There are hundreds of thousands of people in the UK who do not identify as exclusively male or female. Sadly - like other members of the LGBT+ community - far too many of them experience discrimination, harassment and hate crimes. Many avoid being open about their identity for fear of how others will treat them.

We have all heard too many heart-breaking stories from those who have lost their livelihoods overnight as a result of the coronavirus crisis and are entirely excluded from the Government's financial support measures.

It is simply unacceptable that many individuals are ineligible for every kind of support.

Welcome to the Weekly Whip. Your one-stop shop for Lib Dem Parliamentary updates, covering the week that was and the week to come.

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Weekly Whip w/c 6th July

Monday 6^th July

There are some two million victims of domestic abuse a year. More than one in ten of all offences recorded by the police are domestic abuse related. In 2017, the Conservative government committed to introduce a bill to transform the approach of the justice system and wider statutory agencies. It has now been 3 ½ years since this commitment, but the Domestic Abuse Bill finally passed through the House of Commons on Monday night with cross-party support.

On Thursday 16th July, the two candidates for leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey and Layla Moran will be answering questions from a panel of experts in a new hustings format.

So you want to be leader? Is styled like a job interview. Candidates will get to make their pitch to the panel on why they should be leader and that'll be followed up by questions from the panel on the skills they'll need to make being leader a success.

Over the last 2 weeks, members have been nominating candidates to stand as the next leader of the Liberal Democrats.

This is the first time that the system has been run mostly online and also the first time we have published these totals.

We decided to publish the totals as we felt it gave candidates a chance to demonstrate some of the key skills they'll need as leader.