The following is a joint statement from the LGBTIQA+ Greens Committee and the Feminist Greens Committee, regarding recent decisions by Pride organisations to not allow political parties participation in their parades.
Pride is a protest and trans rights are human rights.
Following Manchester, Birmingham, London and Brighton, more and more Pride organisations are resolving not to allow political parties official participation in their parades. We can see why.
The ILGA ranks European nations on the basis of laws and policies which have a direct impact of LGBTIQA+ people’s lives. This week they released the 2025 index which shows the UK – having topped the list in 2015 – has now fallen to 22nd of the 49 countries. Yes, the rot started under the Tories but it has continued under this Labour government, with the UK dropping six places in just the last year.
Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting have attacked trans people’s healthcare and human rights and have eroded trans people’s ability to thrive free from discrimination, harassment, abuse, and violence. They have introduced the first new anti-LGBTIQA+ legal restrictions since Thatcher’s hated Clause 28.
The recent appalling Supreme Court judgement and the rushed, bigoted and legally dubious Equalities and Human Rights Commission ‘interim guidance’ which followed have compounded the government’s attacks.
We all know there are parties and politicians who will never be on the side of LGBTIQA+ people. Farage’s Reform and the Tories under Badenoch have made that clear. But the responsibility to reverse this horrific downward spiral is on all parties who claim to stand up for us – and that includes the Green Party of England and Wales.
We can be proud of many of our policies and much of our practice. But when we fall short – when leading members fail to stand in support of trans rights – we must acknowledge that and work to fix it. Otherwise we will not win – and will not deserve – support from and the trust of LGBTIQA+ communities in England & Wales.
As Greens we have our issues with the way some commercial Pride festivals have operated – particularly in accepting sponsorship from companies pinkwashing complicity in the genocide in Gaza and in worsening the climate crisis. We will continue to encourage Prides to reject this “support” and express solidarity with those Pride festivals which do so.
Being barred from Prides, as a party, hurts. But as representative organisations we must channel this hurt into action. We must ensure that our party and our leadership rise ever more readily to the challenge in front of us. We encourage everyone disappointed by these bans to do the same, whatever your party.
LGBTIQA+ Greens Committee
Feminist Greens Committee