paved the way to the Wilfenden report in the 50s, or Peter Tachel, who probably disagrees with me politically on everything but who I respect for his tireless campaigning, or Friends of Mine, Ed Hall and Simon Ingram, who successfully fought to repeal the ban on gays in the military. We have come far, but we can go further. We are failing the children of tomorrow if we do not today create a country or indeed a world which is inclusive and accepting. And as we sit here and take pride in our shelled LGBT history, young teens in Scotland are still committing suicide because of bullying. A teenage boy was thrown from the roof of a building in Syria just a few weeks ago, accused of being gay. His only crime was being raped by an ISIS soldier, or as gay, lesbian and trans activists are beaten and silenced in Russia, or even just yesterday Tanzania threatened to publish a list of known gay men. 79 countries worldwide still have anti-gay legislation, and 39 of them are commonwealth countries. I want to look back at my time here in this Parliament and know that I did the right thing for a community that has done so much for me. So let us celebrate LGBT history month, but let us do so in the knowledge that so many others cannot. Presiding Officer, can I begin by thanking Annie Wells for ensuring that this Parliament participates in lesbian and gay bisexual transgender history month? I also commend her on her personal courage for the way that she spoke this evening. It is important to note how far we still have to travel to ensure full and equal rights in law, equality of application of the law in everyday life, tackling attitudes to LGBTI people, protecting them from homophobia, bullying or whatever it may occur. It is our duty to change minds in all cultures, across all ages and all religions, changing minds wherever we have influence. However, we have come a long way. I wanted to talk this evening about the international perspective on lesbian gay rights, but I always thought that it cheered me up quite a lot to have anyone seen the picture of the Canadian Prime Minister who marched on the first gay pride march ever alongside a Syrian refugee. You should have a look at that picture, because he is waving the rainbow flags. It certainly shows that we have come a long way. However, since it is history month, my point of reference in history for this debate is looking back to November 2000, which is not really that long ago, if you think about it, where the age of sexual consent was equalised at 16, after many attempts to equalise and remove that discrimination against lesbian women and gay men. It is worth noting that it was previously aged 18 for men, but for women there was no acknowledgement at all of lesbian sex, and therefore there was not even an age of statutory consent for women. It was only in 2000 and notably MPs like Edwina Currie, Tony Blair and some other interesting names, many MPs who stuck their neck out at that time to force a change in the law. However, I want to have a look at the international scene, because that is where it is a little bit depressing to some extent. A total of 73 countries have criminal laws against sexual activity by lesbian and gay transsexual and intersex association people. The Russian president famously said at the Winter Olympics in 2014 that Russia were not forbidding anything for LGBT people, but shockingly it completely distorted and conflated LGBT rights and lifestyles with pedophilia. It is nothing short of disgraceful that a country such as Russia has done this, and we have to continue to show our visible opposition to that kind of attitude. A Moscow court banned gay pride for 100 years, despite the fact that the European Court of Human Rights said that it was illegal. In Egypt, in 2014, a gay wedding on the Nile resulted in a three-year jail sentence for those men, but there are many countries across the Arab world where the same would happen. A school in Saudi Arabia was even fined for having the emblem as they saw it of the homosexual rainbow colours on its roof and one of its administrators were jailed. There are 40 countries that have a gay panic clause, and I had not heard of this before I researched for this debate, allowing a defence for committing crimes such as assault or murder provoked because the victim is gay, lesbian or bisexual. New research, published by the International Lesbian and Gay Bisexual and Trans Intersex Association only last week, entered the experiences of women who were persecuted for their sexuality choices, found that women were forced into corrective rape and forced marriages on the basis that they might be cured. In Africa, there are at least four countries where it attracts the death penalty, Mauritania, Sudan, Northern Nigeria, Southern Somalia. We think that there are at least 10 countries that attract the death penalty across the world. However, just to be hopeful, it is worth noting that there are many African nations where it is not illegal. Algeria, Chad, Central African Republic, the Congo, Rwanda, Mali, LGBT rights are lawful. I do not know what the state of the rights are, but I think that it is important to note that. In India, interestingly, on the green benches of the lower houses in India's Parliament, which were almost empty in the afternoon of the 18th of December last year when two members of that Parliament tried to bring forward a bill to decriminalise gay sex. As they were geared across the floor by other MPs, sadly the bill fell by 24 votes to 71 votes. For me, at least there is a sign that Indian politicians, some of them at least, are still fighting for what is right, and some of them, I believe, is what will happen. As I said at the beginning of my contribution, it is not that long ago that Britain would have hung its head in shame at the treatment of lesbian and gay and bisexual people. I am sure that there will be more debates in this place in the years to come, and we can make a difference to the lives of lesbian and gay transgediter, bisexual and intersex people. At long last, I signed the TIE pledge after a very helpful email explaining what it was about, and I am proud to have done so. I would like to thank Annie Wells for bringing this debate to the chamber, and I am grateful for her chance to take part in it. In previous LGBT history month debates, I have been prompted very often to recall one of the last things that I did in my previous job for a gay men's project and HIV agency in Glasgow. One of the last pieces of work that I undertook was to create a book of training exercises for mainstream youth workers who wanted to address their own understanding and their own level of confidence in dealing with LGBT issues. One of the exercises was a timeline. You pick a card from a pile and you are given an event or an incident or a quotation and you are asked to put it on the timeline. The earliest example was a cave painting from 8,000 BC of a same-sex couple in Joyful Embrace. The most recent up-to-date example in this book of examples was from the very year that we were doing this around 2000 when the German Government formally issued an apology and pardon to those people who had been persecuted under the Reich because of their sexuality. In between those two examples, a plethora of moments in history that have often been forgotten and are certainly not taught as part of our understanding of mainstream history. History is about more than just a series of snapshots, a series of unrelated incidents or events. There is a sweep to it and it can move in more than one direction. Somebody, I think that it might have been Jamie Greene, mentioned Russia, for example. Russia saw decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993, about 10 years later an equal age of consent and the beginnings of a civil society movement growing around it. Very soon after that, a backlash deliberately cultivated homophobia, transphobia and bigotry to serve the interests of the Government in power and we see that continuing since that time getting worse and worse all the time. Around that time we were seeing some of the same things happening in this country. My own coming out story began just after section 28 had been introduced by the Thatcher Government and when repeal seemed like a long way away. There were marches, there were demos to complain, to object, to expose the very deliberate way in which the Tory Government was cultivating and whipping up homophobia as well as prejudice and fears around HIV by the use of section 28 as a weapon of fear. It took another decade after that for me to see the Scottish Parliament. The new Scottish Parliament took action to repeal section 28. It was not only the Tories who voted against repeal of section 28, although it has to be said that very many of the comments made at that time would not have been so far away from Nicky Fairbairn a wee bit before then. It is not just by our best actions that we should be judged. Any more than that timeline exercise would have been complete just by pulling another card from the pile and seeing what happened next. How we are judged as people or as political parties or indeed as a Parliament, as a society is not just by our best actions but also by our worst. How will history judge this generation of politicians? Will it be only by what we say the members who would choose to come along to a debate on LGBT history month? Or will it be by what the Murdo Fraser and the John Masons say? Will we look at how the UK Government has taken action on equal manage, for example, and judge the actions of Theresa May for doing that? Or will it look at all of her career and her repeated votes against an equal age of consent? Her vote in favour of section 28 and against its repeal, her vote against same-sex adoption. The fact that she has changed position now is only one aspect of that history. If we want to respond to and respect all of our history, we need to understand all of it. When this generation's history is understood and judged, maybe it will include glowing references to Ruth Davidson's speech in the equal manage debate. It should. It was a good speech, but it should then make note of the fact that half of her own parliamentary group pressed their buttons against her right to be treated as legally equal as a citizen in this country. We should be judged also not only by what we do in this place but by what all of our political parties do as we select candidates who may be beginning their political careers at local government level in the next few months. Will they be the kind of people who follow in the footsteps of Nicky Fairbairn or in the footsteps of Ruth Davidson? Will we all commit as parties not to select anyone who will not implement the goals of the TIE campaign and genuinely commit to inclusive education because it is those local council candidates who will have the power to make it happen or to block it? We all need to take responsibility for the decisions that we make in that regard. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and I thank Annie Wells for bringing this very timely debate to the chamber today. It feels as if, although we are remembering the history of this movement, that this place could be starting to make some of that history too going forward. I want to talk about that history. I want to talk about people like Marsher P. Johnson, Harvey Milk, Larry Cramer, Peter Staley, Freddie Mercury, Martina Navratilova, K. D. Lang, Alan Turing and, of course, my favourite quotist, if that is a word, Oscar Wilde. I also want to talk about some of our future, the Jordan Dailies and the Liam Stevensons of this world, our past, our present and our future. Learning our history means that we can learn lessons from that past to implement in this present to change that future. As a cliche goes, it is good to talk. If we communicate with one another in a compassionate caring and non-judgmental way, we build our understanding of one another and of the big global issues that involve all of us. Talking is not enough, though. Sitting in this chamber listening to speeches, wonderful as they are, is not enough. It is action that matters. However, if it is itself, it is that action that can achieve what we need to do. Once there is that action or even a series of actions that come out of those debates and all the talking that they will do, those actions become deliverable. Ask many of the young people who have discovered that they are gay. I know many of them, feeling lost, alone, miserable, isolated. They do not feel that anyone is going to understand their predicament and they may or may not have empathetic and understanding parents or family members, but most will endure various kinds of bullying, abuse and other attacks. We have heard very eloquently of those in the speeches today. That is why movements like TAI, like Stonewall and like LGBT Youth Scotland's development is very important indeed. It brings us the reality. That is somewhere where the LGBT young people go when they need a safe environment, and that is something that buildings can offer, but organisations and people can do. Let me give you a few snatches of the present, the comments of the young people that I know. Some of the work that LGBT Youth Scotland has done and I can thank them greatly for giving me some of those case studies. I always find testimony as the best teacher when it comes to learning how things affect people. We have Aaron. Aaron told us that he approached LGBT Youth Scotland because he was struggling with who he was. There was no support or safe place to explore, and I felt lost and, like I did not belong, finding LGBT Youth Scotland online, attending a group, gave me someone to talk to and somewhere to be. Aaron also explains that he was offered one-to-one sessions, education on LGBT matters, which were very helpful in becoming comfortable with myself. Why should Aaron have to become comfortable with himself? We have created an environment that is uncomfortable for him, and we need to change that. Then we have Ben, who says that LGBT Youth allowed him to meet other young people just like him. He felt alone. As Annie Wells had eloquently said earlier, that is how she felt. He felt alone. That was three years after he came out, and he was able to meet some other young people, other trans people that he did not realise that there was a community there. There were people who he belonged to. LGBT Youth Scotland helped him to do that, to broaden his horizons, to make new connections, and to make friendships with people who were going through similar things. Meghan Storrie is just another point of what being in the LGBT group can mean when you are at school. She says that, when I was 13, I walked into a group of people hurling, abusing me in the corridor at school. I was sitting trying to get on with my work when a fifth year called Chris came over and offered him help. She took that help. He pointed it in the right direction, and it is why the work that the committee of this Parliament, the Equality and Human Rights Committee is doing right now on school building, is so vital. If Chris had not put his hand out and pointed that young woman in that right direction, where would she be now? He was just one person. We have to ensure that the whole school is an environment that points that young woman in the right direction. That is just very simple tactics that we can use to do that. It is very simple indeed. If we look at the past, as we have with some of the people that we have spoken about, if we look at the present, when we have heard from some of the young people today and what they are doing, and we look at what LGBT Youth Scotland, Stonewall and the TIE campaign in particular, Jordan and Liam and the work that they are doing, we can change that future and change it for the better. I congratulate my colleague Annie Wells on securing that important debate and on her very courageous and personal speech. LGBT History Month provides us all with an annual opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the progress that we have made in advancing LGBTI equality. It is now three years since same-sex marriage was legalised in Scotland and eight since same-sex couples have been able to adopt. These are just some of the many equality-enhancing achievements of Scotland, which signs as an example for others to follow across the world. Sadly, there are still too many places in the world where LGBTI rights have not progressed beyond the medieval era and disturbingly, where LGBTI rights are regressing rather than progressing, and Pauline McNeill in her own contribution highlighted a number of those. It is our duty to shine a light on these dark corners of the world. LGBT History Month allows us to reflect not only on the achievements of the present but also on the immense challenges of the past. It is time for learning, discussion and debate. I am delighted to see so many groups and individuals getting involved in cultural and celebratory events across Scotland. In Aberdeen, for example, four pillars have organised a fantastic LGBT history exhibition on display until 24 February at Aberdeen Arts Centre. That has been made possible by funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and will be highlighting the impact of four pioneering LGBT individuals in the areas of mental, emotional, physical and sexual health. Although we should recognise and celebrate the progress that we have made as a society, the fight for LGBTI equality permits no room for complacency. Despite enhanced legal protection, reports show that the lives of LGBTI people can still be far from equal. We must not allow the equality-enhancing efforts of the many to be eroded by the prejudice and the hatred of the few. Instead, we must proactively and expediently stamp out discrimination wherever it rears its ugly head. It is still a black mark on our society that one in six LGBTI people in Scotland have been the victim of a hate crime in the past three years. Yet so many of those vicious crimes go unreported due to a lack of confidence in and fear of further prejudice from the police or the system. Prejudice is an epidemic that remains entrenched in society. Although I support the Scottish Government's commitment to review and strengthen existing hate crime legislation, I firmly believe that more must be done to eradicate prejudice at an early age and our schools being the natural place to do so. However, it is deeply concerning for me that 52 per cent of LGBTI young people in Scotland never hear LGBTI issues mentioned in the classroom. According to research commissioned by Stonewall Scotland, 75 per cent of primary school teachers say that they are not allowed to or are not sure that they are allowed to teach about LGBTI issues in the classroom. What is more, is Beggar's belief that a staggering 84 per cent of teachers have received no specific training on how to tackle homophobic bullying. That is why I am proud to have signed the TIE campaigns pledge and I would encourage all MSPs in this place to add their support to it too. It is evident from those alarming statistics that we cannot merely use LGBTI history month as an opportunity to pat ourselves on the back. We need visible and effective leadership to promote equality, preclude prejudice in the classroom. LGBTI inclusion in the curriculum can no longer be regarded as merely best practice but rather as an essential component of preparing young people for life in a modern and inclusive Scotland. Presiding Officer, I thank Annie Wells for bringing this debate to a chamber today to raise awareness of LGBTI history month in Scotland. I would also like to thank LGBTI Youth Scotland for coordinating this incredible nationwide event. Throughout history, minorities have to fight for their rights. Only 88 years ago, women were given the right to vote. Only 50 years ago was the first legislation passed to address racial discrimination. Only 12 years ago were transgender people able to change their legal gender. What is suffragists, abolitionists and the LBGT movement all having come in is that they have struggled to obtain the same rights as those of us who are members of the majority. It was us who enjoyed basic human rights automatically because of our gender, sexual orientation or race. Basic rights are the right to choose who we want to marry, right to legally change our gender, right to adopt a child, right to join the military, right to serve openly in politics, right to employment and equality and opportunity and most importantly the right to love whoever we want to love, right to look however we want to look and the right to be whoever we want to be. That is why we celebrate LGBTI history month. This month we recognise those who have not had it easy. We recognise those whose rights have been taken away from them by their own Government simply because they identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. We recognise those who feel as if they were born in the wrong body. We recognise those who have been exposed to violence and trauma because who they are, we are not only recognised in our own LGBTI community but we also recognise those in other countries and societies that still to this day live under a law in which being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender is punishable by death and most importantly we recognise that every individual can and should reach their full potential and leading a fulfilling life regardless of gender or sexual preference. As a country we have made immense progress, at a nationwide level the UK holds the world record for having the most LGBT members in Parliament and I am proud to say that Scotland was recognised as the best country in Europe for LGBT legal equality. Scotland now meets 92 per cent of the criteria compared to 86 per cent of the UK as a whole. I truly believe that this is a route of government wellness to communicate properly with the LGBTI community. In my own constituency the flavours of five LGBTI youth group is open to young, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people and their friends and supporters. It is just five of our advice and support services to point LGBT youth in the right direction of finding health services. Mood, coffee and curcody promote mental health and national health lines for local community. It is those services that make Scotland the most progressive country in Europe for LGBTI rights. Scotland has a duty as Europe's most progressive country for LGBTI equality, a country whose leaders are open about their sexuality to set an example to the rest of the world but Scotland still has room to improve. There is much more to be achieved to achieve full equality for people in Scotland. It is important to note that changes in law is not always reflected in everyday life. LGBTI people in Scotland and across the country still face unacceptable levels of discrimination and disadvantages day-to-day. On behalf of my fellow MSPs and as we can be seen by the cross-party support for this motion, I pledge to fully support the events of LGBT history month in Scotland and to encourage my fellow MSPs to attend as many events as possible in order to raise awareness of the issues of the LGBTI community faces. Once again, I thank our Wales for securing this debate today and to LGBTI Scotland for their efforts in promoting equality and diversity in our society. Thank you very much, Mr Torrance. I call on Jane Freeman to close for the Government Minister up to seven minutes, please. I am privileged to close this important debate on behalf of the Scottish Government. I, too, want to thank Annie Wells for bringing this subject to the chamber and to the other members who have contributed to our discussion today. Talking about personal journeys, making important points about international situations, and I am particularly grateful to Pauline McNeill for reminding us that, in the history of LGBT and the struggles that have been made, women too often have either been ignored in that in terms of society or too often told that all we need is the love of a good man to fix us. Can I also take this opportunity to thank those who have joined us and taken the trouble to join us in the gallery today to hear this debate? This year's LGBT history month has a theme of heritage in recognition of the contribution that those in the LGBTI community have made to Scotland's rich and vibrant society and the contribution that they have made to others, giving many of us the personal strength and the courage to come forward and stand tall for who we are. And, although there are many well-known and inspirational members of the LGBTI community currently and in our history, there are many more who are perhaps not so well-known, who do not seek recognition but who nevertheless work tirelessly to help to progress equality, people who are innovators and inspirational in their own right and have come to make Scotland the place it is today. Equality and human rights matter, but they are only real when they are enjoyed by all. Even in 2017, with all the advances that have been made in legislative provision, it is important that we continue to celebrate LGBT history month, to acknowledge the challenges that people face and to understand the impact each and every contribution has to make in moving us one other step closer to eradicating discrimination and prejudice for LGBTI people. We cannot allow ourselves to think that now that we have marriage for same-sex couples or now that same-sex couples can jointly adopt or now that we have hate crime legislation covering both sexual orientation and gender identity, that we have achieved equality for LGBTI people. As recent surveys show, we have not. Our job is not done here yet. The Equality Network's 2015 equality report stated that 79 per cent of LGBT people in Scotland had faced prejudice or discrimination within the previous year, and a majority in Scotland still never or only sometimes feel able to be open about their sexual orientation or gender identity for fear of the prejudice that they might face. The 2015 Scottish Social Attitude Survey, despite showing positive changes in attitudes towards LGBTI people, still show that lesbian, gay and bisexual people continue to face discrimination on a daily basis, with just under a fifth of people still believing that same-sex relationships are wrong. It is worse for trans people, for whom the most negative attitudes are held. Two-fifths of respondents to that survey said that they would be unhappy about a close relative marrying someone who cross-dresses in public, and a third would be unhappy about a close relative marrying or forming a long-term relationship with someone who has undergone gender reassignment. The Government recognises the discrimination that lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people face every day of their lives for no other reason than being who they are. Members have talked tonight about bullying, but there is more than bullying itself. There is a feeling of not fitting in, of not being like everyone else, of being different. For our young people, that feeling of not fitting, of being different, is so often the source of the anxiety and the upset and at times leading to even worse consequences that others have mentioned that lie in their lives. Attitudes and fear of difference can start, but they can also be stopped with our young people. It is right that the Government has given a commitment to take forward the issues that the Thai campaign has raised. For me, it is exactly why we need to celebrate LGBTI history month, a series of events to recognise the struggles that people before us have faced and are still facing today, to mark the progress that has been made and to proudly state that we are who we are, regardless of our sexual orientation or our gender identity, that we have talents, abilities and contributions to make to our society, to our families, to our neighbourhoods and to our friends. There is strength in numbers and more and more people are having the confidence to come out and be their true selves. But LGBTI history month is not only about LGBTI people standing up for our rights. The power of allies and role models in this respect should not be underestimated. I believe that this Government is a strong and persistent ally and advocate for LGBTI equality. Colleagues have mentioned same-sex marriage legislation, the recognition of Scotland as the most progressive country in Europe for LGBTI equality and human rights. I should mention our commitment to reviewing and reforming gender recognition legislation to improve the lives and experience of trans and intersex people in Scotland. Laws are important both in terms of protection and also as a signal of the important areas that we as a society and this Parliament want to address. But there is more to this than laws. I remember the days when the best that you could expect as a lesbian is that your female friend was not talked about too much. I remember too the debates in this country not so very long ago around section 2A and how we argued back and forward about what could or could not be taught in our schools, what could or could not be mentioned to our children and young people about their heritage, about their society, about those who are around them. Not so very long ago we had those debates and they were hard fought and at times they were bitter. So we have made progress but there is a great deal more to do. Removing the barriers that exist for LGBTI people in Scotland so that everyone has an equal chance to participate in every aspect of life is the most effective way we can take of ensuring that everyone in our society can make their fullest contribution to Scotland. We can individually and collectively be innovators, we can have our voices heard, we can and we should be proud of the contributions each of us have made in shaping history and the role we might have played to support the progression of equality in Scotland. But then, Presiding Officer, we can, we should and we will commit to doing more. Thank you very much. That concludes the debate and I now close this meeting of Parliament.