In the early hours of 25 June, young trans activists from Trans Kids Deserve Better made their way to the top of Havering Town Hall. Their mission was to hang the Progress Pride flag and two Transgender flags from the Town Hall flagpoles.

They also put up a banner, reading, “YOU CAN’T KILL PRIDE – XOXO TKDB”. This was a response to Keith Prince, Reform UK head of Havering Council, cancelling the raising of the Pride Flag at Havering Town Hall during Pride Month.

Havering Town Hall has flown a Pride flag every Pride Month for nearly a decade. Under their new Reform UK council, queer people in Havering have been stripped of having their pride represented above their Town Hall, instead being subject to a rushed attempt to cancel Pride in Havering.

Since the cancelling of the flag tradition, residents of Havering have made it known that they’re against the decision. A Havering Pride March took place right outside the Town Hall in protest. Despite this, the council has not rolled back its decision. To justify this, Prince stated:

The only other events we will be flying flags for will be to recognise our heroes like the armed forces and veterans who do so much for our country.

By refusing to fly the Pride Flag for this reason, Prince diminishes the heroic efforts of queer people fighting for liberation, and the continual struggles faced by the community.

Havering is a snapshot of Reform’s nonsense

Cancelling a Pride ceremony is only the start of what Reform UK wants to do to invalidate the LGBTQIA+ community in the UK. Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, stated in reference to queer people on LBC:

Most of those that I’ve spoken to don’t think there’s any need for Pride Month whatsoever. They’ve got equal treatment, they’ve got equal rights, they’ve got everything they campaigned for for decades.

This couldn’t be much further from the truth. From the Supreme Court ruling, defining a woman by assigned sex at birth, to the murder of Brianna Ghey, queer and especially trans people do not have ‘equal treatment’, ‘equal rights’, or everything the community has campaigned for. And that’s why the campaigns continue in the face of discrimination.

When asked why they decided to organise and take part in this action, this is what one member of Trans Kids Deserve Better had to say:

Pride will never die, because the more Reform try to repress it, the closer it will get to its radical roots. Pride started as an uprising, and it will continue as such.

Reform failed in Durham, because queer solidarity from the 1980s did not go forgotten, and they failed in Havering because pride need not seek permission.

True pride is honouring the activists who fought tooth and nail for the visibility we have now. True pride is not in the parade, but in the bloc- fighting for collective liberation one banner, one chant, and one long night of arrestee support at a time.

You can’t kill pride, you can’t kill queer joy, and we will keep fighting for pride despite the disapproval of Reform UK.

Featured image supplied

By The Canary

From Canary via This RSS Feed.