By LGBT+ Liberal Democrats and the Lib Dem Health and Care Association. An abridged version of this piece first appeared on the federal party website (see here).

This World AIDs Day we have the opportunity to set ourselves an ambitious but achievable target: to end the transmission of HIV in England by 2030. Published today, the HIV Commission has outlined 20 measures necessary to achieve this worthy goal. As Liberal Democrats we have a responsibility to help make sure that we achieve it.

To mark Transgender Awareness Week 2020, LGBT+ Lib Dems are launching this collection of resources on trans issues.

We hope members who are less familiar with trans issues will find them helpful in feeling well-informed enough to respond to questions about party policy on these issues. If you have feedback or suggestions for ways to expand on what we are offering here, please do get in touch at the address shown above.

2020 has been a tumultuous year - and particularly so for members of the trans community. As the Liberal Democrats commemorate Trans Visibility Week and the Trans Day of Remembrance, we reflect on the challenges faced this year - and call on all liberals to recommit to the fight for justice and dignity for all.

Content warning: Suicide.

Justin Fashanu began his career as an apprentice with Norwich City, having impressed as part of their academy, and signed his first professional contract in December 1978 aged just 17. Fashanu became the first black footballer to command a £1 million transfer fee when he made the move from Norwich City to Nottingham Forest in 1981.

Fashanu became the first openly gay professional footballer when he made a public announcement in the Sun newspaper in October 1990. He stated that his fellow players generally accepted him well following his announcement, but he was nonetheless aware of malicious jokes made about his sexual orientation, and came to be a target of constant crowd abuse because of it. After moving to the US in 1998 he was questioned by police when a 17-year-old boy accused him of sexual assault. Fashanu fled to England where he tragically took his own life in May 1998. According to the note he left, he feared he would not get a fair trial because of his homosexuality.

To this day, Justin Fashanu remains the only openly gay professional player in English football. His decision to come out publicly led him to be considered by many in the game as a pioneer and an inspiration beyond the world of football. Fashanu was listed at number 99 in The Pink Paper's Top 500 Gay Heroes and in March 2009, a football team named The Justin Fashanu All-Stars was named in his honour at an event run by the Justin Campaign, a campaign against homophobia in football which promoted the inclusion of openly gay players in the game.

In 2019, The Justin Fashanu Foundation was founded in his memory by his niece Amal Fashanu, with the aim of confronting prejudice in football, with a special focus on the LGBT+ community. On the 19th February 2020, on what would have been his 59th birthday, Fashanu became the latest inductee to the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame.

On Thursday 15 October the LGBT+ Liberal Democrats launched the LGBT+ LD Councillors Network. The Network has been set up to connect LGBT+ Councillors from across the country, and to help LGBT+LD provide support and materials to those delivering for LGBT+ residents on the ground.

Last night members of the LGBT+LD Exec and LGBT+ Lib Dem Councillors from across the country met via Zoom to launch the LGBT+ LD Councillors Network. The Network will provide a platform to connect LGBT+ Councillors within the Liberal Democrats. It aims to "enable LGBT+ Councillors and Candidates to share best practice, provide moral support in a safe environment, and help connect Plus to the wider party, so that LGBT+ Lib Dems (SAO) can help the party's LGBT+ community to speak with a collective voice."

Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, also known as Lady Phyll, is the co-founder and executive director of UK Black Pride, the first event of its kind in Europe which celebrates and campaigns for the rights of LGBTQ+ people of African, Asian, Caribbean, Middle Eastern and Latin American descent. As well as her positions as a trustee of Stonewall, on the TUC race relations committee, and as the current executive director of LGBT+ organisation the Kaleidoscope Trust, Phyll is also a columnist and public speaker with a focus on intersectional matters of race, gender, sexual orientation and class, and a self-described "strong Ghanaian African woman".

On the last day of Liberal Democrat Conference, members resoundingly supported a motion to support trans and non binary people in the party.

The motion (F32) was proposed and summated by LGBT+ LD Exec Members Fraser Graham and Charley Hasted. The motion noted with concern the recent hostility to the trans community in the media, and the disappointing shelving of GRA reform which we condemned earlier in September. The motion also acknowledged the total absence of openly trans or non-binary individuals elected to the House of Commons.

Grief and despair. That's what a great number of trans, non-binary and intersex individuals in the UK are feeling today. Despite 3 years of promises and consultations by successive Conservative governments, which created a storm of anti-trans hatred and disinformation from the media, the Government has scrapped its plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act. We, along with a majority of respondents to both Govenrment consultations, had welcomed proposals to introduce self-identification, remove the spousal veto and allow non-binary individuals to gain legal recognition. Sadly, these have all now been scrapped.

LGBT+ Liberal Democrats stand in solidarity with LGBT+ people and activists in Poland, who are under increasing pressure and hostility from the Polish Government.

As reported by Human Rights Watch and the international media, Polish authorities have become increasingly hostile to LGBT+ people and activists over recent months. This has ranged from inflammatory language, to the arrest of protesters, to the establishment of "LGBT-free zones" by local and regional government.

Two years ago the Government opened a consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA) proposing amongst its measures that the requirement for a person to undergo an humiliating, unnecessarily pathologising, and arduous medicalised transition route before they could apply for the simple dignity of having their human rights recognised would be removed and replaced with a simple, non-medicalised system.