Trans Kids Deserve Better stage ‘die-in’ outside Supreme Court: ‘Our dignity is dead’
A coffin was placed outside the Supreme Court in the UK. (Trans Kids Deserve Better)
A coffin was placed outside the Supreme Court in the UK. (Trans Kids Deserve Better)
A group of young transgender activists have staged a “die-in” outside the Supreme Court to protest against transphobia in the UK.
Dressed in black, the youngsters, representing direct-action group Trans Kids Deserve Better, placed a coffin with the trans flag painted along its sides and the word “dignity” written on the lid, outside the doors of the Supreme Court in London’s Parliament Square. Others stood behind them, holding flowers and waving flags.
The protest comes hot on the heels of London Trans Pride and the court’s ruling which determined that the 2010 Equality Act’s definition of sex referred to “biological sex” and of woman referred to “biological” women.
“Here lie the trans kids this government said they care about,” one of the activists, Imogen, said during the protest. “We gather in grief and rage to remember the trans kids who were told they mattered, until they asked to be heard.
“We were promised safety, autonomy and a voice, but our dignity is dead.”
The action aimed to highlight what protestors saw as the removal of young trans people’s “basic dignity”, and to make clear that the court verdict had paved the way for further attacks on the transgender community as a whole.
A statement from Trans Kids Deserve Better read: “We remember these kids, not as statistics on some research paper, not at a political debate, but as people – as kids.
“Some were shy, some were bold. Some had just found their name while others were still searching. They played video games and drew doodles in class when they should’ve been listening. They had favourite colours and inside jokes. Some had crushes they didn’t know how to talk about yet. They were, in every way that mattered, full of life.”
Speaking to PinkNews ahead of London Trans Pride, a spokesperson for the group emphasised the need for direct action “in the face of increasing government opposition”.
Activists have previously spray-painted slogans of trans solidarity on the walls outside NHS England’s headquarters in London.
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