LGBTQ+ community gathers for festive celebration

A charity supporting people in the LGBTQ+ community will host a Christmas Day meal to give members a safe space to celebrate.

Jay Virgo, from the Q Alliance in Milton Keynes, said queer people were "marginally more likely to be ostracised from families" at this time of year and at a "higher risk of social isolation and suicide".

He added some of the charity's members would "not have had the most pleasant of Christmas mornings" because they had been "misgendered, dead-named or treated unfairly by family and friends".

This year the charity was expecting between 20 and 30 people to attend its Christmas Day meal in Milton Keynes, after 18 people took part last year.

According to the 2021 census, out of a population of nearly 300,000 in Milton Keynes, 2.82% of people identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual or other and 0.62% had a gender identity different from their registered sex at birth.

Mr Virgo said this would be the second year the charity was organising a meal for people "in a safe environment where people feel they can belong and feel appreciated and connected with others".

"In an ideal situation, organisations like us would not have to exist," he said.

"[It] would be lovely to know that every single person is loved and cherished on Christmas Day...[but] that was just not the case," he added.

One of those joining the charity for the meal is Kye Tilley, who has been a part of the Q Alliance for a number of years.

He said he was looking forward to "having a laugh, playing a few board games and catching up with people he had not seen for a while".

He described 2025 as a "very difficult time for the queer community" and said Christmas would be tough for him personally because his grandmother had died in 2024 and the festive season had been "very quiet" since she passed away.

He said that when he came out as trans masculine, he was "lucky" to have had a "very supportive family".

However, he said being part of the Q Alliance made him realise there were "loads of transgender people in Milton Keynes".

He felt some were hiding "because of what is going on" nationally and that some "do not have that support and do not feel safe".

In April the UK Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex. Transgender people still have legal protection from discrimination, the court added.

Mr Tilley felt that for some "the fact we can celebrate it [Christmas] in our own way and not have to worry about paying for the food if you cannot afford it" was also a positive.

He added it was "important they stuck together and helped each other out over the festive period".

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