About

The objectives of the charity are: “To promote equality and diversity, advance education and eliminate discrimination against trans, non-binary, intersex, gender-variant and gender-queer people for the public benefit by raising awareness of the issues affecting said persons in particular by organising and staging an annual Trans Pride festival.”

Trans Pride Brighton has been running since 2013, and is the biggest Trans Pride event in Europe. Trans Pride Brighton and Hove is a registered charity in England & Wales (number 1162738). We are a grass-roots, community-led organisation staffed entirely by unpaid volunteers. Our events are run by a fantastic team of 100+ volunteers, both transgender and cisgender (non-trans). The social context in which we operate is fast moving, and transgender rights have had a huge amount of visibility in the last year. Unfortunately, much of this has been negative, with unfair and misleading information about the review of the Gender Recognition Act, as well as damaging coverage of transgender children, who are some of the most vulnerable people in our society. We seek to show the trans community in all of our joyous glory – transgender people as artists, musicians, writers, performers, as well as transgender people as everyday people just getting on with their lives. Just existing as ourselves is a source of Pride and being able to celebrate our lives is part of our journey towards full liberation.

Trans Pride Brighton, now in its 6th year, had an amazing array of events last year and we’ll be expanding on that this year!

2018 Events

This year we have more than 20 official events associated with Trans Pride. The biggest are likely to be the protest march on Saturday 21st July, starting from outside the Marlborough Pub & Theatre in Prince’s Street at midday, followed by the main event in Brunswick Square Gardens. We are expecting a total attendance of around 5,000 unique visitors across the course of the day. The park event will be open to the public from 1-6pm, providing a mixed programme of performances and services:

Main stage (music, spoken word, poetry, speeches, etc)
Workshops (focussed on providing for Trans People of Colour)
Sports/Exercise/Health Sessions
Children’s Area
Quiet Tent
Multi-Faith Area
Community Information Stalls
Food stalls and licensed bar
Main HQ Visitor Information Point (incl. Merch sales)

Our other events are focussed on showcasing and nurturing the talents and abilities of transgender people – such as the art exhibition at Pop-Up Brighton from Saturday 14th July until Saturday 21st July, and the film night at the Duke of York’s Picturehouse on Friday 20th July, curated by My Genderation & Eyes Wide Open. There’s also a life drawing workshop, an open mic night, a photography and portraiture workshop and a poetry night, as well as several fun fundraising events like a vinyl singles sale and the two dance parties, Gal Pals at Komedia on Friday 20th and the Official Afterparty, Traumfrau @ North Laine Brewhouse on Saturday 21st. There’s even more to be found on our website!

We are also reaching out to, and starting or improving relationships with, diverse and intersecting groups & people such as UK Black Pride, Disability Pride, QTIPOC and the English Collective of Prostitutes, as part of our commitment to be better representative of the community we serve.

Why Trans Pride?

Trans Pride Brighton 2018 occurs at a time of heightened visibility for the transgender community, particularly in light of the government’s recent decision to consult with the public over a review of the Gender Recognition Act. The aim is to improve the mechanism for changing legal gender, which is currently an arduous, lengthy and expensive process and requires applicants to submit reams of personal information to a panel they will never meet, with little-to-no appeals process, as well as gaining a medical diagnosis. Non-binary people are currently unable to obtain documentation in anything other than a binary gender (male or female), which means they must ‘make do’ with a gender which is not theirs.

We also see trans people discriminated against in access to healthcare, employment, housing, sport, services, justice and facilities. Transgender children are vilified in the media, bullied at school, used as a political football and have their identities doubted. There has been a long running debate in the media about the validity of trans people’s lives, and Trans Pride is here to say that we are real, we are valid, we are talented and we can be loved.

In recent weeks we’ve seen minority groups within the LGBTQI+ community attack us at Pride in London, and we’ve been heartened by the outpouring of support from our allies.

We hope that by taking this opportunity to celebrate our lives and our achievements with our friends, family and allies, we will be able to show off the amazing people we call our brothers, sisters, and siblings.

Our Campaigns

We are happy to announce this year’s campaigns as “Celebrating Gender Diversity within the Trans Community” and “Nothing About Us Without Us”.

“Celebrating Gender Diversity within the Trans Community” has been created in response to the feedback within our community by our Non-binary siblings calling for more inclusivity within the Trans community. We whole heartedly want to show the intersectionality and diversity that belongs to and will always be a part of Trans Pride Brighton. This statement is to show we are united with any one that identifies under the Trans umbrella, with no discrimination to their gender identity.

“Nothing About Us Without Us” is a term we have seen in many different campaigns relating to minority groups. The first citation that we have been able to find is from Polish citizens fighting for their rights in the 15th/16th century to have a say in the creation of their laws. The term in more recent times has been used by the Disability community to fight for their rights of equality and inclusion. It was used as the title of a book by activist James Charlton, as he had heard it being used by South African activists. It has since become widely used by other minority groups fighting for equality. We at Trans Pride felt this message resonated with us most closely to any others we could muster. We want to give thanks and praise to the groups that came before us, for providing us with the tools to start fighting for our rights and inclusion. The Disability rights movement is one close to our hearts here at Trans Pride Brighton, with some of our own committee also belonging to and identifying with the disability rights movement. The term relates so closely to what we are fighting for at the moment – to be included in the creation of, and amendment to, current legislation, as well as the way that we are written & talked about, usually without our involvement.

We will be using the #TransPrideBrighton hashtag throughout the week, across all social media.

Guidance for Media Coverage

If you are planning on covering Trans Pride Brighton, please be aware that we ask you to respect the privacy of the many vulnerable members of our community, many of which will not be publicly out as transgender. Observing the following rules will help everyone have a fun & successful day:

Please do not photograph or film within the Brunswick Square Gardens event
Outside the site, photography and film are fine, but please make the subjects aware beforehand so that they can choose to move out of shot if they wish
There will be a media briefing prior to the beginning of the march, at 1100 at the Marlborough Pub & Theatre in Princes Street, please attend this, or make yourself known in advance to Natalie Washington (details at the top of this page) who will be handling media enquiries.
- You will need to pick up a press access lanyard
We ask that you review & take advantage of the style guides for writing about trans issues produced by Trans Media Watch & All About Trans, available here:
- http://www.transmediawatch.org/Documents/Media%20Style%20Guide.pdf
- http://www.allabouttrans.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/All-About-Trans_Simple-Tips_Nov-14.pdf