Euphoric portraits of queer joy and resistance at Trans Pride Brighton
- Text by Ella Glossop
- Photography by Ella Glossop
Let us piss — Now over a decade old, the event grew to become Europe’s largest trans pride march. In a year when trans rights have come under the microscope more than ever, we went to this year’s edition, finding grassroots unity and collective rage.
When it was founded in 2013, Trans Pride Brighton was the first UK event of its kind, created to celebrate and advocate for the rights of transgender people. Since then, what started as a small gathering has seen double the number of attendees every three years, according to its organisers – growing to become the largest trans demonstration in the world outside of the US, until last year when London Trans+ Pride overtook them both.
Although a huge 30,000 people were estimated to have attended this year, the event remains an entirely grassroots and community-led organisation run by volunteers. In a year marked by widespread rollbacks to trans rights in the UK and beyond, the day still feels like a protest above all. Signs like an open toilet seat marked with the words “LET US PISS” are both tongue-in-cheek and gravely serious – referencing the April Supreme Court ruling that makes it harder than ever for trans people to access gendered spaces.
“We’ve got so much to protest for: the Supreme Court is taking away our rights, the judiciary are pissing on us from a large height, and we are here to fight back,” Sarah Savage, founder of Trans Pride Brighton, tells Huck as she single-handedly heads up the crowd along the seafront. “We’re here to show that we are not going to stand around and let it happen to us. We are trans, we are power and we are not gonna fucking stop.
While Brighton’s main Pride event has sparked growing criticism and boycotts – largely due to the presence of corporate floats including Coca-Cola – Brighton Trans Pride’s grassroots origins are visible in every corner of the day. The street party takes place in an alleyway outside a beloved queer pub, strung with cardboard signs and trans flags tied to scaffolding with string. Speeches are delivered from makeshift stages, with the crowd perched onto road curbs to listen.
The day is rounded off with a surprise performance from Kate Nash, who appears in the humbly-sized Dorset Gardens wearing trans-flag striped fairy wings, as onlookers clamber onto the railings to hear her rallying call: “According to Home Office figures, this country has seen an increase in hate crimes towards trans people,” she yells, lyrics from her new fiercely pro-Trans anthem, ‘GERM’. “And cis women,” she continues, “are supposed to focus on a threat we have yet to see manifest from a small minority of the country, who are struggling to stay safe themselves!”
“I’m the first cis person to play at Trans Pride Brighton, I feel really honoured to be here,” she tells Huck. “I wanted, on musical record in history, a declaration from a cis ally for trans people to state the facts about what feminism is, about what is actually a danger to women – and that it is not trans people.”
“We’re here to show that we are not going to stand around and let it happen to us. We are trans, we are power and we are not gonna fucking stop.” Sarah Savage, Trans Pride Brighton founder
When her set is finished, the organisers flood onto the stage and fall into a hug. It’s a moment that feels disarmingly intimate for an event of this scale – the kind of closeness that only comes from something built entirely by and for the community it represents. Distinct from the glossy commercialism that has sometimes come to define mainstream Pride, Trans Pride Brighton’s power lies in its authenticity, bolstered by the knowledge that it’s needed more than ever.
Huck photographer Ella Glossop went along to the event to capture the rage, euphoria and queer joy of the day.
Ella Glossop is Huck’s social lead. Follow her on Bluesky.
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