We are asking Canterbury Pride not to allow any political parties to march or hold stalls at Canterbury Pride in 2025 or future events.

With LGBTQIA+ rights, and especially trans rights, under threat it has never felt more important that Pride maintains its status as a protest.

The current Labour government has proven itself to be overtly hostile to the trans community and many members of the local Labour Party actively campaigned for our (now independent) MP Rosie Duffield who continues to be outspoken with her trans exclusionary rhetoric.

Other political parties are far from blameless and none have been 100% unwaivering in their support for the whole LGBTQIA+ community, so we ask that they are not allowed to march alongside the local queer community. 

Banning political parties from Pride would be a small consequence to suffer for their inaction on LGBTQIA+ liberation and any party members who regard themselves as allies should be able to acknowledge that. 

This would not prevent anyone from attending Canterbury Pride and individuals who genuinely want to celebrate Pride as part of the queer community or as an ally will be able to do so, just not under the banner of a political party.