London Trans+ Pride ‘Justice & Liberation’
Photo credit: El Hogg
London Trans+ Pride is set to take place on Saturday 27th July, for its 6th consecutive year following the largest ever turnout of 40k+ attendees in 2023. London Trans+ Pride is a peaceful march through central London, open to trans+ people, the LGBTQIA+ community and allies, joining in a union of celebration for trans+ lives, past and present, standing for trans+ rights and marching in solidarity with Palestine, Sudan, Haiti and Congo.
“This year's theme is in response to the ongoing injustices and atrocities happening across the world”, the founding member of London Trans+ Pride Lewis G. Burton says. Justice and Liberation is seemingly sought out by all, however more often than not does not include trans+ people. The lives of a minority group (around 0.5% of the U.K. population) are routinely questioned, delegitimised, ridiculed, gate-kept and used as divisive, political pawns. The Rainbow Map shows a decrease of 30% this year, with a 51.87% acceptance rate in the U.K. for LGBTQIA+ people; a terrifying and unsettling reality after continuous fear-mongering and attempts to reverse trans+ people’s rights.
2024 has seen a rise in attempts to back-pedal the trans+ community’s human rights. The Conservative government recently announced that “gender ideology” is no longer to be taught in schools, further fear-mongering and discriminating against a minority group, this time using children as the pawns, ironically doing the damage themselves to LGBTQIA+ children. There has been a higher number of notable attacks on trans+ youth, further generating a toxic climate in the U.K., and trans+ youth especially need allyship now more than ever.
Photo credit: Angela Christofilou
Margaret Thatcher’s venomous Section 28 laws prohibited the "promotion of homosexuality" and was in effect from 1988 to 2000. These laws devastatingly impacted the LGBTQIA+ community, with much bloodshed and lives lost, and is a notable reason there is a lack of elder LGBTQIA+ role models and representation. Current times terrifyingly echo (and scream) these similar political and discriminatory stances, yet this time trans+ people are the targets. The decisions passing through the concrete walls of Westminster will have detrimental effects on the trans youth of today, and most notably on their mental health, likelihood of turning to addictions, eating disorders, and suicide. The neglect and isolation that trans+ youth are being faced with is barbaric and an emergency.
Gender-affirming healthcare - care that is accessed daily by cisgender patients, to treat such things as hormone replacement for menopause and low testosterone, breast implants, hair transplants, viagra, penile implant, or testicular implants following orchiectomy - is routinely denied and politicised for trans+ patients. Try to imagine what it would be like to be refused the medicine you need in order to function and survive, let alone thrive. The reality of the decades-long waiting lists for trans+ patients has pushed more and more trans+ folk into using DIY hormone replacements, which can be risky and is even less regulated, but this is the result of decades-long neglect from the state.
Photo credit: Dani D’lngeo
The Cass Review, undertaken by the cisgender paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, is intrinsically and inherently flawed, and dangerously draws the UK further and further from international best practices. The Review further highlights the authoritative nature of science and medicine, and the roles of doctors and healthcare professionals' in directing and deciding our autonomy and agency. It has been extensively criticised by medical practitioners working in transg+ healthcare, trans+ organisations, scholars working in the fields of trans+ medicine, and the wider trans+ community. There are fundamental issues including ignoring almost all clinical evidence on trans+ people’s healthcare, deliberate exclusion of service users and trans healthcare experts from the process, overt prejudice, claims with zero evidence, and inconsistent uses of evidence. If the same evidentiary requirements Cass held trans+ studies to were imposed consistently and equally across the NHS, it would mean that many routine treatments, including treatments for menopause, palliative care and mental health, would also have to cease. Under the guise of kindness and protecting the interests of young trans people, it disempowers them and has the potential to do lifelong damage.
This is the most important year in London Trans+ Pride’s history. Trans+ rights and the call for trans+ justice are intrinsically linked to racial justice, climate justice and disability justice movements. With the knockbacks and attempts to reverse trans+ people’s human rights, London Trans+ Pride are aiming to make this the best turnout yet. With 40,000 people marching in 2023, let’s hit 50,000 in 2024.
Photo credit: Dani D’lngeo
We will be marching in solidarity with Palestine, Sudan, Haiti and Congo. None of us are free, until we are all free. Free free!
Full information for the march:
London Trans+ Pride will gather around Trafalgar Square at 1pm on Saturday 27th July 2024. The march will depart around 2pm from the south-east corner of the square, and end in the green around Wellington Arch (Apsley Way). Speeches and community members and organisations will take place from 3:30pm - 5pm. The day will end at 5:30pm. Please bring signs, banners, flags, face masks or coverings, flowers, a friend, comfortable footwear, sunglasses and sunscreen, water, snacks, umbrellas/parasols, earplugs, any essential medications, change of clothes if needed. There will be roughly 400 trained volunteer stewards who will be spread along every few metres of the march to protect attendees and assist wherever they can. First-aid and medic trained volunteers will also be on hand, along with an all-queer Welfare team, courtesy of queer and trans-run organisation Safe Only, providing person-focussed welfare assistance and harm-reduction.
London Trans+ Pride is not the space for Queerphobia, Body Shaming, Classism, Xenophobia, Racism, Ableism, Harassment or Whorephobia.
You can find more information on the LT+P Instagram @londontranspride, including live updates during the event.
Photo credit: Dani D’lngeo