As the Pride in London parade was about to get underway today, a group of transphobic lesbians commandeered the lead spot and handed out flyers protesting transgender folks.
Although not sanctioned by parade organizers, the group of trans exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) were allowed to lead the parade.
From Gay Star News:
A group of lesbian activists blocked the start of the Pride in London march today (7 July) in protest against transgender women. A group of eight women stormed the parade route without accreditation. Then five of them laid down on the road in front of the parade and draped a banner over them.
The banner read: ‘Transactivism erases lesbians’. They then blocked the parade route for about 10 minutes. One of the activists shouted out: ‘A man who says he’s a lesbian is a rapist.’
The group also had a banner that said ‘Lesbian = female homosexual’, as well as flyers with the organization ‘Get the L out’ as the headline.
PinkNews journalist Nick Duffy was covering the parade and tweeted that he was being blocked from capturing video of the anti-trans group even though he was accredited to cover the event.
Duffy witnessed a confrontation at the end of the parade route erupt between the women and other LGBT attendees, angry that Pride had been high-jacked by a group seeking to exclude trans people.
One of the women protesting told PinkNews, “We want to get the L out of Pride, a man cannot be a lesbian, a person with a penis cannot be a lesbian.”
One of the people involved in the confrontation told PinkNews, “They hate trans people, they hate sex workers … they are just as bad as bigots saying gay people go to hell. It’s disgusting, this is a problem with what Pride has become.”
Duffy has posted a 47 minute report from the front of the parade on Facebook here.
Initially, Pride in London issued a statement saying Pride parades have historically always had a degree of protest:
“Every year people come to Pride for reasons that matter to the community. As we found in our recent Pride Matters report, 24% of people say a Pride is protest. 78% said it was a celebration. We are pleased that the parade set off as planned and that hundreds of thousands of Londoners are demonstrating that Pride still matters.”
Later, the organizer amended their statement to say the ‘hot weather' was a factor in the decision to allow the group to lead:
“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 people does not overshadow the messages of the 30,000 people marching today.”
Disgraceful that anti-trans protestors were allowed to lead #prideinlondon today. @prideinlondon need to apologise immediately for allowing this to happen. These people should never be allowed to march at pride again. LGBT Labour stand shoulder to shoulder with our trans members.
— LGBT+ Labour (@LGBTLabour) July 7, 2018
Imagine being trans, coming to LGBT Pride in London, and discovering that there is a group at the front with a banner declaring that trans folks “erase” lesbians. I hope @PrideInLondon will act quickly and decisively – from one feed I saw they appeared to be leading the march!
— Dougie Robertson (@d0ug7a5) July 7, 2018
London Pride this year, first group to pass was TERFs with a “transactivism erases lesbians” banner. Almost got in trouble with police shouting at them to fuck off. Pride is a riot, and I won’t stand quietly while I’m told I’m not welcome at pride as a trans lesbian.
— Laura Kate Dale – Mastodon "@[email protected]" (@LaurakBuzz) July 7, 2018
https://twitter.com/HRFMichael/status/1015604197260185601
https://twitter.com/_miaburt/status/1015555406297526272
