FOR THE RECORD

[rozk]

“Public Statement on the Incident at the women's toilet at Pride involving a
Trans woman”



We at Pride deeply regret this incident happened and are doing everything within our power to remedy the situation. As the Appointed Director to handle this issue I am concerned that a lot of misinformation has been circulating with regard to this.

So let me clear some of this up:

Firstly SFM workers are not volunteers for Pride London, they are handled by SFM directly. The incident that took place in the women's toilet did not involve one of Pride's stewards as been reported as we at Pride do not adhere to any discrimination issues. We have a clear policy with regard to toilets and usage by Trans people, that is a Trans woman is clearly allowed to use the women's toilet and a Trans male clearly able to use a male toilet. We would never say to any Trans person to use the disable loo as this is clearly illegal.

SFM have adhered to Pride’s policies for their three years of providing additional stewarding at our events, and this is the first complaint we have had over their handling of such an issue in all that time against all the hundreds of staff that they provide. SFM have assured us that this incident was not how they would normally handle such an issue, and was a genuine mistake. We are working with them to ensure that there is no repetition.

Secondly we at Pride cannot speak on behalf of the Metropolitan Police with regard to this incident. It has been alleged that one of their LGBT liaison officers requested a Gender Recognition Certificate: this is a breach of all legislation in relation to Trans, as very few individuals can request this, and a GRC is never to be used as an ID document. I am sure that the Metropolitan Police will be looking into this.

Thirdly we have very clear policies regarding equality and expect that all sub-contractors adhere to this - this is going to be looked into as a matter of urgency.

*Making this Public statement I must also say that we deeply regret that Roz Kaveney had to endure such an experience at our event, this is deeply regrettable and should never have happened, and so I publicly apologise on behalf of Pride London to her with regard to this, and we will endeavour to ensure that it never happens in the future with respect to any groups that are a part of our Stakeholders forum, or indeed any one attending Pride London’s events.*

When things like this happen it leaves a very distasteful feeling with any person or community who feel that they are being singled out or picked on and this is not what we are about at Pride London. We hold very dearly our commitment to equality. We accept that in some cases training is important and we are happy to work with any of our contractors with the training of their volunteers in this respect, and we will also include any individual or groups that have an interest with this as well, where appropriate. This can involve Trans members being called upon to be a part of a training package.

Pride London has an excellent track record or working with all members of our community, and has in particular a strong record on Trans issues. This incident has marred a very successful event and lessons have to be and must be learnt from it.


Patrick Williams

Chair stakeholders Committee and HR Director

for and on behalf of Pride London

Comments

[odelenu.livejournal.com]

Is this supposed to be your birthday present?

Happy Birthday Ros. I hope you have a lovely day, surrounded by good friends and good food!

[spacetart.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday, Roz!

[pirates-daily.livejournal.com]

Well done, you.

[fastfwd.livejournal.com]

Good.

[auntysarah.livejournal.com]

Do you want me to add this to the page on transatpride.org?

[rozk.livejournal.com]

Probably a good idea - I'll ring you in a minute.

[paratti.livejournal.com]

Good.

Happy Birthday, Roz.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yay, a bit of grovelling. High time too!

And Happy Birthday (afraid my chances of remembering for next year are next to nil, I just don't do birthdays...)

[buddleia.livejournal.com]

Good. And a happy birthday to you - may this kind of crap never arise again.

[charlottecooper.livejournal.com]

Well done Roz, arsekicker of the century. You rule and you know it. Happy birthday too!

[vampwillow]

(a) Happy Birthday ;-P

(b) Would it be too cynical of me to note that the above is not signed by the main boss of Pride but a subordinate, plus rather a lot of trying to wash their hands of responsibility and blame everyone else?

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I think this is grovelly enough...

[(Anonymous)]

Good! Let's hope they mean it. (I should have commented earlier but didn't have anything constructive to add.)

... Many happy returns (I never remember people's dates either)

Susan Francis

[slightlyfoxed.livejournal.com]

Good-oh and happy birthday. You rock.
(I sent this earlier, but it didn't seem to work.)

[stellanova.livejournal.com]

Well done on a collective arse well-kicked. And happy birthday too!

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday. And I'm glad that have both apologised and made *very* clear their policy and the expected behaviour of anyone they are working with ... I assume you're ok with your name being mentioned in this letter?

In any case, I'm really sorry you had to go through that, and I'm also upset that the world hasn't "got" it yet ... sigh.

*hugs*

[scattykat.livejournal.com]

Not to put a damper on this great result but there are recommendations Roz and I put forward to the Board and it will consider them when it meets in August. I will be very disappointed if the Board doesn't adopt those measures and if it doesn't, then we will need to see where we go from there.

We were told an investigation is under way as to how this could have happened and the Stakeholders Chair has informed us he will let us know the results of that investigation.

I am feeling very jaded by the whole experience for reasons I will not go into but suffice to say, a slur was made on my character and lies were told to me. I am thinking about what to do about this and some of those thoughts revolve around my involvement in future Pride festivals.

Nevertheless, If the Board does implement all of the suggestions we made, then I will unreservedly accept Patrick's statement and I can say Trans Triumph at Trafalgar!


By the way, Happy Birthday Roz! You have been Sterling throughout all of this.

Love & Hugz
Tessa
-xxxxx-

[barakta]

Can you say what those recommendations were for the board, or is that something you'd rather not say until they've been discussed. I agree that caution is a very good thing at this point as it doesn't guarantee that action will have results.

Natalya

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you got your apology. I note the reservations of a couple of commenters, and those seem reasonable; I hope this all plays out with mutual respect and non-discrimination triumphing. I am, however, a cynical old broad.

[random-flores.livejournal.com]

Wow, i only just caught up on this. That really is horrible, what happened to you at Pride, and I'm glad at the very least, that steps are being taken by the Pride London group to attempt to make sure this doesn't happen again to anyone else. You're a wonderfuly strong woman, Roz, and I admire the hell out of you.

[some-fox.livejournal.com]

Great news! Happy birthday too :-)

[astras-brian.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday Roz.

I'm always cynical where the phrase "lessons must be learned" is used because in my experience it is often followed by an attempted cover up and whitewash job. I'm not suggesting Pride might do this but I would expect total transparency from Pride and SFM about the policies which should be followed, the failure, the remedial action by Pride and SFM and the lessons learned by both organisations. Whether something similar will be forthcoming from the Police I don't know.

Pride's reputation has been tarnished. Putting it right can only happen with a clear and public commitment to preventing such unpleasant events from recurring, especially considering scattykat's comments above.

Then of course there's the Metropolitan Police conduct. Pride's statement on this is clear and needs to be fully and openly addressed by the Met.

I'm not casting aspertions on Patrick or anyone involved in the investigations. I have no reason atm to question his motives. People have been offended, wronged and slurred by the misconduct of others. Making things right with those people is the right thing to do. It should be done quickly and publicly so that those whose faith in Pride/SFM/Police has been dented can be shown that action has been taken and lessons learned.

Huge respect to you and everyone who's challenged those responsible for this unpleasant conduct.

And again, happy birthday.

[grammarwoman]

Glad to hear it's being pursued.

And to join in with all the rest...Happy Birthday!

[cynthia1960.livejournal.com]

This is a good start on a birthday present.

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

Yes, even with all due caution... a nice birthday present. Haapy birthday Roz!

[badger.livejournal.com]

A good start, noting reservations expressed elsewhere. And happy birthday as well.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Oh, good. Not a bad start at all.

And HBD!

(Followed linkage from Facebook)

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

On later thought, not so wonderful. A start, though. It will be interesting to see how it continues to unfold.

[go-dubh.livejournal.com]

Good, and decent birthday present to boot.

[flyingtapes.livejournal.com]

well, that's something.