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London Pride:

By Sophia Siedlberg

I have sort of kept quiet about this because pride festivals bore the hell out of me quite frankly. They have a huge one not far from where I live and to be honest it tends to consist mainly of people waving rainbow flags and corporate logos around. It sort of reminds me of that Advert for Honda that was out in 2006, with all the little rainbows and bunny rabbits with the word "HATE" written everywhere. I say that because the "Diversity" and "Unity" are often restrained affairs that pander to stereotypes.

However, this is precisely why London Pride sparked my interest last year when the oh so liberal organisers insisted that transsexual women use the men's toilets and pretty much turned a blind eye when the inevitable happened and one of them was sexually assaulted. The fact is there is a deep prejudice that runs in the LGBTQQXYZ community and this is the reason I as an intersexed individual have avoided pride festivals like the plague.

If they cannot deal with transsexual folks (This is obvious given that this year there are profound differences of opinion between London Pride and Trans@London more on that later). What chance have they of understanding the needs of intersex people?

They would probably call me as a "Subset of transgender". Well fine but it does not describe me or my experience. I think transsexual folks are also coming to similar conclusions about the LGBTQQXYZ movement as it currently stands.

If I am honest, I was quite shocked to read that in 2008 there was an incident where a number of transsexual women were told to use the male toilets. I was even more shocked to read that one of them had been sexually assaulted and the organisers of the Pride festival didn't seem to care much about it. In one sense this illustrates the point of many transsexual folks I have come across. They claim that the term "Transgender" is used to define them as "Men in dresses" and not the men or women they have become after surgery. In fairness to the organisers of London Pride I don't know fully what happened but this row about some policy on toilets is nothing new.

There is a fundamental problem with the LGBTQQXYZ movement as it stands and I do think it is about time they faced up to their own internalised prejudice. It is easy to explain, the letters LG and B refer to someone's sexual orientation relative to their anatomy, while sexual interest may break the "rules" of gender the LGB people of today don't. T is a sort of dustbin where anyone who does not physically conform to some unwritten ideal of absolutely male or female gets dumped. After "T" you sometimes get "I" meaning "intersex" (Notice how it starts to form a pecking order). At other times you get "GQ" which means "Gender Queer". Basically anything that comes after "T" (Including "T") tends to be more of a token gesture, or some sort of "Inclusion" that tends to describe a sort of distancing on the part of "LGB" from everyone else.

It is plainly evident that the first three letters refer to fixed members of one or the other sex and anything beyond "T" (Inclusive of "T") is regarded with some degree if contempt. why else would the organizers of a pride festival insist there are only two toilets, male and female, and insist that people are to use those toilets on the basis of the sex the organisers deem them to be. And don't think that this is about "Men in dresses wanting to use the female toilets" because it is not. that is a stereotype that is used to prop up such policies. A number of butch lesbians and feminine gay guys have probably faced difficult questions when wanting to use the toilets. the brutal truth of these festivals and the LGBTQQXYZ movement as a whole is that there is a deep intolerance of anyone who does not fit some absolute standard of male or female. as an intersexed individual I give such attitudes a very wide berth, because such attitudes got me mutilated, as a kid, without consent (Hence it being mutilation, I didn't consent to it). I am not going to go to any organisation or festival that gives credence to the attitudes that ruined my life as a child.

Does that mean to say I despise the London Pride organisation? no, because their argument is not with me, it is with transsexual folks, but their attitude does affect me and if I was confronted by the prejudice some transsexual folks have described I would be angry as well.

Look at the London Pride "Equality and diversity" page under "Trans"

"Trans - Convenor - Diana Taylor, Diana has for many years been the Trans advocate for Pride and has assisted pride London in some very complex issues and is very well respected and very well connected across many Trans circles. Diana took up the position in August 2009 (2008?) and has been a very vibrant organiser for pride and the Trans caucus. She will also head up the newly formed Equality and diversity task force that will be up and about on pride day to ensure that all is well and that no incidents occur and should they do then she is empowered to work with her team to resolve them."

What would they be doing having an "Equality and Diversity" page for a festival that is supposed to be celebrating "Equality and Diversity" in the first place? does this mean they still have to hold some people at arm's length and talk about "Equality and Diversity". It is like a rail company saying "We also employ train drivers under certain circumstances". (Perhaps this point it too subtle for them).

The most peculiar comment is this: "She (Diane Taylor) will also head up the newly formed Equality and diversity task force that will be up and about on pride day to ensure that all is well and that no incidents occur and should they do then she is empowered to work with her team to resolve them."

Was this "Equality and diversity team" set up to keep an eye on those trouble causers who don't obey the toilet rules? Again this is absurd, do rail companies have "Train driver teams" to ensure people don't drive trains?

It is patently obvious that there is some sort of prejudice at work here, and London Pride are finding it difficult to justify, but it looks a lot like they are trying to. Why mention "Incidents" under the "Trans" section of the "Equality and diversity" page which is basically an absurdity in any case considering Pride Festivals are about equality and diversity anyway.

I have no vested interest in any Pride Festival, I would never attend them, have no time for the rampant commercialism and the minority group I belong to is something they have no hope of understanding, unlike transsexual and actual transgender folks I would not even bother to try.

Now look at this account of how a London Pride representative described this years "Trans float" to a representative of Trans@London, Christina Alley:

"The Pride representative explained that the trans float would complement a float at the front of the march with members of the cast of the West End musical, "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". In her vision, onlookers would be delighted to see "Priscilla at the front and Priscilla at the back". As a coup de grace, a visible cordon of security stewards would surround the trans float, ostensibly for our own protection".

And the response from the head of London Pride, Paul Birrel:

"Regarding the objection to the float, the idea for it came from the trans community. What Christina said is a grotesque parody of what the float actually is. It's diminishing the hard work put in by the trans community.

Well the first and obvious question would be why does Paul Birrel think there needs to be a team of security guards "Ostensibly for their (Trans) own protection". Protection from who? surely a Pride festival would have general protection anyway. Again it makes little sense unless you see that there is prejudice from within the festival towards "Trans". As for the float itself, from what I can see it is stereotypical and pandering to the prejudices (Why have extra security if this was not so?).

I do hope that Trans@London and London Pride can resolve this, as an outside observer it seems such a pity to see what is supposed to be a festival about diversity appearing to be a festival about two sex system bullshit. That is my prejudice talking now, not the transsexual folks or the London Pride organisers.

It reminds me of the equality bill which seems to be anything but. if you do not conform to some hyper stereotypical ideal of male or female, and I am talking buccal smear tests and document checking here, not whether someone "Passes" or not.

London Pride like Stonewall UK and the people who put the "Equality bill" together need to realise that "Equality" means "Equality" not "Equality for the norm born and perfect" If London Pride want to show thier "Equality credentials" why don't they talk to the woman who was sexually assaulted because of their "Policy" or the elected members of the organisation that is criticising them.

A simple message to Paul Birrel would be "Get real", if your festival's policies cause someone to first be humiliated and then sexually assaulted, no amount of corporate spin or complaining about community ingratitude is going to change that fact. The fact that you responded with malignant indifference paints you as a bigot, that's life not the words of malcontents. The pride festival has nothing to do with my community anyway. If that is how you treat transsexual folks, don't expect other communities to be knocking on your door, the only people you will attract are corporate sponsors and accountants. But that is not what Pride festivals are supposed to be and never will be either.