In September 2019, 1,500 people assembled in London against the onslaught of anti-trans opinion and hate cults.  On July 26, 2025, that number rose above 100,000, double the previous year, with numbers consistently doubling or more year on year. Trans Pride+ London carries a lot of weight. It is a protest, an expression of rage, grief and hope, but also a celebration, a duty, and an occasion of mass solidarity.

In February this year YouGov summarised their latest findings on public attitudes to trans liberation by observing, “Scepticism towards transgender rights has grown across the board since 2022.” The results made grim reading for anyone who desires a more human world, one that overcomes queerphobia and its basis in the mire of class society. It showed the success of a media-backed campaign of hatred that should disturb and does threaten us all.

But just as attitudes have turned one way, they can be remade. It was the construction of a false consensus that took us to this juncture, but we can and will continue to organise against it and we are increasing our efforts. too.

Why we fight

We trans people have lost the rights to privacy, public space, healthcare and equality that liberals would tell us are inalienable and guaranteed under their increasingly threadbare governance. We have been victimised by spikes in violence, harassment and worse. We have been made the subject of dehumanising mockery. The world we endure is so far from the one we deserve, but on moments like this we more than endure: we demand and prefigure that different world.

Those out on the streets were not just trans people. Similar to the recent protest against the supreme court ruling there were spectacular displays of commonality. Not only from those who are friends, family and lovers of transgender folk, who are entangled in our lives, but from those who understand that solidarity during this period of reaction is fundamental to any socialist vision of the future – the only viable human future freed from oppression and exploitation.

Present were unions like UNISON and UNITE. Socialists and union activists are not mere allies. They made and continue to make common cause with trans existence in recognition of the unity of all the oppressed: against a system of racist, sexist, disablist capitalism that relentlessly extracts from humanity and planet, endangering every future. They understand that we come together to fight these battles because they are a shared obstacle to all of us.

Anti*Capitalist Resistance have been attending and reporting on London Trans+ Pride (and similar events elsewhere) since 2021 and was there in force this time, too. We were present with banners, placards and our latest leaflet Fuck Assimilation! Trans Liberation!

Cisgender attendees, alongside the trans people present, understood that a large turnout is an obligation, not to an abstract cause but to the freedom and lives of everyone. For trans folk and those closest to us that responsibility was mixed with aspirations and sadness – sadness at the losses we have already seen, faces missed and those crushed before we knew them. But grief is not a reason to despair but a cause to fight harder, a reminder of the enormous stakes.

A world to win

Amidst the pain, the celebration is just as crucial. There are human stories that can be obscured by the brutal weight of injustice, which are as political as comprehending the social forces and context. We can only develop our consciousness as oppressed people by sharing with each other who we are and why we persist.

London Trans+ Pride is known by trans folk for its afters – parties with music and dance and huddling that last far into the next day. These events also express trans solidarity and our unique subcultures; they are not secondary but a core of what the day means to many.

It is in the smoking areas of venues and bars we often come together and take stock, offer support, sometimes cry on shoulders, other times cling to one another to remind ourselves we are human. It is a chance to heal, but also to remember ourselves and that joy is the goal, joy is what we struggle for and the reason that struggle calls to us so powerfully. 

We trans people have been targeted because as a geographically dispersed, precarious group on the social margins those with power see an easy chance. We will win because our way of life puts the lie to one of the most basic illusions of class society: that all of this is natural, from the unpaid social reproductive labour of fems to being afforded such scant freedoms over even our own flesh. Trans people have defied so many expectations and we will continue to defy them because that is the same as survival.

It was not trans misery or defeat that moved 100,000 people to assemble loudly in London and march the pavements of our city, reclaiming our streets and angrily confronting an expectation that we become demoralised and cowed. It was trans joy, queer joy, that compelled and will compel resistance.

And when the world is remade by human resistance, trans joy will be a part of what remakes the world into one fit for human beings.

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