You know you live in an incredible world city if, when you turn on your computer in the morning you learn that a huge trans pride march is happening in town that afternoon, only to find yourself at the heart of it about three hours later. That is exactly what happened to me today. I had initially assumed that it would just be an interesting way to spend my Saturday: I could go and just make a few observations for a blog entry. As soon as I got there though, I found myself being swept along with the entire march.

It’s not that I don’t care about trans rights: Lyn, the most important person to me ever, was transgender. What I found myself caught up in this afternoon, however, was truly puzzling. It was overtly political in a manner I would not have expected: half the chants the protesters made were about Palestine. While there were obviously plenty of people there who identified as trans, this was trans in its widest, broadest sense, resulting in quite a vast array of people and groups being represented. I thus got the impression that the event meant so many things to so many people, that some of its overall meaning may have been lost.

Even so, I love how London has the awesome habit of turning out all these wonderful surprises. This morning I was reconciling myself to yet another quiet Saturday; but this afternoon I found myself surrounded by all kinds of wonderful, exotic people. While I admit that one or two of their demands, such as for free, over the counter HRT treatments, struck me as slightly ill-advised, there was an overall atmosphere of welcome and acceptance. As with the gay pride march I checked out a couple of weeks ago, this is definitely the sort of thing London is good at.