Trans Pride Brighton 2016

So Christmas has happened, its been and gone and we are going to have to wait another year for it to come round. This year was bigger and better than ever, and over 1500 people attended the protest march and well over 4000 people made it onto the park itself. 

As per usual I was with my adopted child FTMBrighton mainly, which was an amazing success thanks to the beautiful pronoun badges designed by Finn and 48 hours of hard fucking graft by a fair few people to make 2500 for 3 different stalls. This year was the first year of NOTA being around and Brawlers were also there bringing a huge crowd talking about skating. We are also finally in hopefully the last stages of changing FTMB’s name to something far more inclusive, which I’m happy about. 

After my speech on the main stage (yes I still can’t believe they let me fucking speak) I was both thanked for speaking up for queer disabled people and avoided by a few others. I promised myself that I would never mention the events or why I was avoided, or even who, but in all honestly it did me a huge favour that I could actually relax in the park without fear. Although one thing got answered for me thanks to my quick observations and I now know why all this shit has been allowed to happen. 

Now I know what you are thinking, because both my partners are on the committee, I’m going to sugar coat everything. No. I am not. For starters there was some transphobia that happened in the park, I felt that whilst an effort had been made, there was still not enough POC representation across the whole park (such as there being not many POC specific organizations involved) and the stage was not accessible to wheel chair users. These are things that have been noted and will be addressed for next year. Also some of the atendees were still shitty about sex workers being there and people shit talking about the people not wanting the police there. There should be platforms for people to talk about why the police do not make trans and queer spaces not safe and those people should not be shut up, but instead should be allowed to talk freely about their experience. 

I would like to say that “screaming toenails” are a fucking amazing band and that I want to see so much more of them! Also anyone who has an issue with them saying “ACAB” and “Black Lives Matter” on the stage should reevaluate their thought process because they had every right to say it on a protest stage. I could go on and on about how I personally feel that police shouldn’t be involved in anything trans pride related but that would take a long time and we are on this blog post to talk about trans pride itself. 

The acts were amazing and so were the speakers. The volunteers worked their butts off. It was also Phoenix’s last trans pride volunteering and I would like to say how amazing they have been with it all. They have put in so much work and so many hours and they deserve a fucking medal for everything they have been through. 

We also attended the gig that happened at west hill hall. All the acts were really good and we had so much fun. The next day we did the picnic at the Marlborough pub and it was really good. I met so many wonderful people 

I can’t wait for next years one. Its truly the only pride worth going to. 

Trans Pride Brighton Speech 2016

I spoke on the main stage on Saturday. I would like to say thank you to everyone who attended, the 4000+ people.Trans pride is my favourite part of Brighton and I feel fucking humble to have had that couple of minutes on stage. 

I have put my speech up here, so if anyone wanted to read it, please feel free to read it. Apologies for spelling and punctuation as it was the only draft, and my dyslexia would have kicked in. 

When I was asked to talk about my trans intersectionality I was like “cool” I can do this. Then I remembered, I cover a lot of boxes! And I’ve got a fear of public speaking

I’m bisexual, that’s probably covered. I’m a person of faith, I’m poly, I’m on the spectrum, have epilepsy, tourettes and I’m disabled. I think That covers a lot of boxes. 

My “disabilities” are pretty hidden. I get tired a lot, I am in more persciption medication that you can probably legally aquire and I black out and sometimes have seizures. If I included all my mental health issues I would be here longer than the few mins I’m allocated. 

When I joined FTMB committee (and after a while the trans alliance committee) I was totally honest with them. I’m clinically insane, I have involuntary outbursts at stressful times and physically I will be unable to perform even the basic of tasks. They took me in with open arms, told me that I can do this and inside this bizarly and sometimes broken brain of mine is actually a highly intellectual human being. Both groups were highly supportive when I said that I was a non binary trans masculine person. That I would never be just a average man. 

I haven’t exactly had the greatest experience in coming out as non binary trans man, I have experanced some of the most hateful treatment and most of it from binary trans people. I have had to leave services and I have lost friends because they didn’t believe that anything other then the binary was legitimate. I was also told in emails by well known trans people that I should resign from my volunteer roles because of this. 

Whilst its had its ups and downs, my transition and disability has not held me back. Last year I was offered the job by Josh to run a page called homos, heteros and a whole lot more with one if my partners, and we are now only a couple of hundred people away from 50,000 followers and have over a million people every week viewing our content. It gave me a platform to write about being queer and disabled and with the thanks to josh, my partners and my family I’m now slowly writing a book. 

I spent a lot of my life being stuck in a bubble where I was unable to communicate and because of FTMB and the wonderful people around me I am now able to speak here in front of you. 

Thank you