The organizers of four of the great marches of LGBTQ pride in the United Kingdom have joined to suspend the participation of political parties in their annual events in support of the country’s transgender community.
“At a time when trans rights in the United Kingdom are under a growing attack, our resolution has never been stronger: we will not allow progress to get rid of,” said the statement issued Monday by Birmingham Pride, Brighton Pride, Manchester Pride and pride in London. “We will not remain, since the dignity, security and humanity of our trans are debated, delayed or denied.”
Political parties are often represented in Pride Marches in the United Kingdom, for example, the current prime minister, Keir Starmer, attended London’s pride in 2022 when he was the leader of the Labor Party. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a member of the Conservative Party, also attended the Pride marches in 2010 and 2011.
The joint decision to prohibit the participation of the political party in these main pride events follow a decision last month by the UK Supreme Court to exclude transgender women from the legal definition of “woman” in the Equality Law, a 2010 law that legally prohibits discrimination based on certain protected characteristics.
The ruling arose from a legal dispute that began in 2018 when the Scottish Parliament approved a law that sought to increase the number of women in the public sector boards. The law, to the dismay of some women’s rights activists, included transgender women in their definition of women.
The court ruling last month, according to the four groups of pride, “underlines the urgent need for immediate actions.”
“At this time, we chose to stay firmer, stronger and more proud to demand changes that protect and raise trans lives,” the statement said.
In a shared statement about X, Democrats LGBT+ LIB, an arm of the Democratic Liberal Party, said they are “sick in our nucleus” by the general suspension of political parties. The group said that the liberal democrats “have been at the forefront of the campaign for LGBT+rights and have earned the right to be present in Pride Marches.
“We expect a constructive dialogue with the organizers of pride so that we can return more and better, while those parties that are pleased with fanaticism and hate can be left in the past, where they belong,” the statement continued.
Pride organizers added that the reversal of trans rights in the United Kingdom is part of a “disturbing global trend”, citing the prohibition of pride events in Hungary and the proliferation of anti-trans legislation in the United States.
So far this year, 575 state bills have been proposed Anti-LGBTQ in the United States, many of them pointing to transgender rights, according to an American union account of civil liberties. And at the federal level, the Trump administration has made trans problems a priority. In his first weeks in office, President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders aimed at trans rights, including one that states that the United States government would recognize only two immutable sexes and another that prohibits trans people from the military service.
