Have you been to Lancaster City Museum recently to visit the Slavery Family Tree exhibition? If not, I would encourage you to go before it’s run ends on the 26^th of February. Lancaster Black History Group, Lancaster University, UCLAN and Lancaster Museums have collaborated to tell the story of the area’s link to transatlantic slavery. With this project they hope to transform the future by facing the past. Make sure you don’t miss out; this crucial part of history is too often overlooked.

It was moving to see so many people from Lancaster and the wider area gather at a vigil to honour the life of Brianna Ghey last week in Dalton Square, as part of a wave of a national outpouring of grief, solidarity, and compassion. It is poignant to know that our community can come together in these difficult times, and I commend those who organised the vigil, as well as those who spoke or attended. Collectively, they created a safe and powerful space so that anyone who felt compelled to speak could express their feelings, tell their stories, support each other, and mourn together.

Brianna Ghey was an inspiration. She was a bright light in so many lives, and a source of comfort and encouragement to so many people. She was a teenage girl, flourishing into a young woman and had a bright future cruelly stolen from her. My thoughts and prayers are with her family and all of those who were close to her.

I know that so many people across the trans and queer community feel let down, devastated and heartbroken following this act of abhorrent violence. I stand with you and share your sorrow. I hope that our political discourse might soon be led more by love and respect than divide and rule. One life lost to violence is one too many, and we must all come together to mourn Brianna and ensure that we support and protect all young people and members of the trans community from acts of hate and violence.