Northern Ireland hosts its first ever trans pride
Trans pride in Belfast. (Trans Pride NI/Alicia Perry)
Northern Ireland hosted its first ever trans pride in Belfast on Saturday.
According to Trans Pride NI, the group behind the festival, hundreds of people went to the event, which was also the first trans pride on the island of Ireland, in Writer’s Square.
Trans Pride NI wrote on Facebook: “Yesterday people from all backgrounds, of different ages, genders, religions,cultures, political views & identities all came together as one.
“Equality is equality is equality, no exceptions!”
The body thanked those who attended the pride, including people from GenderJam, Gender Essence, SAIL NI, NonBinary NI, and NonBinary Ireland.
Feminist and women’s groups, too, were present – like the Belfast Feminist Network and DV & SV Helpline.
Trans pride in Belfast. (Trans Pride NI/Alicia Perry)
Political representatives also attended the event, including those from Sinn Féin, UUP, Green Party, and Alliance Party.
The group will be organising another trans pride next year, which it says will be “bigger and better.” Trans Pride NI also added that it will be holding “future inclusive events.”
According to Trans Pride NI’s WordPress site, the organisation’s aims include benefitting the “public by changing attitudes towards all trans people, including those with disabilities, in Northern Ireland.”
Trans Pride also wants to “celebrate gender diversity and the achievements of all trans people,” and “ensure gender equality for all trans people” in Northern Ireland.
PinkNews has contacted Trans Pride NI for comment.
Trans rights activists, including Fox Fisher, praised the trans pride event.
“Congratulations to Trans Pride Ireland for your very first event,” Fisher wrote on Twitter.
“Really exciting times for change and support of trans people.”
(FoxFisher/Twitter)
Also on Saturday, thousands of people marched through central Belfast to protest against the ban on same-sex marriage.
A simultaneous march pushing for gay marriage in the country took place in Londonderry.
(SMcCrystall/Twitter)
The march in central Belfast was led by the city’s Lord Mayor Nuala McAllister. It culminated in a mass-rally in front of City Hall, hosted by The Fall actor Bronagh Waugh.
According to events organisers Love Equality, the organisation leading the campaign for gay marriage in the country, some 20,000 people attended the march in Northern Ireland’s capital.
Speakers at the rally included Conor McGinn MP, a Labour MP, whose private members’ bill to bring marriage equality to Northern Ireland was stymied last monthwhen a Conservative MP objected to its second reading in Parliament.
Ailbhe Smyth, a lesbian activist and founder of the Marriage Equality campaign, also spoke at the march.
