Celebrities and campaigners gathered at London’s Mandrake Hotel for the official launch of London Trans+ Pride 2025, set to take place on Saturday, July 26.
Following last year’s record-breaking turnout, which saw more than 60,000 people take to the streets, organisers are preparing for what they hope will be the largest and most impactful Trans+ Pride yet.
The 2025 march will carry the theme “Existence and Resistance,” responding directly to what organisers claim is a hostile political climate for trans+ people in the UK.
The launch event united prominent figures from across the LGBTQ+ community, including Munroe Bergdorf, MAFS star Ella Morgan, Heartstopper’s Bel Priestley, musician Romy, Sex Education actress Anthony Lexa as well as What It Feels Like for a Girl stars Hannah Jones and Alex Thomas-Smith.
They were also joined by youth activists from Trans Kids Deserve Better.
Speaking on a panel alongside Bergdorf, London Trans+ Pride co-founder Lewis G Burton shared: “This year's theme is 'Existence and Resistance,' in response to the recent UK Supreme Court ruling.
“We are here to remind each other that we're not going anywhere. We are loved. These legislative things can come into place, but you will not get rid of us.
“You cannot remove us from society.”
The panel explored the impact of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling, which determined that the legal definition of “man” and “woman” should be based on “biological sex”, concluding that any other definition would be “incoherent and unworkable”.
Bergdorf also shared a personal reflection on the meaning of London Trans+ Pride: “That’s what I love so much about London Trans Pride — I arrive feeling stressed and then I leave feeling galvanised and seen and loved and held.”
Now in its seventh year, this year’s London Trans+ Pride march asks for a total ban on conversion therapy, fully funded gender-affirming healthcare and legal recognition for non-binary people.
As organisers put it: “We don’t want special treatment — we want to live in peace, to love freely, to build our futures without fear.”
Earlier this month, LGBT artists including singer and actor Olly Alexander decried the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman and expressed fears trans people are being “villainised more than ever” at Pride in London.
Writer Shon Faye and the lead actor in the BBC drama What It Feels Like For A Girl, Ellis Howard, also criticised the judgment.
Former Years And Years singer Alexander told the PA news agency: “Trans people right now, they need our support and love more than ever, they’re being villainised, demonised in the press, by a lot of the media, and trans people they’re just like us… they’re you, they’re me.
“They deserve the same respect, the same rights, the same privileges, same opportunities, and that’s why pride is so important this year.”
The solo artist and Eurovision 2024 contestant added: “There’s been a real backlash against DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) policies and that’s been going on for years, and I think we’re in a bit of a swing, that’s going against where we were maybe five years ago.
“We’ve had the Supreme Court ruling and I feel like a lot of trans people are scared, rightfully scared, they don’t understand… what their lives are going to look like.”
In April the Supreme Court ruled the words “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex.
