The most joyful, hilarious and powerful placards at Trans+ Pride in London
All the very best placards from Trans+ Pride in London 2023. (PinkNews)
The very best placards at London’s Trans+ Pride 2023 showed it to be a celebration of trans power, beauty and brilliance, and a display of strength against transphobia and discrimination.
Over 35,000 trans people and allies – from the LGBTQ+ community and beyond – joined forces in central London to march for trans equality and justice on Saturday (8 June) at the fifth annual iteration of Trans+ Pride in the capital.
No one does placards quite like LGBTQ+ folks, and Trans+ Pride was a prime example of this.
From stunning, hand-painted banners that must’ve taken hours – if not days – to perfect, to pun-tastic offerings and powerful slogans scrawled on scraps of cardboard, Saturday’s march had the full spectrum of placard brilliance.
Here’s a round-up of the very best signage from Trans+ Pride in London 2023.
Marsha P Johnson, the Black trans activist who was on the frontline of the 1969 Stonewall Riots, which gave us Pride marches as we know them today, was commemorated with a beautiful banner in trans flag colours.
Solidarity from the wider LGBTQ+ community – including lesbians – was clearly on display with supportive placards, something that is particularly vital at a time when some anti-trans voices seek to divide and exclude trans folks under the guise of lesbian rights.
There were plenty of overtly political signs addressing refugee rights, incarceration and trans rights globally, and a special focus on the UK’s Conservative government, with plenty of chants from attendees about prime minister Rishi Sunak’s poor track record on trans rights.
Themes that really stood out in the placards on display included our common humanity – no matter how we identify and present ourselves – and the joy of the trans experience.
In a year when trans rights are increasingly under attack, particularly in the UK and the US, this delight and pride in transness is perhaps more vital than ever.
The trans community has had to be incredibly resilient in the face of legislative attacks on the community’s access to toilets, changing rooms, healthcare and ability to take part in sporting events in 2023, something that was reflected in a number of signs.
Trans+ Pride in London also featured wonderful placards representing the intersex community and highlighting the hypocrisy inherent in allowing medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex children, while attempting to ban consenting adults from undergoing life-saving gender-affirming surgery.
And then there were the placards that you can’t help but salute, because they’re so damn cheeky and hilarious.
What do we want? Trans rights! When do we want them? Yesterday, thank you.
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