The horrendous news that the memorial to transgender people was urinated on by multiple people before being irreparably damaged was not covered by any of the national newspapers in the UK even though many of them devoted sympathetic space to a few transphobes who blocked Cardiff Pride and were asked to leave.

If you ever needed a week to clarify exactly whose side the national newspapers in the UK are on, then this is it – and we’ve only got to Tuesday!

After Cardiff Pride, the right-wing papers happily erased thousands of lesbians, to centre a handful of transphobes, while also setting forth claims that lesbians are being erased by trans people.

Lesbians ushered away from Pride march... after bust-up with trans groups Daily Mail29 Aug 2022By Richard Marsden Banner waving: A lesbian activist protests in Cardiff Stepping in: Police speak to member of Get The L Out at the march Rainbow parade: Colourful drummers out in force LESBIAN protesters accused police of ‘failing to protect’ them after officers told them to leave a Pride parade for ‘causing confrontation’ with trans activists and supporters. Members of anti-trans lesbian group Get The L Out UK had turned up on the route with messages on banners such as ‘transactivism erases lesbians’. It led to a confrontation between the sides including a lesbian and a transgender woman shouting at each other in a road. Organisers, Pride Cymru, said the activists had ‘interrupted’ the LGBTQ event on Saturday in Cardiff. Video footage showed an officer confronting the group to say: ‘At the moment, your march, this group of people, is causing confrontation between different groups of people.’ Women are then heard replying ‘we’re lesbians, it’s Cardiff pride’. The police officer replies, saying ‘whatever you are... at the moment, is causing confrontation’. One of the women is then told: ‘To make sure you’re safe, we are going to remove you from the road.’ A member of the Get The L Out UK group responded: ‘You should be ‘Went there to spread hate’ able to protect lesbians in a pride march.’ Angela Wild, a co-founder of the group, last night said she and fellow campaigners were ‘appalled by the behaviour of the police’. She said: ‘We feel it highlights the level of institutional capture by this ideology we are witnessing, that they would rather remove lesbians than engage with us.’ Miss Wild said she and other women wanted ‘to promote lesbian visibility within an increasingly misogynistic and anti-lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender movement’. She added the group’s members – who want the letter L removed from the LGBTQ+ acronym because they believe lesbians are no longer represented – have received a backlash including being subject to rape threats and death threats. The group is considering making a formal complaint about the South Wales force. Former Wimbledon women’s champion and prominent lesbian Martina Navratilova was among the group’s supporters. She tweeted: ‘This shows just how ridiculous and sideways things are going in our LGBT community.’ Playwright Andrew Doyle said: ‘The pride movement no longer supports gay people.’ But a member of the public commenting in support of the trans activists wrote: ‘ They were removed because they went there specifically to spread hate about trans people.’ Gian Molinu, of Pride Cymru, said: ‘Despite a small group of people interrupting the march, they were drowned out by shouts of solidarity... there is no place for hate at Pride. And as our parade said today loudly and clearly, “trans rights are human rights”.’ A South Wales Police spokesman said: ‘Officers were required to engage with a small protest group who had assembled themselves on the route to block the procession. ‘To ensure no further disruption to the event, officers asked the group to move to an alternative location nearby which they agreed to do.’
The Daily Mail 29 August 2022
Lesbians told to leave pride march amid transgender row Jonathan Ames - Legal Editor The police told a lesbian campaign group to leave a pride march after members clashed with transgender rights activists who opposed their views. Members of GetTheLOutUK had joined a march called Pride Cymru in Cardiff on Saturday, during which they displayed a banners reading “Lesbians don’t like penises” and “trans-activism erases lesbians”. The campaigners describe themselves as a “grassroots lesbian activist group” that stands against “queer politics and transgenderism”. A hallmark of its so-called “gendercritical” approach is that sex is biological and men cannot become women. The group has accused some transgender activists of being anti-feminist because of their view that lesbians who say they would not have sex with transgender women are bigots. Members of the group were asked to leave after one of them and a transgender rights activist shouted at each other. Organisers of the march have since claimed that the lesbian group was not registered to attend. South Wales police said that officers “were required to engage” with a group who had tried to block the procession. “Officers asked the group to move to an alternative location near by, which they agreed to do.”
The Times, Monday 29 August 2022
Police move lesbians on at Pride march after trans row The Daily Telegraph29 Aug 2022By James Moules PRIDE celebrations descended into a row after police removed a group of lesbians from a march during a “confrontation” with trans supporters. Footage on social media showed tensions at a rally in Cardiff as rival groups shouted at one another. Videos show members of Get The L Out UK, which calls itself a “grassroots lesbian feminist activist group”, being asked to leave by a police officer. Some women carried banners which said “transactivism erases lesbians” and “lesbians don’t like penises”. In the video, one woman is heard telling a police officer: “I want to make sure that I understand that you’re removing lesbians from an LGBT march.” The officer responds: “Yes, that is what’s happening. For your safety. For other people’s safety. That’s why.” Get The L Out UK later claimed police “failed” to protect them on Saturday. But Pride Cymru, which organised the main event, said the group was not a registered part of the march. They said: “Despite a small group interrupting the march, they were drowned out by the shouts of solidarity from the community and spectators. “There is no place for hate at Pride. And as our parade said today loudly and clearly: ‘Trans rights are human rights’.” It comes amid a debate around trans rights, with “gender critical” activists arguing that trans women should not be included in women’s spaces. Transgender people say this is discriminatory. South Wales Police said: “Officers engaged with a small protest group who had assembled to block the procession. “To ensure no further disruption to the event, officers asked the group to move to an alternative location nearby which they agreed to do. “Officers explained why they needed to move, provided guidance about protesting lawfully and offered to facilitate a lawful protest. The group was cooperative and left the area shortly after. “Contrary to some social media reports, nobody was arrested or forcibly moved.”
Daily Telegraph 29 August 2022

They then followed that up by completely ignoring a hate crime against trans people, not for the first time.

While the Manchester Evening News did cover it on their website, it was not in their Monday or Tuesday editions and I tend to deal with the actual papers rather than their online versions (I have to have some sort of rule or I’d never get anything else done).

Their headline of ‘Sadness as UK’s first national trans memorial ‘irreparably damaged’ after fire during Manchester Pride’ was far from the truth.

Yes, there was sadness, but there was also fury, as there would be had any other memorial to a community’s dead been treated in this manner.

Sparkle, in what I’m sure is a bid not to jump the gun, suggest the memorial could have been burned by someone discarding a cigarette. As someone who smoked for 30 years, this seems highly unlikely unless the memorial was made out of paper and balsa wood.

The same papers, who happily ignored this destruction, eagerly give over page after page, day after day, to whatever transphobe asks Maya Forstater, their go-to trans expert, to put them in touch.

And still they think they are the silenced victims…

In cis world, urinating on a memorial would be enough to generate pages and pages of outrage in the press, right and left. Heck, I’ve even seen them have a conniption because someone took a disrespectful selfie close to one.

But this? This is only trans people. What do we matter?

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