“When trans rights are under attack, what do we do? We resist!” This chant by the group Trans Kids Deserve Better set the tone for London Trans+ Pride on July 26, which brought together more than 100,000 people on the streets of the British capital, breaking last year’s record of 60,000 protesters. By way of comparison, the Riposte Trans organized in France and Belgium in May 2024 brought together 25,000 people nationwide, significant figures for these two countries.
The scale of the London march can be explained by a series of unprecedented attacks on trans people in the UK. For example, the Labour government upheld a ban, introduced under the Conservative government, on prescribing puberty blockers for trans minors. The government also supported the British Supreme Court’s decision to base the legal definition of a woman on biological sex, thereby excluding trans women from women-only benefits.
These unprecedented attacks are occurring in the first European country to legalize sex designation change on civil status records. This profound regression can be explained by the crisis of British capitalism, the rise of the Far Right, and increasing militarization, which are linked to pronatalist policies that reinforce gender discrimination and promote the heterosexual and patriarchal family model. But these attacks are also part of a larger offensive against the most exploited and oppressed sectors of the working class: Starmer and the Labour Party to be left-wing, yet they are complicit in genocide through their support for Israel, and they are implementing harsh austerity measures and a xenophobic and racist agenda against immigrants, taken directly from the far-right platform.
A Massive Mobilization Expressing an Urgent Need to Organize
In the spirit of understanding attacks on trans people as part of a broader attack on the working class as a whole, many demonstrators gave radical speeches about the connection between Starmer’s transphobic policies and the need for alliances with other sectors of the proletariat. A delegation from Du Pain et des Roses (Bread and Roses) attended the march engaged with many activists.
Josh, a queer person we interviewed, explained that they were supporting the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners collective. The collective, they told us, “celebrates solidarity between miners and the LGBTQ+ community,” adding, “The idea that the working class is reactionary and anti-trans is a false cliché. We must unite against Starmer’s government.”
During the speeches, activist Samantha Lang said, “Our community of trans Latina women suffers from colonial scars and attacks from the politicians. Most of us have no choice but to work in the sex industry because we are discriminated against and denied work altogether!”
Many protesters also expressed their support for Palestine, affirming the importance of linking trans struggles with those against imperialism. In the UK, the movement in support of Palestine is massive, bringing together hundreds of thousands of people, including many queer and trans people who understand the link between these two struggles.
The British media outlet Novara highlighted the voices of many trans and queer participants who linked the defense of trans and LGBTQ+ rights to the struggle against colonial oppression in Palestine. Indeed, the British government continues to support Israel, not only diplomatically but also by exporting weapons used by the occupying army. Protesters denounced the instrumentalization of LGBTQ+ rights by Israel and imperialist states to justify the genocide in Gaza.
Bread and Roses Marches for Feminist and Internationalist Solidarity
Du Pain et des Roses (Bread and Roses) activists from France attended the march last Saturday. It was important for us to join this struggle as queers and feminists, but also more generally as communists and revolutionary activists of the Trotskyist Faction, the international organization we are part of with Left Voice and several other sister organizations in Argentina, Mexico, Germany, the Spanish State, and so on. Given the ruling classes’ global offensive against both trans and LGBTQ+ people, and reproductive rights, building an international response is more crucial than ever. These reactionary, gender-based attacks come at a time when progressive neoliberalism is in crisis, heralded by Trump’s return to the White House and rollbacks of democratic rights, while imperialist powers are increasing their military budgets and preparing their populations for war. Participating in London Trans Pride was a way to express our support for those fighting in the UK while affirming that our struggle transcends borders.
This mobilization must inspire us in France and elsewhere to once again take to the streets in the face of looming transphobic offensives.
London Trans Pride, through its scale and determination, must serve as an example to us. It demonstrates that tens of thousands of people can unite to defend trans and LGBTQ+ rights. We must, however, also infuse it with the logic of class struggle and revolutionary feminism.
While the organizers of the London march banned political parties, conflating revolutionary left organizations with the betrayals of the Labour Party, we must seek to mobilize beyond the trans community alone, for example, in the labor movement and across all exploited and oppressed sectors of the working class, in order to expand the reach of our movements and create the social force that can bring reactionary governments to their knees.
Through the participation of Bread and Roses in the march, we also wanted to affirm that our struggle does not stop at borders, and that we are ready to fight on both sides of the Channel for trans rights while building a resolutely revolutionary, working-class, anti-racist, anti-imperialist, and anti-militarist feminism.
This article was originally published in French on July 31, 2025 in Révolution Permanente.
The post London Trans+ Pride 2025: A Historic Mobilization for Trans Rights in the UK appeared first on Left Voice.