Transphobia At
London Pride - by Sarah Bourke
The London Pride march and rally are now over for 2008. A lot of fun was had by many, but unfortunately Transphobia reared its ugly head at the Pride rally in Trafalgar Square.
At about 6:30 in the evening, Roz Kaveney, long time human rights campaigner, journalist and transsexual woman, needed to answer that most basic call of nature and use the loo. What happened next is the sort of thing one is used to reading about in reports of sexual discrimination cases against Transpeople. In Roz's own words:
Official stewards who were running the toilets at Trafalgar Square announced that I, and any other Transgender or Transsexual woman, had to use the disabled toilets and was not allowed to use the regular women's toilets. I pointed out to the stewards that I transitioned and had surgery before they were born; I was more polite than a polite thing. No dice.
I went and fetched a posse of Transwomen and Transmen and we made a collective fuss. Their response - and remember these were official stewards AT PRIDE - was to radio in "we're being attacked by a mob of trannies! send backup".
They were joined by a policeman, who was a LGBT liaison officer, who claimed that we had to be able to show our Gender Recognition Certificates if we wanted to use the women's loos and got quite upset when I explained to him that I had been involved in drafting the Act and that it did not take away rights that existed before it.
At one point he threatened to arrest us for demonstrating on private property - those loos belong to Westminster Council, so you are not allowed to make a fuss there.
At one point it was claimed that they had instituted this policy a few minutes earlier because a man had attacked a woman; at another they said it was official Health and Safety policy. I don't think it was particularly to do with how much I do or don't pass - I think I got read in part because I am so tall and turned up in the queue among a particularly short group of lesbians.
It was one of the most wretched experiences I have had in thirty years, only made positive by the love and solidarity of my community - including various transmen who proposed that, since they had no GRCs, they should be made to use the women's loos. Beards and all.
Christina Alley wrote:
I myself was subject to abuse. I was pushed back by security guards into a barrier which fell down. I was next to the steward (and the main target of the slur) when she radioed "there are a bunch of trannies here causing trouble, send back up', I had to ask the police liaison officer to calm down and stop talking loudly over Roz and I. Thankfully they saw sense in the end, allowed Roz to use the ladies', apologized to her (on my insistence) and then changed their policy. This incident highlighted the ignorance and lack of training for the stewards, security staff and the police LO. Thankfully, we were there to support Roz, but I wonder how many other trans women had been turned away beforehand and went home insulted and crushed. That this happened at PRIDE is deeply shocking and the wheels are already in motion to prevent it happening again!
Michael TGO Wrote:
This was such a disgusting incident and one that should not happen ANYWHERE, much less Pride London.
I feel so angry and emotional but in the end so privileged to have been part of that 'bunch of trannies' who protested this crass act.
In the end they got a radio message and said anyone can use any toilet they want' but we felt afterwards that that was just to get rid of us. This should not stop here!
Very much love and healing thoughts to Roz.
This raises a number of troubling issues:
1. •Transphobia and transmisogyny continues to be a problem in the wider queer movement. It's unthinkable that a steward would have refused entry to, for example, a butch lesbian (and to then be backed up by an LGBT liaison officer in that action), but such discrimination can still be casually directed at Transpeople.
2. •Making transfemale people at the rally the scapegoat for a reported sexual assault.
3. •An LGBT liaison officer, someone whose job requires the need of tact and sensitivity in dealing with LGBT people in situations where they may be experiencing abuse because of their gender identity or sexual orientation aggressively colluding in such abuseand threatening to arrest the victims of transphobic discrimination, rather than supporting them.
4. •The use of stewards for a supposed LBGT Pride event who have apparently had no sensitivity training for dealing with transpeople.
5. •A very large number of transgendered people were present at the Pride march and rally. For many, it is one of a very small number of places they feel safe enough to express their gender identity. Roz is a confident woman who has lived in her identified gender post operatively for 3 decades and was able to immediately find support and solace from other transpeople present. What's unclear is if something similar happened to other transgendered people, perhaps taking early tentative steps out in public, who then ended up leaving in tears with their confidence crushed.
6. •The actions of the police officer involved illustrate a worrying trend of using the Gender Recognition Act as a way to justify sexual discrimination against transpeople, which is very much a perversion of what the act was supposed to accomplish.
Sarah Bourke
Christine Burns
Wrote :
Sarah Bourke raises a very good point. Although Pride London isn't a public authority (and apparently deny responsibility for provision of the toilets at this event in any case), Westminster Council need to take account of this on two levels. Firstly, any person who is intending to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone gender reassignment and was denied access has a case under the Sex Discrimination (Amendment to Legislation) Regulations 2008. Secondly the provision of public toilet facilities should be subject to an Equality Impact Assessment and the council should ensure that stewards employed by organisations using Trafalgar Square and other public spaces do not unlawfully prevent transsexual people from using the facilities they are entitled to use. Among all the other avenues to be explored, the EHRC should be informed as a compliance notice could be issued for this.
from Tessa, Chair of Trans@Pride committee:
I have just been on the phone talking with Emma Hands,
the Vice Chair for Pride London.
She is absolutely horrified that this incident occurred.
She informed me that the stewards looking after the toilets were contracted by Westminster City Council andwere outside the remit
of Pride London.
She has asked me to make a formal complaint to the Pride London
Board and it in turn will make a complaint to Westminster
City Council. I believe Pride London will make a formal statement to
this effect and condemn this incident.
As Chair of Trans at Pride, I am deeply upset by this unnecessary
and undignified incident.
Up until 6.30 this had been the best ever (London) Pride for
Trans people.
We had the greatest turnout ever - we think about 200 trans people participated in the march and there were countless others congregated
in the Square. We had a terrific band on the main stage and they performed brilliantly and professionally.
Shelly Cooper did a comedy set on the women's stage and we had a
Trans boy band performing on the BaME stage.
The Deputy Mayor came by to the Trans at Pride Stall and said he
was very impressed by the trans contribution to Pride this year.
All of the above has been overshadowed by this transphobic
bigotry and for me, this is such a shame.
I would urge everyone who took part in this year's Pride to
remember the good elements and cherish those memories.
However, we will pursue this matter to the end and we want to
ensure such an incident will never occur again.
Please keep an eye on Facebook for further developments -
we want to take a unified approach to confronting
Westminster City Council and the Metropolitan Police and
I would be grateful if everyone signed the petition which
Paige has so thoughtfully put up on the internet.
With anger, frustration and sadness but with a resolve to
make sure this never happens again at Pride,
Tessa
-x-
Stop Transphobia at Pride Facebook group:
http://www.facebook .com/group. php?gid=17295239 153&ref=mf
The petition URL is:
http://www.ipetitio ns.com/petition/Discrimina tionatPride/
The London Pride march and rally are now over for 2008. A lot of fun was had by many, but unfortunately Transphobia reared its ugly head at the Pride rally in Trafalgar Square.
At about 6:30 in the evening, Roz Kaveney, long time human rights campaigner, journalist and transsexual woman, needed to answer that most basic call of nature and use the loo. What happened next is the sort of thing one is used to reading about in reports of sexual discrimination cases against Transpeople. In Roz's own words:
Official stewards who were running the toilets at Trafalgar Square announced that I, and any other Transgender or Transsexual woman, had to use the disabled toilets and was not allowed to use the regular women's toilets. I pointed out to the stewards that I transitioned and had surgery before they were born; I was more polite than a polite thing. No dice.
I went and fetched a posse of Transwomen and Transmen and we made a collective fuss. Their response - and remember these were official stewards AT PRIDE - was to radio in "we're being attacked by a mob of trannies! send backup".
They were joined by a policeman, who was a LGBT liaison officer, who claimed that we had to be able to show our Gender Recognition Certificates if we wanted to use the women's loos and got quite upset when I explained to him that I had been involved in drafting the Act and that it did not take away rights that existed before it.
At one point he threatened to arrest us for demonstrating on private property - those loos belong to Westminster Council, so you are not allowed to make a fuss there.
At one point it was claimed that they had instituted this policy a few minutes earlier because a man had attacked a woman; at another they said it was official Health and Safety policy. I don't think it was particularly to do with how much I do or don't pass - I think I got read in part because I am so tall and turned up in the queue among a particularly short group of lesbians.
It was one of the most wretched experiences I have had in thirty years, only made positive by the love and solidarity of my community - including various transmen who proposed that, since they had no GRCs, they should be made to use the women's loos. Beards and all.
Christina Alley wrote:
I myself was subject to abuse. I was pushed back by security guards into a barrier which fell down. I was next to the steward (and the main target of the slur) when she radioed "there are a bunch of trannies here causing trouble, send back up', I had to ask the police liaison officer to calm down and stop talking loudly over Roz and I. Thankfully they saw sense in the end, allowed Roz to use the ladies', apologized to her (on my insistence) and then changed their policy. This incident highlighted the ignorance and lack of training for the stewards, security staff and the police LO. Thankfully, we were there to support Roz, but I wonder how many other trans women had been turned away beforehand and went home insulted and crushed. That this happened at PRIDE is deeply shocking and the wheels are already in motion to prevent it happening again!
Michael TGO Wrote:
This was such a disgusting incident and one that should not happen ANYWHERE, much less Pride London.
I feel so angry and emotional but in the end so privileged to have been part of that 'bunch of trannies' who protested this crass act.
In the end they got a radio message and said anyone can use any toilet they want' but we felt afterwards that that was just to get rid of us. This should not stop here!
Very much love and healing thoughts to Roz.
This raises a number of troubling issues:
1. •Transphobia and transmisogyny continues to be a problem in the wider queer movement. It's unthinkable that a steward would have refused entry to, for example, a butch lesbian (and to then be backed up by an LGBT liaison officer in that action), but such discrimination can still be casually directed at Transpeople.
2. •Making transfemale people at the rally the scapegoat for a reported sexual assault.
3. •An LGBT liaison officer, someone whose job requires the need of tact and sensitivity in dealing with LGBT people in situations where they may be experiencing abuse because of their gender identity or sexual orientation aggressively colluding in such abuseand threatening to arrest the victims of transphobic discrimination, rather than supporting them.
4. •The use of stewards for a supposed LBGT Pride event who have apparently had no sensitivity training for dealing with transpeople.
5. •A very large number of transgendered people were present at the Pride march and rally. For many, it is one of a very small number of places they feel safe enough to express their gender identity. Roz is a confident woman who has lived in her identified gender post operatively for 3 decades and was able to immediately find support and solace from other transpeople present. What's unclear is if something similar happened to other transgendered people, perhaps taking early tentative steps out in public, who then ended up leaving in tears with their confidence crushed.
6. •The actions of the police officer involved illustrate a worrying trend of using the Gender Recognition Act as a way to justify sexual discrimination against transpeople, which is very much a perversion of what the act was supposed to accomplish.
Sarah Bourke
Christine Burns
Wrote :
Sarah Bourke raises a very good point. Although Pride London isn't a public authority (and apparently deny responsibility for provision of the toilets at this event in any case), Westminster Council need to take account of this on two levels. Firstly, any person who is intending to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone gender reassignment and was denied access has a case under the Sex Discrimination (Amendment to Legislation) Regulations 2008. Secondly the provision of public toilet facilities should be subject to an Equality Impact Assessment and the council should ensure that stewards employed by organisations using Trafalgar Square and other public spaces do not unlawfully prevent transsexual people from using the facilities they are entitled to use. Among all the other avenues to be explored, the EHRC should be informed as a compliance notice could be issued for this.
I have just been on the phone talking with Emma Hands,
the Vice Chair for Pride London.
She is absolutely horrified that this incident occurred.
She informed me that the stewards looking after the toilets were contracted by Westminster City Council andwere outside the remit
of Pride London.
She has asked me to make a formal complaint to the Pride London
Board and it in turn will make a complaint to Westminster
City Council. I believe Pride London will make a formal statement to
this effect and condemn this incident.
As Chair of Trans at Pride, I am deeply upset by this unnecessary
and undignified incident.
Up until 6.30 this had been the best ever (London) Pride for
Trans people.
We had the greatest turnout ever - we think about 200 trans people participated in the march and there were countless others congregated
in the Square. We had a terrific band on the main stage and they performed brilliantly and professionally.
Shelly Cooper did a comedy set on the women's stage and we had a
Trans boy band performing on the BaME stage.
The Deputy Mayor came by to the Trans at Pride Stall and said he
was very impressed by the trans contribution to Pride this year.
All of the above has been overshadowed by this transphobic
bigotry and for me, this is such a shame.
I would urge everyone who took part in this year's Pride to
remember the good elements and cherish those memories.
However, we will pursue this matter to the end and we want to
ensure such an incident will never occur again.
Please keep an eye on Facebook for further developments -
we want to take a unified approach to confronting
Westminster City Council and the Metropolitan Police and
I would be grateful if everyone signed the petition which
Paige has so thoughtfully put up on the internet.
With anger, frustration and sadness but with a resolve to
make sure this never happens again at Pride,
Tessa
-x-
Stop Transphobia at Pride Facebook group:
http://www.facebook .com/group. php?gid=17295239 153&ref=mf
The petition URL is:
http://www.ipetitio ns.com/petition/Discrimina tionatPride/