Day: July 26, 2014

Following the huge success of the first Trans*Pride in 2013 this year’s event had much to live up to.

Organisers excelled themselves and delivered a carefully choreographed community event which had something for everyone. Crowds flocked to New Steine Gardens all day, helping create a wonderful carnival atmosphere, and they successfully managed to recapture the unique community feel of lasts year’s event.

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, was the keynote speaker. She spoke passionately about speeding up legislation to improve trans* rights and announced that she would be campaigning for a new Gender Identity Clinic for Brighton and Hove, which brought a huge roar from the crowd.

Caroline said: “I’m proud to be an MP for a city where Trans PRIDE is part of the annual calendar. This event is about celebrating all that’s been achieved by the LGBT community worldwide. It’s about celebrating diversity, and demanding total equality. Tolerance is not good enough – Trans rights are human rights.”

Singers, poets and musicians including: MC Smash, Seth Corbin, Jady Shaw and Sally Outen kept the huge crowds in the gardens entertained all afternoon.

Local voluntary sector organisations had stalls round the park which were busy all day. They included Transformer at Allsorts, Clare Project, Brighton and Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum, FTM Brighton, Gendered Intelligence, Sussex Police, Broken Rainbow, Unite, Wise, THT, LGBT Trans Action, MindOut, Survivors’ Network and Stonewall Housing.

Sponsors for Trans*Pride were Broken Rainbow, the LGBT Domestic Violence charity.

A spokesperson for Broken Rainbow said: “Broken Rainbow UK is delighted to be sponsoring Trans* Pride Brighton again this year. As a charity we have been supporting the trans* communities for over 10 years with our national LGBT Domestic Violence Helpline and other support and awareness services. We are very pleased to be able to extend this support to the self-organised celebration of Trans* Pride Brighton. We believe this year’s event will be even better than the first in 2013.”