David Bridle: “Who would have imagined a room full of lesbian and gay activists and radical feminists cheering a letter of support for LGB Alliance from the Prime Minister?”

At last we met. We shook hands or hugged, with care. Hundreds of women and men filling the glorious Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in the heart of Westminster, a stone’s throw from the Mother of Parliaments.

All the Zooms in the world will never make up for meeting in real life, being able to look each other in the eye and know that we are all on the same team. All on the same side supporting lesbian, gay and bisexual sex-based rights and the rights and protections of biological women.

Some of us are Conservatives, some support Labour, some are lesbians from the feminist Left, some are gay men rejected by their local Prides or unwelcome in the gay bar they have frequented for years.

Up in the lift to the third floor where there were stands for groups from Fair Play for Women to Sex Matters, from Lesbian Labour to Conservatives for Women, from Free Speech Union to Keep Prisons Single Sex. All of them busy with delegates asking for information or advice.

Inside the main hall the first panel discussion began and the atmosphere was electric as Sinead Watson told her painful story of cross sex hormones, surgery and now being a detransitioner and campaigner angry at the lack of counselling support for young lesbians and others facing gender dysphoria. “They need to know they weren’t born wrong,” Sinead said.

Author Helen Joyce explained the concept of “thought-terminating cliches” – like “transwomen are women” – which just halt in their tracks any real debate. Former hospital chief Kate Grimes showed us how the NHS has been taken over by the rainbow woke brigade and that LGB people who work for the NHS are now, extraordinarily, going back into the closet to keep their jobs.

And the day just continued with amazingly interesting contributions from all the panellists. Dr Clare Jones explained how gender ideologists always knew they were going to appropriate gay rights and annihilate them by denying sex. Lisa Townsend, Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey, described her battles to get the police out of Stonewall.

Barrister Allison Bailey gave a barnstorming keynote speech telling their history from the original tweet she sent which launched LGB Alliance to the amazing growth in support for the group – and the appalling attacks it has faced: “We are called a hate group routinely,” said Allison, “Hate groups are specific: they often advocate for violence, for targeted harassment. Rape threats, death threats, trying to get people sacked. Sound familiar? The irony is the people calling us a hate group are describing themselves.”

Throughout the day speakers rightly paid tribute to the courage, hard work and fortitude of the LGB Alliance’s founders and leaders Bev Jackson, Kate Harris and Malcolm Clark.

I had the privilege of appearing on a panel with three extraordinary MPs: Labour’s Rosie Duffield, the SNP’s Joanna Cherry and the Conservatives’ Jackie Doyle-Price. Rosie’s story is the most shocking and to listen to this gentle woman in her quiet voice describe how Keir Starmer has hung her out to dry, despite being in effect her “boss”, was heartbreaking. Rosie said it felt “incredibly lonely” within her own party, “We’re not supposed to talk about women, and we’re not supposed to talk about our bodies without quantifying it or justifying it.”

Thankfully, Rosie said that for the last year and more Joanna and Jackie have been there for her, every step of the way. This is real cross-party support – the sisterhood of Parliament – and is a joy to see. It was a recurring theme. Who would have imagined a room full of lesbian and gay activists and radical feminists cheering a letter of support for LGB Alliance from the Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced by Eileen Gallagher, the LGB Alliance’s Chair of Trustees? Meanwhile from the audience an activist from Lesbian Labour asked where are “Lesbian Conservatives”?

Our own reporter Jo Bartosch’s speech brought the audience to their feet as she called on everyone in the hall to join together regardless of political or ideological differences. “Until the most powerful political figures in the land can say ‘only women have a cervix’ without fear of reprisals, the time for political purity is past. The threat to our humanity from transgenderism transcends the divisions of left and right; the divide is between those who acknowledge reality and those who promote a dangerous lie. So, wherever we stand politically or socially, it must be side-by-side,” Jo said.

In the coffee breaks, during the tasty “lunchbox” recharge and in the disco afterwards, we came together. As our legal commentator Dennis Kavanagh remarked, “LGB Alliance conference brought together lesbians, gay guys and bi people in a way we haven’t organised in years. The friendships, laughs, experiences, chats and connections we made will be powerful weapons. LGB. The band is back together again.”

Outside for most of the morning there were literally just two protestors – and an SNP MP. Later in the afternoon there were maybe at most 70 LGBTQIAA++ protestors shouting “scum” and “wankers” at the lesbian, gay and bisexual people going in. That’s the madness of the “Stonewall-inspired” destruction of our same sex attracted community so brilliantly reported by the BBC’s Stephen Nolan – and whose podcast “Nolan Investigates Stonewall” was praised widely throughout the conference.

The sad, angry, protestors with their sexually gross placards were easily outnumbered by the helpful Met Police officers in five or so police vans and the large number of the QEII’s highly professional security team. As I left the disco around 7pm I just heard a single droning voice in the distance: “Transphobe, transphobe, transphobe, transphobe….” I thanked the police officer who bid me goodnight for looking after our conference so well.

We had all met together in the real world, sometimes for the very first time, just across the way from the House of Commons and the House of Lords, including a number of Conservative MPs and cross-party peers.

Seeds of new ideas, of new campaigning, of new connections, of new shared strengths, of renewed courage, had been sown. These flowers will bloom – in the real world of politics, and policy, and law. So leave behind the Twitter spats with anonymous anime avatars and say hello to grown-up debate and passionate persuasion in our cherished Parliamentary democracy.

David Bridle is the founder of Lesbian and Gay News.