‘This earth is for all of us’ First-ever Tower Hamlets Trans+ Pride event held in Mile End Park
Despite the rain, the borough saw the first-ever Tower Hamlets Trans+ Pride event this weekend with speeches, free resources and a picnic.
Tower Hamlets hosted the borough’s first-ever Trans+ Pride event on Saturday 15 February, celebrating our borough’s transgender and gender non-conforming residents and ‘reclaiming space’ with performances and a picnic in Mile End Park.
The event was organised by a combination of residents, businesses, and activists, and was spearheaded by Adam Khan. Khan, who uses xe/they pronouns, moved to Tower Hamlets a year and a half ago to start a master’s degree.
Khan is an award-winning activist for their work creating safe spaces for marginalised communities and one of the current organisers of London Trans+ Pride. London Trans+ Pride, which started in 2019, welcomed an estimated 55,000+ people last year, making it the largest trans+ pride march in the world.
Despite the size of the London event, Khan wanted a chance to build community on a local scale. ‘It’s a very well-connected borough,’ Khan said, ‘However, there’s a kind of sense of lack of communication and especially if you’re new to an area it’s quite hard to find out about everything that’s going on.’
‘We’re reclaiming trans land, this earth is for all of us,’ they said.
The event was supported by a range of organisations and businesses, including Common Press, The Scarlett Letters, Pelican House, The Love Tank CIC, ELOP, Tower Hamlets LGBT+ Forum, Hackney Queertopia, London Trans+ Pride, Queen Mary Students’ Union, and Barts and the London Students Association. Supporters shared food and drink as well as free resources on the day.
Poets, musicians, and activist speakers also performed on the day. Most performers and some of the organisations involved preferred not to be named online for safety reasons.
This year’s Tower Hamlets Trans+ Pride was a test run, to see what interest and engagement for the event is like in the borough. If the organisers decide it was a success, Tower Hamlets Trans+ Pride may become an East End staple.
See photos from the event by photographer Daria Serhiienko below:
If you liked this read Celebrating Pride amidst adversity: the resilience of trans and non-binary residents in Tower Hamlets
