Cisgender lesbians come together in response to the anti-trans protest at Pride in London
The protest saw eight women storming the parade claiming transactivism erases lesbians
By Steve Brown
The Brighton and Hove LGBT+ community has come together in response to the anti-trans protest at Pride in London on Saturday (July 7).
Around eight women stormed the Pride march shortly after it began, forcing their way to the front before laying down in front of the parade.
Five of the women laid down on the road as another three dropped a banner over them reading: “Transactivism erases lesbians”.
The women, who carried another banner which read “Lesbian = female homosexual”, reportedly blocked the march for 10 minutes. One activist allegedly shouted: “A man who says he’s a lesbian is a rapist”.
Following brief negotiations, organisers of the parade offered the group a position at the front of the march, which was set to be led by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and the NHS staff. Reports suggest the group led the march down to Trafalgar Square while distributing anti-trans leaflets.
According to reports, the flyers read: “The trans movement is… coercing lesbians to have sex with men. We firmly condemn this vicious form of anti-lesbianism disguised as progress.”
In response to this horrid protest, the Brighton and Hove LGBT+ community have asked cisgender lesbians to record a five second clip saying the words: “I am a cis female lesbian, I support trans rights – trans women do not erase me. Keep the L with the T.”
In a press statement, the community said: “We did not want this small section of the lesbian community to claim to speak on behalf of all cisgender lesbians, or allow their hatred and call for separatism to lead the parade.
“This is a way to show love to our trans sisters in this difficult time. We are firm in our knowledge that trans women are women and trans lives are not up for debate.
“The action counters the onslaught of sensationalist headlines with a clear message of love and solidarity between all women.”
These videos were posted alongside the hashtags #LwiththeT and #notadebate. Within 24 hours, #LwiththeT was trending on twitter and the initial video, consisting of members of the Brighton LGBT+ community, was watched more than 9k times on Facebook.
Alongside the videos, countless cis female lesbian community members all over the world posted or tweeted in solidarity with the trans community.
Pride in London organisers were criticised on social media for allowing the anti-trans group to march, but Pride in London claimed the group were allowed to move to the front of the parade due to the high temperatures.
A Pride in London spokesperson said: “Every year, Pride is attended by hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrate that Pride still matters.
“Given the hot weather and in the interest of the safety for everyone attending today’s event, the parade group was allowed to move ahead.
“We do not condone their approach and message and hope the actions of a very small number of people does not overshadow the messages of 30,000 people marching today.”