This week, the Labour government hosted a Pride reception at Number 10 Downing Street, complete with warm speeches, photo ops in the garden, and a rainbow flag flying high.
On the surface, it looked like progress. But for many LGBTQ+ people, especially trans people, it felt more like performance than principle.
Because while Labour was celebrating Pride, it was also helping to roll back the rights of the very people Pride exists to defend.
Let’s be clear. The erosion of trans rights didn’t begin with Labour. The Conservatives laid the groundwork. But since taking power in July 2024, Labour has chosen not to reverse that damage, but to deepen it.
Within months of forming a government, Labour extended the ban on puberty blockers for trans youth, making what was a temporary Tory policy into an indefinite one.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer publicly welcomed an April 2025 Supreme Court ruling that defines the word “woman” as “biologically female” in law. This effectively undermines trans women’s legal status, even if they have a Gender Recognition Certificate. Meanwhile, the government’s new guidance for schools, published this July, discourages teaching about gender identity altogether, creating a hostile environment for trans, non-binary, and questioning pupils. Section 28 is calling, it wants in blueprint back!
And at their Pride reception, Labour chose to fly the old rainbow flag, not the more inclusive Progress Pride flag, which explicitly includes trans people and queer people of colour. It was a subtle but deliberate choice that speaks to a party that wants the aesthetic of inclusion without the accountability that comes with it.
But perhaps the most galling part of all this is the context Labour is choosing to ignore.
This year, several major UK Pride events made the decision to ban political parties from marching. Why? Because too many LGBTQ+ people no longer trust these parties to stand with them in any meaningful way. The community sees the betrayal and it’s pushing back.
So while Labour was throwing its own Pride party behind the gates of Downing Street, it might have done better to ask why it wasn’t welcome at ours!
Pride is not just a garden party. It is a movement born from protest, from resistance, from a refusal to be erased. And right now, many in the community, especially trans people, are being erased: from healthcare, from classrooms, from the law.
If Labour truly believes in equality, it should start by reflecting on why it’s being excluded from Pride marches and what it needs to change to be welcomed back.
Because you don’t get to throw a Pride reception while turning your back on the people who need protection most.
Queeraeth 
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