While London pubs were opening up on "Super Saturday", Fashion entrepreneur Jacqui Devon spoke in front of hundreds of demonstrators at the Trans Rights Protest in Parliament Square, speaking out against the government's proposed changes to laws affecting trans people. Nearly 8,000 women recently signed an open letter to equalities minister Liz Truss, condemning her alleged plans to push forward anti-trans proposals under the guise of protecting women’s spaces. Jacqui Devon took to the stage alongside best friend and business partner, model Dani St James, saying "we will not take this lying down and this is just the very beginning. This is a peaceful protest but also this is to show you our numbers. We demand you talk about our rights."

Full Transcript:

I had a really rubbish time in school, and I didn't get to finish my education but I've accomplished many things in my life and that is something that I'm proud of, and that is a message that I want to relay to everyone. You can do this and you should not feel defeated because we are together.

Now I'm going to get a little bit angry, because Liz Truss, we need to talk. We need to talk because we demand you talk on our rights. We demand you talk on our rights because you haven't. You released that threat, and that is not okay. In the last three months I have been reading the news, checking the news, posting things, being an activist, which I don't really identify with but I've had to. I had to because I had to share this voice. I had to make a t-shirt because I was so upset by the potential threat of how it would be dealt with, with trans youth and teenagers. This is not okay. You need to talk to us, Liz Truss. You need to step up, we need to hear your voice, and we need to hear what the helll you were thinking and how you got there, because the conversations you're having are with the wrong people. And I want to know (applause) and I want to know, what I really want to know, because we've seen, if you're on twitter, if you're on social media, we have Baroness Nicholson, we have all of these TERFS, I wanna know who's having these conversations, because they have a collective responsibility to the trans and non-binary community for the detrimental effects that they have put against us for the last three months, (cheering and applause). And I want to know what you intend to happen on July 22nd. July 22nd is the end of parliament and the summer recess, so when you announce these plans that you seem to not be backing down on, I want to ask you an open question of what do you expect? Do you expect us to take this lying down? Because we will not. We will not take this lying down and this is just the very beginning. So this is a peaceful protest but also this is to show you our numbers and I can guarantee that every single person today that spoke was so influential. And those voices are now cast out and all into your ears. Listen to that, take that education, and spread that around. Because we want this to be double next time, and triple the time after, if we have to.

Dani and Jacqui on IG: @notaphaseorg