During this year’s Pride in London, a group of eight women under the name of #GetTheLOut pushed their way to the front of the parade, carrying an anti-trans banner. Despite causing a disruption and being asked to leave, they decided to block the path of 30,000 people who were ready to march by lying on the ground and refusing to move. In the end they were allowed to march, to the dismay of much of the LGBT+ community, and those gathered along the route, who booed as they went past.



It was shocking to see them proudly waving their banner at the front of one of the biggest Pride parades in the world. “How could this be allowed to happen?” was the question on many people’s lips. An event meant to celebrate our LGBT+ community suddenly became a space to create division.

Unfortunately, this incident didn’t come out of the blue, and for many trans people it didn’t come as a surprise. Ever since the government announced that it would be reforming the Gender Recognition Act (GRA), a backlash against trans rights has become more vocal in much of the media and public discourse. This has mostly been driven by groups claiming to speak for feminists, and the rightwing media, which would like society to believe that trans people are the source of all evil.





They thrive on spreading disinformation about trans rights, such as that the GRA reform will somehow make it easier for potential abusers to enter women’s spaces. This could not be further from the truth, as the GRA reform centres around making the process of changing somebody’s birth certificate through a statutory declaration. Anybody misusing this in order to enter certain spaces and to abuse someone will be liable to be prosecuted. Being in possession of a female birth certificate does in no way make anyone exempt from prosecution in the case of abuse.



People can already enter spaces based on their gender identity alone, according to the Equality Act 2010, so their concerns about the GRA are invalid. Their protests are focused on the wrong bill, and about eight years too late.



Trans people have been openly using single-sex services for decades and are supported by service providers and feminist groups across the United Kingdom. These concerns are not being raised by those running single-sex services, but by a small divisive group of people whose main purpose is to exclude trans women.



Lesbian erasure in the LGBT+ community and from history – the problem those who hijacked pride claimed to be protesting about – certainly is a genuine problem, but trans people are not the culprits. Trans women wanting to be accepted as women – some of whom are lesbians – does not erase anyone else. On the contrary, it enriches our community.



These women do not speak in the name of feminism or lesbians, or for the wider LGBT+ community. The wider movement – and indeed Pride itself – celebrates diversity and solidarity because of our shared values and history. If exclusionary views are allowed to fester within our movement, they will eat it from the inside. It will undo the incredible work carried out by activists and organisations for many decades.



Marsha P Johnson, a trans woman, was at the centre of the Stonewall Riots in 1969. Trans women have been a core part of the wider LGBT+ movement from the beginning. It shows a spectacular level of disrespect towards those brave people that fought and continue to fight for our liberation to try to reject them now. The movement that was the foundation of what we call Pride today was led by a diverse group of people where trans women of colour were a driving force. Our movement will not achieve anything by reverting back to exclusion and binary definitions of identity; it will only thrive if we embrace diversity, intersectionality and accessibility for all.



Pride is a celebration, and it is true that Pride is also a protest. But protesting against an already vulnerable part of our community is divisive, hateful and misguided. There is no pride in hate.