Response to Transdonians members’ Open Letter
Dear Transdonians Members,
Thank you for your letter. We are truly sorry that members of the trans and non-binary community are disappointed with our absence from the recent statement that you refer to. We are heartbroken that some people feel let down. That couldn’t be further from our intentions and we wholeheartedly want to take steps to better serve the LGBTQIA+ community, who we deeply care for.
Firstly, we want to say to all our trans and non-binary followers and the Transdonians members: we sincerely and unreservedly apologise for the delay in signing the letter and responding to the call. We absolutely didn’t mean to exacerbate an already painful and hurtful time. We want to and will do better with communications to ensure trans, non-binary and intersex voices are heard and better supported in future. We want to thank you at Transdonians and all of those who messaged us for engaging with us on this issue. We have worked tirelessly since receiving your letter over the Bank Holiday weekend to devise an action plan to meet your four concerns and requests. We graciously accept all of them and propose the following:
Points 1 and 2: We had agreed unanimously to sign the statement you refer to along with other Prides. But it is exactly as you suspected, an email had gone astray. It was human error from a group of exhausted volunteers working tirelessly to stage this year’s event that meant we didn’t end up in the final version. We are truly sorry for that error. There was no malice there. We fully agree with the entirety of the statement. When we realised we weren’t in the statement as planned, we should’ve made a statement to clarify our position and again we apologise. When we got your letter, we immediately set to work to contact the organisers of this statement and they kindly welcomed us to share this statement which is now on our website. To clarify: Dundee Pride stands alongside the other Pride and LGBTQ+ organisations in Scotland to sign the joint statement made on 16th May on International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT) in response to the open letter composed by Trans Pride Collective. As you pointed out, we had already made a statement on 18th April and this was certainly not insincere as you have stated.
We stand in unequivocal solidarity with the trans community. There is no conflict of interest. We are ONE community and we therefore announced on Sunday, following your letter, that that we have barred all political parties from having a presence at our Pride on 14th June, No political party shall be allowed to hire a stall or march with us, nor shall they be invited to make any speeches. This has been our policy since the ruling despite our lack of a public announcement around it. We echo The Trans Pride Collective’s statement that says ‘We recognise that many allies are politicians, especially those who are both trans or non-binary and a politician. We know that they understand how desperate and how traumatised our community is feeling right now. We kindly ask all UK Pride organisations to tell these allies that they can still attend Pride, but as individuals, not as political party representatives. Ask them to come and enjoy the sunshine with us, have conversations with trans people, really listen to us about how much we appreciate loud and proud allyship but please, give us the space we need, away from party politics, to figure out how best to support our communities.’
ACTION: We released our statement on this on Sunday and can be viewed on our website. Both of these points above have now been actioned.
Dundee Pride is run by a group of dedicated and extremely hard working volunteers who give our time freely to ensure we put on an event that Dundee can be proud of. There is no greed. We are a registered charity. All the money that comes into our charity is to support our charitable work which includes putting on a yearly event. If we sound like we are begging, it’s because we are. It is incredibly difficult to keep this yearly event as a free event but through the extraordinary work of our volunteers, we make it happen. We hugely rely on the kindness of donations and grants. We were promoting revenue generating tickets etc because without the income to stage the event, it simply can’t go ahead. We agree though that we should’ve been more vocal about our support for the joint statement and will do better in future.
Point 3: We deeply respect, love and care for our trans and non-binary friends, partners, colleagues, and the community. We do agree that we can undertake more meaningful work to improve trans representation on our board and in programming our events. We warmly call on your members and the wider trans, non-binary and intersex community in Dundee to join us and talk to us to ensure that we do better in the future to ensure we hear your concerns and act on them, to ensure that you are supported by us and to ensure that you are part of the decision making. As a first step to do that, we ask your members and the wider trans, non-binary and intersex individuals to get in touch with us (via DM or at info@dundeepride.com) to be part of a new Dundee Pride steering group made up of trans, non-binary and intersex individuals to help us take real action to improve representation and help us advocate for change. We see this as a first step in the recruitment of more trans & non-binary people on our board and in our decision making. We will host the first meeting of this new group within the next 2 weeks and will ensure this steering group is chaired by a trans, non-binary or intersex person. We will also do a formal call out for board membership, specifically to extend trans and non-binary representation on our board, in the next two weeks too. More information will be released around this in the next few days.
ACTION: Dundee Pride to produce a call to establish a new steering group (with membership of trans, non-binary and intersex people and Dundee Pride trustees) and to organise the first meeting both within the next two weeks.
Point 4: We are involved in Dundee’s annual Trans Day of Remembrance however this is not our event. We collaborate with others in the city to support this important event. We do not own this event as you infer so there is nothing for us to transfer. We think that as a charity supporting LGBTQ+ rights in the city, that we should be part of the conversation though, otherwise it’s at odds with what you’re asking us to do in ensuring better representation for trans people. We hope to be part of a collective to support this event, as we always have been and in the meantime, we graciously stand back and await an invitation to do so.
ACTION: Dundee Pride steps back from the organisation of the Trans Day of Remembrance event and awaits an invitation to contribute to the event in future.
We are humans. And sometimes we make mistakes. We are truly sorry to upset and disappoint. We are committed to learn from this and to take steps to better serve the entire LGBTQIA+ community. We wish for all of us in the LGBTQIA+ community to be united in our action and not divided. We encourage your members and trans, non-binary and intersex community not to be at the back of the march but instead to come and be at the front of the march instead. We have always said that Dundee Pride is a protest and not a party. So, let’s protest together. We are keen to hear from the whole trans community in Dundee to organise how to best make this happen so please DM us with ideas and thoughts. If anyone from the trans community wishes to be at the front of the march, let us know and we will ensure there is a space.
Thank you Transdonians members for your letter and we would look forward to working with your members and the wider trans, non-binary and intersex community in Dundee.
We look forward to building a strong, collaborative relationship as we work together to support and advocate for our incredible LGBTQIA+ community.
With our deepest respect, love and care.
Dundee Pride Board of Trustees.
