The candidate said: "We’ve come far since Section 28, but safeguarding in schools is at risk. Parents’ concerns are ignored, and pupils face medical interventions without proper clinical qualifications. This is about safeguarding, nothing else."
This article is part of Scene Magazine’s coverage of the Queen’s Park by-election on 18 September 2025. Each candidate has been invited to share their LGBTQ+ policy agenda, priorities for Queen’s Park, and reasons why LGBTQ+ voters might consider supporting them. You can read the other candidates’ contributions here in our dedicated election coverage section.
Active on the 1980s political left, the fight against anti-gay/lesbian discrimination was central to many of our campaigns. Though not gay myself, aged 25, the joyful Gay Pride rally in Kennington Park opened my eyes (as did the local paper that ran a virulently homophobic headline). A dark period for sure, but it highlights how far we’ve come since the days of anti-gay policies like Section 28.
Today, after years of gay liberation campaigning and the steady progress of liberalisation, LGBTQ+ citizens have the same rights as everyone else. While hatred still exists, it is universally condemned. Like most people, I’m committed to challenging anti-gay/lesbian bigotry just like any other - in my city, my neighbourhood, or beyond.
However, there’s a significant issue we’re not addressing. Defending women’s sex-based rights or questioning the safeguarding of children in schools often results in accusations of transphobia. This troubling trend is eagerly perpetuated by our own council leaders.
At Full Council in July 2023, I confronted Labour leader Bella Sankey with the concerns of parents. She dismissed them as “baseless smears.” The grievances of parents were of no interest to her. I spoke of youth workers from a charity working inside city schools who, without any clinical qualification, affirm children who self-ID as ‘trans’. I pointed out how these organizations facilitate referrals to GPs who then prescribe cross-sex hormones without a proper diagnosis. I asked Cllr Sankey if she agreed with parents that anyone working in local authority schools “must be suitably clinically qualified to do so or otherwise risk a catastrophic failure in this council’s safeguarding duty”. She dismissed parent concerns as merely “claims and accusations”.
Since the final report of the Cass Review in 2024, while Cllr Sankey digs ever deeper, Health Secretary Wes Streeting calls for safeguarding as the priority. In April 2025, NHS England ordered a certain Hove-based GP surgery to stop prescribing hormones to under 18s experiencing gender incongruence. This followed concerns raised by the Brighton parents. We now await NHS investigations into the very concerns our council regard as fictitious. The recent New Statesman investigation into our city’s emerging scandal (Hannah Barnes 25/08/25) is essential reading.
At PSHEBrighton.org, the parent group I co-founded, we hear troubling stories. Pupils (often autistic, often same-sex attracted) are funnelled into a classroom-to-clinic pipeline leading to irreversible medical interventions. Equally troubling is the fact that parents are ignored by all but a few of our 54 councillors. Despite being cross-party and politically neutral, PSHE Brighton’s formal invitations are rarely answered.
Elected or not, I’ll continue to speak out against the gender ideology promoted by our council, the Greens, and the Lib Dems. This challenge can only be smeared as a ‘Section 28 style attack’ by those hoping citizens swallow that line rather than doing their own research. This is about safeguarding, nothing more.
My neighbourhood has a large LGBTQ+ population. It’s no coincidence that trans-identified candidate Josephine was on the ballot with me in May 2019. That same year, I co-founded White Street Community Garden with Richard and his husband (now lifelong friends). A diversity of other residents joined. Together, we’ve built something amazing. Frankly, we’re all baffled that our council would deflect away from basic safeguarding by accusing whistle-blowers of “anti-trans rhetoric”.
Thank you Scene for giving me these 600 words. To readers I’d say, we all share a love for this city of unbridled free expression. My message remains the same as always: let’s dress as we wish, love as we choose, celebrate viewpoint diversity and strive to live unified in peace (oh and QP readers vote for ADRIAN HART).
