The first Reclaim Pride march occurred this Saturday (24 July) to bring Pride events back to their roots.
LGBTQ+ activists and allies carried banners, flags and chanted phrases urging for less commercialized Pride events in the UK.
The march took place throughout central London and went through landmark areas like Parliament Square and 10 Downing Street.
Reclaim Pride demonstrators also tackled the lack of rights and protections for the trans community.
Natalie June-Whitaker, one of the event’s attendees, opened up to Reuters about the disruption of trans rights taking place.
“We are seeing… increased amounts of transphobic articles [in the media],” she said. “[They are] attacking trans people and increasing anti-trans rhetoric.”
Alongside the rising numbers of transphobia within the country, many activists have called on the government to reform the outdated Gender Recognition Act (GRA).
Back in September 2020, Liz Truss – Minister for Women and Equalities – announced that the GRA would not be reformed, despite the Government’s own consultation on the matter finding overwhelming public support for allowing self-ID.
The march also highlighted the lack of racial diversity at the commercialized annual Pride events.
UK Black Pride executive director, Lady Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, expressed the importance of diversity in a statement.
“We’re here to say that Pride is about inclusion,” she told Reuters. “It’s about diversity, about speaking truth to power on a number of different issues for our trans non-binary siblings and for Black Lives Matter.”
Huge thanks to @ukblackpride & @MsLadyPhyll for a their support for UK’s first #ReclaimPride march today. Thousands celebrated AND protested for LGBTI+ rights. We told Boris Johnson to stop stalling on LGBTI+ rights! And expressed solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter & PoC x pic.twitter.com/5WmphxzPzW
— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) July 24, 2021
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