"I have seen the question raised “Has Pride run its course?” in a recent Argus commentator’s column. But after attending Brighton Pride this past Saturday, the answer is evidently a resounding no," The Argus columnist Steve Davis writes.

Pride is such a great occasion for people from across the city and country to come together. It is a time of distinct unity for Brighton and Hove, where people from all different paths converge.

There is a real sense of organic, vibrant community that always comes with Pride and it’s fantastic.

Brighton has always been different to the rest of the country and Pride is one of its greatest success stories.

This weekend had an estimated £22,500,000 boost to the city economy, in an economic context when the city’s residents and businesses need all the help they can get. Money raised by Brighton Pride supports organisations year after year.

In previous years the funding raised has gone to so many groups, from the amazing Allsorts that gives support to under 25s enabling peer support and reducing isolation to the Sussex Beacon allowing them to holistically support their clients living and aging with HIV or the Clare Project that supports trans, non-binary, intersex and gender-variant residents, or Brighton and Hove LGBT Switchboard getting the funding to pilot an LGBTQ+ night shelter for Brighton and Hove.

As one of the ward councillors for Preston Park, Pride benefits this local community immeasurably, from the Friends of Preston Park to our beautiful Grade II listed, 750-year-old St Peter’s Church.

Not only does the Rainbow Trust and the Social Impact Fund support our ward but it is a lifeline to such city-wide programmes as Crew Club FC in Brighton, West Blatchington and Hangleton Food Bank, Patcham Duck Fayre and Old Boat Community Centre to name but a few.

The sense of community and positive financial impact this amazing weekend has on the city and its worthy charities is sensational.

But we cannot forget the real reason we need Pride more than ever. Beyond the community, the funding, the festivities, Pride is and must be a political protest.

The first Gay Pride march in this country took place in London in July 1972, inspired by the events at the Stonewall Bar in New York a few years earlier.

These two moments were certainly not the beginning of the quest for equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community but lit a fuse that still, as with all human rights, needs to burn brightly.

Fundamentally, Pride should always be a forum to protest.

That tradition was alive and well this year when protestors made clear their opposition to Keir Starmer and his national party’s pivot against trans people.

Whether based on authentic hatred or simply his desire to posture in the culture war for – he thinks – votes, Keir’s transphobia is not welcome in Brighton or anywhere.

Our city is one that welcomes, defends and supports trans people. We were the first local authority to bring in a trans inclusion toolkit for schools, a leading framework which has helped so many students in our city.

We need to make sure we defend that, and keep updating and improving it based on what’s best for students and safeguarding.

But from speaking to trans people in and around the council, they are particularly unsettled that this Labour council has been totally silent while their party’s national leadership has been trying to play both sides of the argument around trans rights, suggesting that trans children shouldn’t even have a choice over what they wear, their haircuts or what they want to be called.

There is no middle ground when it comes to recognising humanity, and everyone in Keir’s party needs to make clear whether they support his transphobia or oppose it.

We should be doing all that we can to turn up for trans people in the face of national culture wars, and this council must be on the side of LGBTQ+ people, regardless of who’s in government.

If anyone has any doubt that Pride is still needed and that this city will not tolerate transphobia, just look at Trans Pride.

Not content with only one Pride event in the city, Trans Pride this year far exceeded the expected 5,000 to 10,000 attendees, with over 30,000 coming to make clear that trans people are organised, supported and defended.

People in this city and across the country want a government that stands up for trans rights, not one that will throw them under the bus when it gets in the way of their political ambitions.