SISSY ANARCHY TAKEOVER
Statement from P. Eldridge
Founding Editor of SISSY ANARCHY
On 19 April 2025, I marched through London alongside thousands of trans people and our allies. Shoulder to shoulder, voice to voice. Rage in one hand, joy defiantly in the other. It wasn’t just a protest. It was a reclamation. Of space, breath, truth. Of our right to exist without compromise. We turned streets into battlegrounds and boulevards into sanctuaries. We walked, sang, screamed, cried – together, loudly, refusing to be erased.
This was only days after the UK Supreme Court handed down its decision to exclude trans women from the legal definition of “woman” under the Equality Act. Days after the state told us – bluntly, brutally – that we don’t count. That our identities, our safety, our rights are optional. The ruling may have come dressed in the language of law, but its message was clear: erasure by bureaucracy.
I had already responded in words. “We are women, and we do not need your fucking permission to exist,” I wrote in my piece for Gay Times. But marching on 19 April? That was the response in action. That line was no longer mine alone. It belonged to the crowd. You could feel it stitched into every chant, every banner, every heartbeat. It vibrated against the walls of Parliament and echoed back from those who tried to ignore us.
To be trans in Britain right now is to wake up each day and hear your identity dissected like a policy proposal. Discussed as though we aren’t real. Debated by people who will never feel the cost of their opinions. At the march, that noise didn’t matter. All that remained was clarity: we are not going anywhere.
There was a moment – maybe at the front, maybe deep in the crush of the drum circle, maybe as someone cried into the arms of a stranger who became a sister in that instant – when I felt it fully, viscerally: we are not broken. We are becoming; loudly, fiercely, together. They may redraw the legal lines, but they cannot redraw our lives. They cannot erase what is here, pulsing, breathing, marching.
In a country desperate to shrink us, we expanded. We took up space unapologetically. We were visible in every sense: bodies, voices, banners, grief, rage, joy. And in that act of radical visibility, we reminded everyone – especially those watching nervously from their offices and newsrooms – that trans people are not a controversy. We are not a debate. We are a community. We are a movement.
You could hear it in every chant that ricocheted through Westminster. You could feel it in the soles of our feet hitting the pavement like a war drum. This wasn’t a request. This wasn’t a plea. This was a warning: we are still here. And we are done asking for permission.
This is our home too. This is our world too. And we will not be legislated out of existence. So if the state wants a war on our existence, it better be ready to lose. Because we are not just here to survive, we are here to win.
They can twist definitions, redraw maps, change the rules. We will rewrite the future.
To my sisters stitched together with wire and will. To my siblings who carry their names like weapons, who bleed ink, who conjure freedom in the quiet act of survival. We will build a world they cannot touch: a world of solidarity, of liberation, of love.
— P. Eldridge (@pierceeldridge)
Director of Worms World C.I.C. and Founding Editor of SISSY ANARCHY
SISSY ANARCHY
I created SISSY ANARCHY because I was tired of seeing trans voices – especially those of trans femmes – pushed to the margins of literature or demanded to be neat, redemptive, or softened. I wanted a space where trans writers could be as raw, as angry, as complicated as they needed to be. A space where our stories weren’t mediated through cis comfort or editorial gatekeeping. I wanted to build something that felt dangerous in all the right ways; a publication that didn’t apologise for the weight of what we carry.
For me, SISSY ANARCHY is about refusing to flinch. It’s about holding space for the kind of work that confronts, that unsettles, that drags trauma into the light but doesn’t dress it up to make it easier to look at. It’s a platform for trans writers to explore the depths of their experiences – their grief, their rage, their joy – without compromise. Because we deserve to tell our stories on our own terms.
This isn’t just about literature. It’s about survival. It’s about creating a space where the complexities of trans life – the parts that don’t fit into glossy magazine spreads – can be spoken aloud. Where we can write about our pain, our sex, our violence, our healing, without needing to translate it for someone else’s understanding. SISSY ANARCHY is about breaking the silence that’s forced on us, and it’s about creating something powerful in that breakage.
It’s personal. It’s political. It’s necessary.
For extended reads from SISSY ANARCHY, please view the Substack here.
For our printed editions, view the Big Cartel here.
Everything social at: @sissyanarchy
OPEN CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:
ISSUE 3
Deadline: 16 May
Submit to: sissyanarchy@gmail.com
Calling on all trans and queer voices.
This is our first ever open call. We want this issue to hold as many of our voices as possible: not just the usual ones, not just the polished, published, connected, respected. If you’ve never submitted anything before, this is for you. We want to be your first. You don’t need to be fancy, or academic, or “correct.” You just need to care. To be furious. To have something to say.
If you’ve ever felt like there was no space for your work – because it was too raw, too messy, too personal, too political, too strange, too angry – this is the space.
This is SISSY ANARCHY, f*cking make the wound bleed.
We’re calling you in because we need each other right now.
For more information, visit: instagram.com/sissyanarchy/
INTRODUCING THE SISSY ANARCHY: Trans Bathroom Access Sticker
A Grassroots Action for Trans Inclusion
Right now, across the UK and beyond, trans people are facing unprecedented political attacks. The Supreme Court ruling and its subsequent endorsement by the Labour government opens the door for laws and policies designed to restrict our basic right to exist in public spaces, beginning with exclusion from public bathrooms.
We call workers — both trans people AND allies — to approach their employers with this proposal:
Allow all trans people to access the business’s bathroom; whether they are customers or not.
Display a vinyl window sticker that declares your bathrooms are safe, accessible spaces for trans people.
This is not just a sticker. It’s a visible commitment to equality, dignity, and inclusion.
We are not powerless. We can build the infrastructures that will ensure our safety. We can protect trans people.
Order your sticker and access the guide here: https://sissyanarchy.bigcartel.com/
Created and designed by: Fi Kube (@frigid.cvnt), Caitlin McLoughlin (@caitlin_mcloughlin_), and P. Eldridge (@pierceeldridge)
TRANS READING LIST:
To deepen your understanding and support for trans communities, consider exploring the following works:
Our Womanhood Is Not an Opinion to Be Debated, It Is Real by P. Eldridge: A reflection on trans women’s experiences, asserting the undeniable reality of their womanhood against societal debate.
KNOTS by Fi Kube (Published by SISSY ANARCHY): is a searing auto-essay that unravels the entangled threads of transmisogyny, child sexual abuse, and gendered violence, confronting trauma with an unflinching gaze that demands both witness and reckoning.
How to Be a Good Girl by Jamie Hood: A raw and poetic exploration of queer identity, desire, and power, examining the intersections of gender, sexuality, and societal expectations.
This Is Not a Eulogy, It’s a War Cry by P. Eldridge: is a manifesto against the systemic erasure of trans lives, transforming grief into rage and mourning into mobilisation: a refusal to die quietly.
SISSY ANARCHY 2: is a sharpened continuation of the fight; a collective howl from trans voices refusing erasure, blending raw personal narrative with radical politics to confront the violence of the present and imagine something freer.
The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice by Shon Faye: A comprehensive look at the systemic challenges faced by trans people in the UK.
Whipping Girl by Julia Serano is a seminal work that dissects transmisogyny with razor-sharp clarity, laying bare how society weaponises femininity against trans women.
Trans Femme Futures by Nat Raha and Mijke Van Der Drift: A radical manifesto and poetic call to action, envisioning liberatory futures for trans femmes through abolitionist politics, collective care, and resistance to systemic oppression.
To My Trans Sisters edited by Charlie Craggs: A collection of letters offering support and advice to trans women.
The Hidden Case of Ewan Forbes by Zoë Playdon: An exploration of a landmark legal case affecting trans rights in the UK.
Nevada by Imogen Binnie: A gritty, introspective novel following a trans woman’s search for meaning and authenticity, challenging mainstream narratives about trans lives with sharp wit and vulnerability.
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters: A provocative and tender novel about gender, parenthood, and relationships, centering on three women – trans and cis – as they navigate love, identity, and the messy possibilities of family.
All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes: A historical novel featuring a trans protagonist, set during an Antarctic expedition.
Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt: A horror novel that delves into the UK's transphobic climate.
Trans Like Me by CN Lester: offers a tender yet unflinching portrait of trans life in Britain, blending personal narrative with cultural critique to challenge the myths that dominate public discourse.
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg: is a revolutionary novel that chronicles the brutal, beautiful journey of gender nonconformity, survival, and solidarity in a world that punishes difference.
UK TRANS RIGHTS ORGANISATIONS AND RESOURCES:
These organisations offer support, advocacy, and resources for trans individuals and allies. Engaging with them can provide further information and ways to contribute to the movement for trans rights in the UK.
Sign the petition to Legally enshrine the right of adults to physically transition using NHS services.
