Last weekend Brighton was host to the second annual Trans Pride Brighton festival. As one of the key organisers, I took advantage of being visible in the community to talk about an issue that’s really important to me and very close to my heart. I took the stage, hands shaking, and started speaking:

“I’ve overheard it enough, people calling LGBT Pride ‘Gay Pride.’ Erasing so much history in a second.

And it’s more than that, it’s when I see it for myself, it is ‘Gay White Pride.’ And it’s out of this that a hierarchy is born.

We might be on the front cover of Times Magazine but in many ways we are still at the back of the bus.

It really hurts me to feel so left out from a place I called home. It hurts to feel that that Pride doesn’t want to include me. It hurts that I’m invisible within ‘LGBT’, and as a trans person of colour, we are so often overlooked.

Historical amnesia has taken its toll on our community, year after year, we face discrimination, racism, poverty, violence… We are neglected and undermined. But we will never stop fighting for inclusivity.

It was Sylvia Riveria who threw the first bottle at the police and started the Stonewall rebellion. A trans woman of colour, who has done so much for our community, a true Stonewall warrior. She devoted her life to giving us the visibility, recognition and respect we all deserve.

And that’s why I’m here today, because of magnificent people like Sylvia Riveria, Marsha P Johnson and Laverne Cox, who told me that I can fight, I can be visible and I can be seen, even in a world that doesn’t want me to exist. I can be happy.

It’s kept me going since February 2013 when the idea of starting a Trans Pride was absolutely terrifying. But it happened. As scary as it was, we made it happen. We’re making history we won’t let anyone forget. A truly inclusive history we can all be a part of.

This is the heart of me.

I am trans. I am queer.

I am a person of colour.

And I will always be proud.

Here’s to Trans Pride 2014.”