Lady Jessica, a trans singer-songwriter who has been actively involved with the UK’s LGBTQIA+ scene for decades, was among those who addressed the crowd.

Speaking to GAY TIMES after her speech, they said: “We felt like we were moving forward, but unfortunately it feels like we’re moving backwards and, actually, I feel a bit more turbulence now than what I ever did in the ‘90s.

“Like I said in my speech a minute ago, I was actually attacked on a train on the way to a gig the other day and, in general when I’m out and about, I get a lot worse rhetoric…It just seems to be on the rise more so in the last year or so, for sure.”

Another protester, Claire, added that she was motivated to attend because of feeling “fed up” by the government “ignoring our existence”.

“I’ve been protesting year after year and we need to just make sure that our trans youth know that we’re here for them,” she continued.

“We are not going to give up the fight and we want the government to talk to trans people – they don’t seem to be having any conversations and, we can protest all we like, but we need to have conversations and they need to respect our existence. So, that’s why I’m here today.”

Dozens of attendees addressed the crowd and explained their reasoning for showing up at the protest, including someone named Cassie: “My cousin, who was 17 and intersex, as well as trans, completed suicide in December and they wrote a letter and said that the reason why they couldn’t go on is because society didn’t accept them,” they said.

“When I see Rishi Sunak and these people in the government go up on TV and they say these things, like ‘a woman is a woman’ and ‘a man is a man’ – which is complete bull***t – they don’t realise what they’re doing and that it could affect people close to them that don’t feel able to come out yet.”