Over 20 people attended a vigil at Highbridge’s Apex Park on Saturday (February 18th) in memory of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey, who was stabbed to death in a Cheshire park last weekend.
The schoolgirl was found lying wounded on a path in Linear Park in Culcheth, Cheshire on Saturday. She was a transgender girl and detectives are considering whether her death was a hate crime, as they try to establish a motive for the attack.
Members of Burnham and Highbridge’s Pride-On-Sea group organised Saturday’s vigil at Apex Park at the same time as scores of other towns across the UK.
Warm tributes and readings were read out in memory of the teenager, followed by a minute’s silence and the lighting of candles.
Ruth Ackroyd from Pride-on-Sea led the tributes and said: “From everyone at Pride-on-Sea, we are humbled to see so many of you here to pay respects to murdered teenager, Brianna Ghey, and our heartfelt condolences to her family and friends at what must be an unbearable time.”
Ruth added: “Three months ago we stood in Highbridge and read the names of members of the Trans community who had lost their lives during the previous year for Trans Day of Remembrance, and it’s devastating that we are here again today mourning for the loss of yet another member of our community, especially for one so young. We asked then, and ask again today; When is enough, enough?”
“Some of us may have had the privilege of knowing her, some of us may have known and been following her on Tik-Tok, but the majority of us hadn’t heard of Brianna Ghey until she was brutally murdered in a park in Warrington last week, reportedly after years of transphobic bullying. The reason this resonates so profoundly in our community is that we know all too well what type of comments and bullying Brianna might have experienced, the fear and the hatred directed towards trans people that we see on an ever increasing daily basis. It led us here today, as it has led thousands of other people at other vigils across the UK to pay respects to a 16 year old girl from Warrington because we all recognise that enough is now enough.”
Ruth continued: “Gone are the days when transphobia was contained to a few troll accounts or whispers at the pub. We see that transphobia pure as day from the accounts of prominent individuals with millions of followers on social media, in articles and editorials from our mainstream press, in the statements of our elected representatives.”
“That narrative they are creating is dehumanising. It is normalising hate and fear towards an already marginalised group of people whose voices are already outnumbered. Consequences have actions and that narrative is divisive and it is dangerous for the whole of our society. Consequences have actions, and we seen that in the murder of Brianna Ghey.”
Ruth went on to add: “I don’t identify as trans, or presume to know what it’s like to be trans, I am in awe of your strength and resilience. I am a butch cis lesbian, and I am very proud of that. I have been mistaken for a man on more than one occasion. But when that mistaken identity turns to hate; turns to fear; turns to violence because someone is transphobic, transphobia ceases to be an issue contained to one small part of our community. We are not immune in the LBGTQIA+ community, and we are not immune as a society to transphobia, it is an issue that affects us all especially because trans people are being directly attacked.”
“It is a disease we need to face and solve together. That hate runs deep. We need to be united in calling out transphobia, regardless of how we identify, standing in solidarity with our Trans siblings, speaking up where we have a platform and raising trans voices and experiences above that hate. Most of all we need to shout from the roof tops that we are here for each other, we are a community and we will raise each other and keep each other safe because together we outnumber that hate. Together we are stronger.”
“We are here to mourn the loss of Brianna, and to provide a safe space for those who want to grieve, but we need to take the opportunity to learn and to grow so that every space is safe, regardless of who you are. Instead of assumptions and judgement that seem to come so easily, especially online, we should connect with people and find common ground.”
“As humans, we learn and evolve through storytelling, through hearing experiences, and if the reason why we are here today has affected you, I encourage you to seek out people with some of those experiences different from your own, listen, understand but most of all celebrate those differences because there is creativity, there is wonder and there is beauty in our diversity.”
Ruth, pictured above, added: “Trans rights are human rights, trans people have always been who they say they are. Raise those voices of our Trans siblings and drown out the hate bourne from transphobia.”
“Brianna was a 16-year-old girl who was brutally murdered by other children, and we all have a collective responsibility to do better, to be better so this will never happen again. She was 16. She was a daughter. She was a sister. She was a granddaughter. She was Brianna Ghey, and we are all a little poorer that she is no longer with us. Rest in Power.”
