Beyond Borders is TEDxLondon’s exploration of different topics and ideas that inspire and intrigue us. In this edition, our guest curator for Pride Month Jamie Windust, reflects on why Pride 2020 is one we’ll never forget.
This year has supplied us with many ultimatums. Many decisions and forks in the road that can either take us back, or propel us forward into something new and something revisionary. That decision lay at all of our feet, and this year’s pride celebrations were no different.
Working with TEDxLondon this pride has been such an exciting opportunity to recentre, and refocus our energy and capabilities during pride to look at the conversations and ideas that need to be heard right now. 2020 will be a year we never forget, but pride has gone back to its roots this year. With both London and NYC using their parade space usually filled with corporate clad rainbows, to take up space and recreate protests that ignited our fight over 50 years ago. But this time, they were recharged and re-energised. Younger generations of LGBTQIA+ people were able to have the time to reconnect with their history, and use their voices to demand action.
Trans folks right now in the UK are struggling more than we have known before. Our lives, expressions and rights to exist in spaces are currently hanging on by a thread, as the government is due to announce its reforms to the Gender Recognition Act this month.
I understand it can be hard to contextualise what’s happening to trans folks if you’ve never questioned your gender identity, but like a lot of the conversations happening socially right now, it’s about realising this isn’t about you. It’s about thinking and engaging with trans progressive work NOW before it turns into a situation that’s far more deadly. After my TEDxLondonWomen talk in December 2019 I was asked several times by audience members what I actually meant by ‘action’. And to that I say, we don’t have time anymore to be answering those questions. In your heart and head as an ally you should be able to figure it out, and use the resources at your disposal to be an aide to us right now.
Pride will never be the same again, and I for one am glad. It allows conversations like we had this month to take centre stage, rather than corporate commercialisation and sanitisation of thought.
Thank you to our wonderful champions, who shared their wonderful insights this month. Your work inspires me everyday.
Happy pride, keep the fight going, and be there for us when we need you the most.
Jamie Windust
Missed our Pride content?
You can catch up with Jamie, our TEDxLondon Pride champions and our Conversation Beyond Border speakers below.
Revisit the stories and ideas worth spreading from our Pride Champions and watch their Instagram Live chats with Jamie over on our Instagram page.
Watch our special Pride month Conversations Beyond Borders with Jamie and guests Lady Phyll, executive director and co-founder of UK Black Pride, writer and campaigner Alexander Leon, and journalist Molly Fleming.
Jamie Windust is an award-winning editor, writer, public speaker and model. They channel empathy, authenticity and strength through the work they do as a non-binary person surrounding the trans community. They’ve written for publications such as The Independent, Cosmopolitan and Metro UK. Their debut book, In Their Shoes, offers a multi-dimensional and nuanced insight into life as a non-binary person in the 21st Century and will be available in October 2020. As a speaker, they’ve delivered powerful talks for TEDxLondonWomen, Cambridge University and for brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Ugg.
