Trans Pride Brighton & Hove 2019 was on Saturday 20th July in Brunswick Square – the biggest event Trans Pride has ever done, with an impressive turn out of Queer people and allies! The show of support from the city and services was astounding, making this one of the most inclusive and awesome Trans Prides to date. Local MP Caroline Lucas even took to social media sharing how wonderful it was to see so many attendees, which reflects how far the UK is coming in terms of acceptance:
“Amazing turnout for #TransPrideBrighton – biggest Trans Pride event in Europe & home to the first ever #TransPride in UK 7 years ago”, highlighting what a “Wonderful celebration of all that’s been achieved.”
This year YMCA YAC and YMCA WiSE attended our first ever Trans Pride! YMCA YAC and YMCA WiSE recognised the importance of showing our support as allies to the Trans, Non-Binary, Intersex and Gender (TNBI+) variant community, hosting a stall offering information, advice, signposting and BADGE MAKING! We wanted to demonstrate the work we do to make our clients in the LGBTQ+ community feel accepted and safe when accessing our services.
During the event, YMCA YAC conducted research into ways of developing inclusivity throughout our service provision, looking for ways that we can involve the LGBTQ+ and TNIB+ community in informing our service development. As members of the community and working alongside many young people, it was a delight to get so much feedback and listen to the queer voices that are so often faced with erasure within institutional frameworks.
YMCA WiSE are looking to develop LGBTQ+ inclusive resources around healthy relationships, sex and consent. We were at Trans Pride asking the trans community what things they wish they had learnt at sex education at school. We were really impressed by how many amazing suggestions we got, covering issues such as different types of sexualities, relationships, pleasure and consent. We soon ran out of paper and space on our board!
It was a great day of pride, fun and empowerment for all involved and gave YMCA YAC and YMCA WiSE a great opportunity to demonstrate how much we care for members of the LGBTQ+ and TNBI+ community. It also gave us a chance to interact with many young people who we may not have previously engaged with – the aim is that the feedback from the queer community will help YMCA DLG to become more inclusive and to develop services influenced by queer people!
Scroll down for some photos from the day:
