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Being transgender is "not an illness", Theresa May declared in an impassioned vow to change the law.

The Prime Minister promised to "demedicalise" the process of changing gender in a speech to the star-studded PinkNews awards in Westminster.

She praised gay marriage as "one of my proudest achievements as Home Secretary" - but warned more had to be done.

The government launched a consultation in July on changing the current system, which only allows trans people to change their legal gender after getting a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and being in transition for two years.

Proposed changes would remove the need for a medical diagnosis and give people more power to change their legal gender.

Mrs May was applauded as she told the star-studded bash: "We've set out plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act, streamlining and demedicalising the process for changing gender.

"Because being trans is not an illness. And it shouldn't be treated as such."

The PM told guests: "There is much still to do, and the government has a plan to deliver. LGBT history is all of our history."

Mrs May also vowed to pressure Commonwealth countries to scrap anti-gay laws saying Britain had a "special responsibility" to help them.

In Jamaica gay sex is punishable with 10 years' hard labour.

Without naming any individual country, she said the denial of gay rights around the world led to "terrible suffering".

And she warned Commonwealth laws "are a legacy of Britain's colonial past, so the UK government has a special responsibility has a special responsibility to help change hearts and minds."

She vowed to wield Britain's influence at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in London in April 2018.

The Tory leader praised the decriminalisation of homosexuality 50 years ago as a "truly significant milestone".

But she added: "Homophobia, biphobia and transphobia have still not been defeated and they must be.

"Bullying in schools and on social media is still a daily reality for young LGBT people and that has to stop."

She said that LGBT issues should be taught as part of sex education in schools.

Theresa May said classes in England should be "inclusive" and that LGBT issues should be "taught well".

A survey for gay rights charity Stonewall this year found just one in five students learned where to go for LGBT-specific relationship advice, dropping to one in ten at faith schools.

Mrs May told the PinkNews awards: "We need to keep up our action, so we are pressing ahead with inclusive relationship and sex education in English schools, making sure that LGBT issues are taught well."ENDS

Mrs May voted against LGBT equality in the past.

She voted against equalising the age of consent at 16 and was absent for a vote on maintaining Section 28, the hated Tory policy that banned teachers from "promoting" homosexuality.

She later voted in favour of gay marriage in 2013.