Memorial destroyed during Manchester Pride weekend will need to be replaced, fundraisers say

A fund-raising campaign is under way to replace the National Trans Memorial in the city centre after it was badly damaged during the weekend of Manchester Pride.

The sculpture in Sackville Gardens cannot be repaired after it ended up on fire during the recent event.

Claire Green, acting on behalf of the national transgender charity Sparkle, has now set up a fund-raising page to get the ball rolling for a replacement and more than £1,500 has been donated in the first few days.

However, among the sadness at the vandalism there is also anger at the way the memorial has been treated, with Sparkle and the community clashing with Manchester Pride over the question of who bears responsibility and takes accountability for what happened.

Why has the fund-raiser been set up?

The GoFundMe page has been set up after the memorial in Sackville Gardens suffered irreparable damage during the weekend of Manchester Pride. It is hoped enough money can be raised to replace it with something more robust.

The memorial, which was put up in 2013 and was the first of its kind in the country, is carved into butterfly shapes and also contains plaques remembering people from the trans community whose families did not follow their wishes when they died and buried them with their deadnames or who have been killed.

It is one of three memorials in Sackville Gardens, with the others being the Beacon of Hope remembering those who suffered from HIV and Aids and the statue of Alan Turing.

The fund-raiser was set up by Claire Green who wants the design of a new memorial to be devised in discussion with the community.

Claire said: “I wanted to get going on this while the iron was hot. People are getting in touch about doing different fund-raising things.

“The community is gutted and they are also angry that this has been allowed to happen.

“I am hoping that the phoenix will rise out of these ashes and we will get a more substantial, robust memorial.

“I’m still upset about this but I’m hoping good will come out of this and the people of Manchester will come together as they have done countless times before.

“The trans community is getting it left, right and centre and the level of compassion towards our community is diminishing, but we need to stay positive. It’s nice to see the support coming in from everywhere and we need to work towards a nice memorial we can all appreciate.”

Sadly this is not the first time the memorial has been vandalised. It suffered damage within a few weeks of being put in place and Claire says this is the third year in a row that damage has been done to it during Pride.

What has been said about the damage to the memorial?

A disagreement has broken out between Sparkle and the trans community and Manchester Pride in the wake of the memorial getting wrecked during the festival.

It has been suggested that Manchester Pride should have had better security arrangements in place for protecting the memorial and there have also been question marks asked about fire extinguishers in Sackville Gardens.

In addition Claire said she wanted to raise the issue of better lighting of the area with Manchester City Council for when the new memorial is designed and installed.

Sparkle chair Vicki Mulligan said: “Even though I share my everyone’s anger and distress at the ignorance and indifference shown towards a powerful symbol of my community’s struggle, I am also determined to highlight the negligence which has resulted in the memorial’s costly dismantling and replacement.

“The charity will be working closely with Manchester City Council to establish accountability for the damage, and in preserving the legacy and impact of the memorial.”

Annie Wallace, an actress known for her role in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks and a Sparkle patron, said: “The National Trans Memorial in Sackville Gardens is the focal point for the Transgender Day of Remembrance each November.

“Its loss will be felt keenly this year, especially as the trans community are currently being demonised and targeted as never before.

“The damage and desecration to this monument could have been prevented, had a basic level of respect for a memorial been shown.

“Hopefully a replacement can found soon, and given the same level of respect and status as the nearby Beacon of Hope, which means so much Manchester’s LGBTQIA+ community.”

What has Manchester Pride and the council said?

In a statement on the Manchester Pride website its inclusitivity development manager Dr Christopher Owen said: “Everyone at Manchester Pride is devastated by the damage to the National Trans Memorial, during the Manchester Pride Festival.

“We are sorry this happened on our watch and are in conversation with Sparkle to ensure that a new, resilient memorial is put in place.

“While the fire was an accident, and the council has removed the National Trans Memorial from the garden strictly for safety reasons, it still really hurts to see it go.

“Our community is under attack in this country, hate crimes are on a terrifying rise and trans and non-binary legal and political futures are precarious at best. We don’t need this right now. We need peace. We need hope. And right now especially, we need action.

“The trans community is integral to everything Manchester Pride stands for and we hope to play our part in ensuring that we have a long-lasting legacy honouring our trans family and friends who have been lost.”

The statement also gave an account of how Manchester Pride responded to the fire on Sunday 28 August, the investigation which has initially concluded it was an accident but is still looking into the incident and how it is altering its risk management plans.

However, the statement was strongly criticised on Twitter by Sparkle’s vice chair Lee Clatworthy, who said there were inconsistencies in what Manchester Pride was saying and that some of the charity’s concerns had not been addressed.

Manchester City Council has been approached for comment.