One of the world’s largest Trans Pride marches returns to London after last year’s record turnout of 40,000+ attendees
BY RAI POWELL, IMAGE BY ANGELA CHRISTOFILOU
London Trans+ Pride is set to take place on Saturday 27 July, for its sixth consecutive year. There will be a peaceful march through central London, open to trans+ people, the LGBTQIA community and allies, joining in a union of celebration for trans+ lives both past and present. Attendees will be 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 (they/them) says. Justice and Liberation is seemingly sought out by all, however, often does not include trans+ people. Their lives are routinely questioned, delegitimised, ridiculed, gatekept and used as political pawns.
2024 has seen a rise in attempts to back pedal the trans+ rights. The Conservative government recently announced that “gender ideology” is no longer to be taught in schools. There has been a higher number of notable attacks on trans+ youth, further generating a toxic climate in the UK, and trans+ youth especially need allyship now more than ever.
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, the likelihood of turning to addictions, eating disorders and suicide.
Gender-affirming healthcare – care that is notably 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 to function and survive, let alone thrive. The reality of the decades-long waiting lists for trans+ patients has pushed more and more transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse folks 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.
This is the most important year in London Trans+ Pride’s history. This year’s march has received support from Kae Tempest, Mermaids and Not A Phase.
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 is aiming to make this the best turnout yet. With 40,000 people marching in 2023, organisers are hoping to hit 50,000 in 2024.
Full information for the march:
London Trans+ Pride will gather around Trafalgar Square at 1pm on Saturday 27 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-focused welfare assistance and harm reduction.
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