LGBT+ History Month 2025: Activism and Social Change

Jan Bell is Head of Specialist Housing and Supporting People for United Welsh, and is also Chair of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Forum.

February is LGBT+ History Month in the UK and is an opportunity to learn about LGBT+ historical events that we may not learn about in school. The occasion celebrates the progress made by members and allies of the community to achieve equality, and also consider what more we can do to ensure LGBT+ people can live safely and equally in our society.

Fittingly, the theme of LGBT+ History Month for 2025 is ‘Activism and Social Change.’ In this blog, Jan reflects on her experiences as a gay woman and changes in LGBT+ rights.

Jan said:

“The rights of the LGBT+ community have come a long way in the UK in the last 100 years. We’ve left behind a time when homosexuality was punished by imprisonment or death, same sex relationships were banned from discussion in schools, and being gay was diagnosed as a mental illness. Now, LGBT+ celebrations take place in cities across the UK, and LGBT+ people have equal marriage and adoption rights.

I was born in the 60s – just before sex between two men was decriminalised in 1967 and the Stonewall Riots in 1969, an important catalyst for modern LGBT+ movements. I would have been surrounded by people still thinking this was controversial, and unacceptable to be gay, especially in a small rural town like Brecon. No wonder I didn’t come out, or appreciate that I might be gay, until the 90s!

I came out slowly in the first year I worked for United Welsh (1992), and I couldn’t have worked in a better sector. Apart from one awful moment when someone got told off for ‘outing me!’ I felt mortified, but it probably helped me a lot in retrospect! Sadly, I never told my mum I was gay, and she died just before I met someone, whom I went on to have a civil partnership with, and we became the first approved gay adopters in Rhondda Cynon Taff back in 2007. We now coparent as we’re not together. My Dad came to our civil partnership as did my stepdad. They were so supportive in every way, and I just felt accepted – something heterosexual people often don’t have to think about.

Whilst I felt embraced by most of my family, I think it’s fair to say there were and are many struggles along the way – every time you change jobs or move house you must come out. It may be easier for some people today with the activism that has achieved social change over the years, but I hold on to a degree of nervousness.

Never has it been so important to stand united in the face of discrimination, and to let people know that we are allies to those who are from minority groups. I think if I lived in the US right now, I would be that young girl from Brecon once again, suppressed and not living life as me!”

With the return of Donald Trump to office and far-right parties gaining support in Europe, it is a frightening time for the LGBT+ community. But if we stand together we can stop the clock turning back on LGBT+ rights.

United Welsh is committed to upholding equality, diversity, and inclusion, in our communities and as an employer. We do this by:

• Protecting our staff from discrimination
• Only working with partners who share our equality vales
• Challenging discrimination and exclusion in all its forms.

You can read our full EDI Statement here.