To West Northamptonshire Council, LGBTQ and Allies Forum, and the Northampton Pride Committee,

We are writing as a concerned collective of local LGBTQ+ community members and workers to ask that Barclays not be included as a sponsor, nor celebrated as a part of Northampton Pride 2025 and prides going forward.

As you should be aware a UK Supreme Court ruling on the 16th of April stated that the words “women” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex and has set a precedent to allow spaces to ban trans women in particular, but also all trans people, from accessing gendered spaces including toilets, domestic violence refuges, and changing rooms. We vehemently disagree with this ruling, which was brought to the Supreme Court by a known “gender critical” (anti trans) hate group, For Women Scotland, and was funded in part by anti trans author JK Rowling. The Supreme Court chose not to hear from any trans people during this process and spoke only to exclusionary groups, the aim of the ruling is clear; exclude trans people from public life in the UK.

Following this ruling the EHRC (Equality and Human Rights Commission), which is now considered a hate group by many LGBTQ+ organisations, published “guidance” in relation to this Supreme Court ruling. The “guidance” is bigoted and attempts to segregate trans people in public spaces. However, this guidance is not statutory and therefore does not need to be followed.

Excluding trans people from using toilets, changing rooms, etc excludes us from public life. If trans people cannot safely exist in public for fear of harassment, violence, and arrest then it becomes safer to hide your trans identity. This is what these hate groups want, extermination of trans people by any means possible, and by agreeing to follow the “guidance” set out by the EHRC organisations are cosigning that extermination.

While it is clear that non-statutory guidance does not need to be followed, Barclays have jumped to implement these bans on trans people using gendered spaces. Barclays chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan has already been quoted as saying: “Following the Supreme Court ruling… we believe we have to comply with that by not allowing trans women to use female bathrooms.” Previously members of the Pride Committee have voiced concerns about the use of Barclays as a sponsor for Northampton Pride due to its connection with Israel, namely providing investment and financial services to arms companies which supply weapons to the Israeli army and acting as a “primary dealer” for Israel’s government bonds to fund its continued assault on Palestinians. While our concerns around Barclays role in the ongoing Palestinian genocide have been brushed aside we hope that our concern with Barclays actions closer to home will be taken on board.

We cannot have a pride event whose aim is to celebrate how far we have come as a community and encourage us to keep fighting for liberation for all and also look away from the harm Barclays is doing to our community and to Palestinians. We demand that Barclays be removed as sponsors of Northampton Pride 2025 and have no presence at the event. Sponsorship money is not worth the safety and rights of members of our community.