This Saturday July 28, Dublin will play host to its first Trans Pride March. Inspired by similar events which took place in Scotland and the North, it’s been organised by a group of young trans activists who felt that recent Pride celebrations didn’t do enough to highlight the concerns of trans people in the community.

Starting at Liberty Hall, the Trans Pride March will make its way through the city with an aim to raise awareness for issues such as better trans healthcare, a change in the legislation regarding intersex genital mutilation (IGM) on intersex babies, more focus on tackling hate crimes, legislation for non binary people and gay conversion therapy amongst others.

For those who think these issues were already contained under the Dublin Pride umbrella, recent disturbing events show there are dangerous views out there, which the community as a whole need to be aware of.

At the start of the month, the London Pride march was hijacked by a group of lesbian TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) who were inexplicably allowed by confused organisers to lead the parade along a huge portion of the route. This group handed out flyers to onlookers with the title – ‘Get The L Out’, a nonsensical rant about the belief that the trans rights movement causes lesbian erasure and endangers cis women. Nothing more than very poorly, in fact, invisibly disguised bigotry, the group also encouraged lesbian women to leave the LGBT+ community and start their own movement away from those who would support trans folk.

Imagine you were a young trans person and this was your first Pride? Imagine believing you were in a rare safe space only to see a parade led by people who wanted your erasure from a community you thought you were part of?

It gets worse.

The University of Limerick recently conducted the Hate and Hostility Research Group, which revealed that ‘inclusive’ Ireland has one of the highest rates of hate crime against trans people in the EU and there are no laws to specifically address it. The report stated this absence of proper legislation has led to a “policy vacuum” in relation to crimes motivated by prejudice.

This upcoming Trans Pride may be more of a protest march than a parade, but that’s because it needs to be. The roots of Pride were in protest and solidarity. We all stand together, or else there’s no point.

Those boots were made for marching, people. Trans folk and allies, get out there on July 28 and support our trans family.

For those who can’t make it to Dublin, keep an eye on GCN’s Facebook page from 2pm where we will be hosting live streams of the day’s events.