LONDON, 11 October 2024, 3:50 PM—6 young trans activists infiltrated the LGB Alliance’s annual conference at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Hall in Westminster, some of whom fled quickly after while others were held by security for a period before being let go. They did so with intentions of ending the conference early, which they describe as a horrendous breeding ground for fervent and violent transphobia.
The group released approximately 6,000 crickets from bags hidden on their persons which they snuck through security just before a talk on the “dangers” of medical transition. They made sure to spread the crickets (which do not infest and pose no danger to humans) across the entire hall, in order to ensure the conference could be safely brought to an end. The speech was postponed and later speeches were cancelled. They filmed some of the earlier speeches using hidden cameras in order to “expose the fact that this group really has no interest whatsoever in promoting the rights of cis LGB people, and exists entirely to hurt the trans community as much as they possibly can”. Speakers at the anti-trans event told the audience to “Squash them, kill them, kill the buggers!”
One bug carrier said they’ve “been feeling physically ill with nerves, mentally cycling through all the possibilities and worst case scenarios, a thousand times over. I’m scared. But I fear more for the outcomes if we don’t go through with this action.”
The LGB Alliance claims to stand for the rights of lesbians, bisexuals, and gay men, but a challenge from Mermaids and the Good Law Project against their charitable status objects that they “dedicate most of their output to denigrating trans people”. The crick-kids say that “the LGB Alliance’s hate and cruelty resonates out into the political sphere”. They believe the result of the conference, if it had gone ahead as planned, would have been an acceleration of transphobic hate and misinformation, which drives much of the attack on their healthcare and dignity in all other parts of their lives.
Speaking hours before entering the conference:
“It makes me really angry to see trans kids being talked about like a bunch of brainless children who can’t make decisions for or speak for themselves. I’m sick of having our voices taken away by bigoted people like the LGBA who speak over us instead of listening.”
“Whilst we, the trans community, cobble together what little support we can to keep each other safe, this group claiming to stand for social progress spends hundreds of thousands of pounds annually to keep us down. We are trans kids, we are loved, and we deserve dignity.”
“They may try to ‘sound the alarm’ on trans youth accessing life-saving healthcare but we cannot and will not let them. Trans youth are powerful and we will let them fucking know it.”
All trans youth apprehended by attendees have been released and returned safely home.
Successful non-violent direct action, good for them.
What a great modern take on the US Intelligence 1944 sabotage field manual
This is advanced pacifism
I consider this violent, especially for the crickets who are being used as objects and exposed to danger (as the article confirms with the guy shouting to ‘squash’ them).
I’m all for animal rights and veganism but let’s put this in the perspective where you can buy a whole frozen chicken for a few quid due to how industrialised the creation and distruction of life is. In a world where that is the norm and random bigots are trying to take away autonomy from kids who are already having an awful time, this feels appropriate to me. While I’d probably have preferred if it didn’t involve crickets and was a stinkbomb instead, I think a biblical plague does have an undeniable flair to it.