Artist George Avill on Trans rights, Pride and their latest event

Following the success of Trans Day of Visibility last March, the Bristol-based artist is back with T4T: Pride Edition.

The carefully curated night at the Island will see a lineup of trans DJs, performance artists and noise artists take to the stage in the hopes of recreating the atmosphere of acceptance, celebrations and silliness that March’s event delivered.

George is conscious of the ‘commercial exploitation’ of pride – or ‘pinkwashing’ – a term coined by Sarah Schulman in 2011 in response to what she argued was a growing trend by Western governments and corporations to create superficial LGBTQ+ marketing strategies.

For Avill, pride runs deeper than this: “It’s important for me that T4T has an event during Pride as I’m sure we’re all well aware of the frequent corporate exploitation of Queerness for capitalist gain as opposed to actual support of Queer people.

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“T4T is an event where 100% of the profits generated go to gender affirming surgeries, so we get to support trans creatives whilst directly supporting the wider trans community which is something that many Pride events can’t say.”

George’s event is timely, with debates over reforming the Gender Recognition Act ongoing. Avill argues the current policy surrounding medical diagnosis is “intrusive” for trans people and that such debates exacerbate societal stigma surrounding trans rights in the media.

“It’s no coincidence that surrounding this debate the volume of media reports claiming trans presence in single-sex spaces is motivated by nothing other than predatory desires, instead of just access to very basic facilities, dramatically increased.”

The need to create the event was also born out of George’s own experiences as a trans person: “I remember going to my friends flat the day that the BBC published the article titled ‘The lesbians who feel pressured to have sex and relationships with trans women’ and just sobbing.

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“I had been on a waiting list for hormones for two years at this point and it felt like things within the healthcare system were only getting worse, to see the government using the guise of platforming queer voices to create palatable transphobia on such a wide scale platform made me beyond furious.

“It felt clear to me that community action needed to happen right away, both in creating safety and support for each other and in literally generating the means for people to access healthcare.”

Expect a host of new creatives at T4T, including Sarahhson, Ekstasis, Trashedbaby, Tome and DJ Scab, bringing everything from vogue, techno, live vocals and memphis.

T4T takes place on July 2 at the Island and 100% of the profits will be going to gender affirming surgeries.

Main photo: George Avill

Read more: Bristol decries trans conversion therapy

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