Trans healthcare is healthcare. This should make us all angry. | by Heather Paterson | Sep, 2026 | Medium I am angry about what is happening to trans people in Wales. On 28 August, the NHS Wales Joint Commissioning Committee told Cardiff and Vale University Health Board to pause the surgical pathway through the Welsh Gender Service. That means no new referrals for gender-affirming surgery, no surgical assessments and no scheduled operations while an independent clinical revi

Stonewall’s Lesson: Rights Are Never Safe Without Resistance | by Heather Paterson | Jun, 2026 | Medium Today marks the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. For many people, Stonewall has become shorthand for the birth of the modern LGBTQIA+ rights movement. It is spoken about as the moment queer people finally fought back. As the spark. As the beginning. But that version of history is too neat. It risks flattening a much longer story of resistance, and it can give the fal

Conversion Practices: Closer to a Ban, Still Far From Protection | by Heather Paterson | Jun, 2026 | Medium Today the Government published its long-awaited Draft Conversion Practices Bill. For many people, that sentence alone is enough to stir up complicated feelings. Relief, because conversion practices are abusive, harmful and should never have remained legal for this long. Anger, because LGBTQIA+ people have been promised this protection again and again. Caution, because a

What Could a Burnham Government Mean for LGBTQIA+ Communities? | by Heather Paterson | Jun, 2026 | Medium With Andy Burnham now expected to become Prime Minister, LGBTQIA+ communities face an important question: what will this change of government actually mean for us? As a queer woman in my forties, I have lived through enough political change to know that governments matter. The laws they pass matter. The priorities they set matter. The people they appoint matter. For LGBTQ

A social media ban will not keep young people safe | by Heather Paterson | Jun, 2026 | Medium Today’s announcement of a social media ban for under 16s will be welcomed by some people as a bold step to protect children. I understand why. There is a lot about social media that is ugly, harmful and frightening. I am not someone who thinks the internet is all harmless fun or that concerns about online safety are somehow overblown. I am an active user of social media. I have seen

Issue 55 Forever with Pride 1st June 2026 Pride has always meant more to me than a date in the calendar. Of course, it is joy. It is music, banners, glitter, chosen family, protest signs, dancing, laughing and, for a moment, feeling like the world has made a little more room for us. But Pride is also memory. It is resistance. It is care. It is a reminder that LGBTQ+ communities have always had to build what we needed, often with very little, because nobody else was going to