LGBTQI+ Equalise: five years of advocacy, impact and community

Above and beyond

From these early beginnings, the group’s achievements have developed beyond what any member had anticipated. In 2024, the group presented the findings of its survey of Equalise members' perspectives on inclusive pregnancy status checks at the UKIO conference in Liverpool. This year, the group’s abstract, Embedding LGBTQI+ Equality in Radiotherapy Practice: A network’s perspective and engagement, has been accepted for presentation at ESTRO 2026 in Stockholm, a milestone that highlights how the work carried out by Equalise members has resonated across the wider profession and multidisciplinary team.

Some of the group’s most significant contributions have arisen through policy‑shaping work at ADC. The 2022 motion calling for the development of education and support packages on protected characteristics, workplace discrimination and patient behaviour marked an early milestone. This was followed in 2023 by a motion on standardising non‑gendered terminology across patient information, ensuring language remained inclusive while retaining clinical accuracy. In 2024, attention shifted to neurodivergent service users, resulting in a motion supporting the development of a library of visual resources for patient information. The 2025 ADC saw one of the group’s most substantial contributions, with motions spanning mandatory inclusion of EDIB content within pre‑registration programmes and preceptorship, improved protected‑characteristics awareness training for radiographers with line‑management responsibilities, a requirement for full equality impact assessments in all SoR | CoR‑linked research, the inclusion of appropriate demographic data fields in the Radiotherapy Dataset to ensure Trans, Non-Binary and Intersex (TNBI) representation in national radiotherapy data, and strengthened access to breast‑screening services for TNBI service users. This latter work was later submitted by the LGBTQI+ Equalise group to the LGBT+ Trades Union Congress conference in 2025 and was later passed.

The group’s influence has extended into clinical documentation and national guidance. Engagement with the Royal College of Radiologists on the development of national radiotherapy consent forms proved to be a particularly impactful example. While the initiative to standardise national consent was widely welcomed, several elements required refinement to ensure alignment with EDIB principles. Gendered terminology such as “fathering children” appeared in nearly all forms except breast and gynaecological versions. Working with the RCR, the group helped update these terms to language that conveyed the same clinical meaning without gendered implication, and ensured that the breast consent forms reflected the reality that breast cancer patients may be male, trans women or non‑binary. The group also advocated for inclusion of information on the potential long‑term impacts of radiotherapy on receptive anal intercourse within relevant pelvic consent forms, matching the precedent already established for vaginal changes within gynaecological consent. This improved both inclusivity and clinical comprehensiveness.

Sparking engagement 

Education and training have been areas of constant engagement. Members contributed to the development of the SoR’s webinars on Caring for Trans and Non‑Binary People: Understanding Our Patients, ensuring community voices were meaningfully embedded and that the content reflected contemporary radiographic practice. In 2024, after several national newspapers published negative stories about inclusive pregnancy‑checking practices, the SoR issued a statement and, at the suggestion of the LGBTQI+ Equalise Group, held a same‑week evening webinar co‑facilitated by SoR officers and group members. More than 70 radiographers attended, many seeking support, clarity and shared experiences at a time of heightened public scrutiny.

Community‑building has remained a central aim throughout. Over the past five years, the group has participated in an expanding programme of Pride events, helping radiographers come together visibly in solidarity with the wider LGBTQI+ community. Since first attending London Pride in collaboration with the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust in 2023, members have taken part in Belfast Pride, UK Black Pride, Glasgow Pride and London Pride again in 2025, with attendance from the entire presidential team in Glasgow. Looking ahead, the group will march at Swansea Pride in May 2026 and London Trans Pride in July 2026. These events served as a vital reminder that equality work is shared work, open to both protected‑characteristic groups and their allies. The shortlisting of the group’s chair for the Chief Allied Health Professions Officer’s Leadership for EDI Award in 2025 further underscored the national visibility of this work.

In more recent years, much of the group’s work has unfolded behind the scenes and may not yet be widely known among members, but has been driven by the same founding principles of inclusion, fairness and solidarity. Since the Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers in April 2025, the group has been in continuous communication with SoR at all levels. The ruling’s implications were highly significant for the profession, prompting the group to raise an emergency motion at ADC 2025, and, when that did not reach debate, to request a public reaffirmation of the SoR’s support for trans members. The group was involved in the development of this statement and encouraged the timely issuance of the updated TNBI guidance that was already underway.