LGBTQ+ charity sends hopeful message to new PM Andy Burnham

Rachel Williams, CEO of Manchester-based LGBTQ+ youth charity The Proud Trust, has written an open letter to Andy Burnham, as he becomes the new Prime Minister.

Burnham, who has a strong track record when it comes to LGBTQ+ issues, replaces Sir Keir Starmer, who announced his resignation in June.

Now, Williams has urged Burnham not to forget his roots and take his commitment to Manchester’s LGBTQ+ community to Downing Street.

Williams writes: “For years, Manchester has proudly presented itself as a city where LGBTQ+ people are welcomed, celebrated and valued, and you have helped shape that story. You’ve marched through our streets at Pride, spoken publicly about equality and inclusion, and consistently recognised that diversity is one of this city’s greatest strengths. That leadership has mattered, not just symbolically, but to the thousands of LGBTQ+ young people who have looked to Manchester as a place where they might finally feel seen, accepted and able to be themselves.”

The letter continues: “As Prime Minister, I hope you take that same commitment to inclusion with you, because from where we’re standing, many LGBTQ+ young people feel the progress they believed was permanent is beginning to slip away. The time for political courage is now.”

The Proud Trust recorded a 171% increase in referrals after the 2025 Supreme Court ruling, which defined “sex” as meaning “biological sex”.

Burnham has been a vocal trans ally, he has also said that the Supreme Court ruling, and EHRC guidance, should be adhered to “in the fairest and most compassionate way possible”. He added that single-sex spaces should be protected without “marginalising already marginalised communities”.

The letter goes on to reference the hostile environment facing many LGBTQ+ people now, having to deal with policies and guidance which affect their daily lives, as with the EHRC guidelines.

It says: “We don’t see those consequences in headlines, we see them when young people walk through our door.”

Williams says the increase in referrals to The Proud Trust “represented hundreds more LGBTQ+ young people reaching out because they needed reassurance, somewhere they felt safe, or simply someone to tell them they still belonged”.

The letter goes on: “Young people often tell us they feel like they’re constantly being spoken about but rarely spoken to. They watch adults debate their identities on television, read headlines questioning their existence, and hear politicians discussing their futures, yet too few people stop to ask the simplest question of all, ‘What do you need?’”

‘I know you’ll remember the city you came from’

Williams says young people deserve “to grow up feeling they belong somewhere”, and “political leaders who recognise that behind every policy decision and every headline is a real young person trying to navigate adolescence with the same hopes, fears and dreams as anyone else”.

“As you now lead this country,” they continue, “I know you’ll remember the city you came from.

“Please remember the communities that showed the rest of Britain what solidarity looks like, and the LGBTQ+ young people who still arrive in Manchester searching for hope. Equality is never something we achieve once and keep forever, it has to be protected, defended and strengthened, especially when doing so becomes difficult.”

The letter ends: “The next generation of LGBTQ+ young people shouldn’t grow up believing their rights are conditional, that their identities are matters for political negotiation, or that they must wait for society to decide whether they deserve dignity and respect. They deserve leaders prepared to stand beside them, speak up for them and build a country where every young person, regardless of who they are or who they love, knows they belong.

“Please, be that leader.”

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