“Half the time when the Mammies are out, we’re actually minding activists because they’re so burnt out and they cannot take a break, or they feel they can’t, and that’s not sustainable for any of us,” says Karen Sugrue, Co-Founder of Mammies for Trans Rights. The other half of the time, “we’re getting hugs, we also have tissues and sun cream and water – because nobody ever drinks enough water – and we have all of those bits. We love it, people seem to identify with it, and it makes everybody happy.”
You may have encountered the Mammies doing exactly that. Since their founding in 2022, they have become a mainstay of Pride and trans rights marches around Ireland. Born of a sense of protection to trans children and young people, Mammies for Trans Rights have approached their campaigning not with policy or legislative change as their primary goal, but building, supporting, and protecting a community of young trans people and those close to them.
“We got the most incredible welcome, lots of young people asked us for hugs,” Karen recalls of their first march. “We realised that there were a lot of young people out there whose parents and mums, for a variety of reasons, were not able to give them support. In lots of cases, they had to leave their families of origin, and they had no contact there.
“Almost from that first day, we realised that there was a really big role in demonstrating two things: showing young and adult trans people that there are adults in this world who love them unconditionally; and that there are parents out there for those who don’t have anybody to talk to about this. We thought those are two fairly good roles that we could play, hopefully without taking space from people who really need it.”
That concern about finding a role that allows for support of trans people while not taking their place has been a key consideration of the organisers. “On the one hand, it would be much better if trans people themselves were able to go out and do this work and have these conversations. There’s no question about it. But it’s just not safe right now,” says Karen.
“We were seeing individual trans people speaking out and sharing their experiences, and getting the most appalling backlash and abuse – not just to themselves, but their families, their friends, their children, their spouses, their workplaces and so on. I was saying, ‘I’m afraid to do anything. Is this my space to take? What can we do?’ Claire [Flynn, Co-Founder] was really strong from the get-go that as mums, one of the things that we could do is figuratively stand in front of our kids and take the heat. If we can, as an interim piece, go in and have those conversations and take some heat out of the conversation and away from other people, then we feel it’s worthwhile doing.”
That work has led the Mammies to schools and offices around the country to offer information and guidance. “The corporate [outreach] is probably the most successful in terms of reaching people who might not ordinarily have these conversations or have access to these conversations,” explains Karen. “When we’re looking at the polling data and the wide spectrum of beliefs, we’re not going to change the minds of anybody at either end of that spectrum. It’s that middle group that we would really like to find a way to get access to for these conversations and resource them to have conversations at home or with their neighbours or at work around water coolers.” The work of the Mammies was recognised last year when they received the LGBTQ+ Ally award at The GALAS.
The Mammies’ role as parents has also been a core part of their work. This has grown to encompass multiple forms of action: not only supporting other parents of trans young people, but giving them an avenue to join in advocating for their children. “It tells a really important story when you see our generation out on the roads because we don’t look like, nor do we do, an awful lot of extreme kind of activism,” says Karen. “A lot of the members have never marched in their lives before coming out for a Mammies march. But they’re so moved and so passionate about finding ways to mind their kids that they see us and they think, those are a group of people that we could march with, and that’s something I could do.”
Perhaps less recognised is a mission to challenge the traditional idea of motherhood and expand who can fit into that role and what it means in a more globalised world. “There’s an identifiable piece with [motherhood], and it’s associated with care and a very particular trope, particularly in Ireland, of that fierce advocate,” Karen explains. “But we are quite passionate about decolonising the idea of motherhood: to bring it into the space of care and caring and move away from the idea of linking motherhood to biology or to very specific gender roles.
“Our members are not all mothers. They’re not all biologically capable of a pregnancy: some of them are and choose not to; some of them have children who aren’t trans people; some of them will never have children. Some people are just meant for different ways of loving and being.”
Their aim, she says, is “the widening of the idea of ‘mother’ and ‘mothering’ to include any adult in the world who’s looking around thinking, ‘This sh*t is f *cking outrageous. Not on my f *cking watch.’ Anyone who has a sense of group collective responsibility to the world and is thinking, ‘All of these kids are our kids, not just including our trans or queer kids. The babies in Palestine, in Sudan, in Congo, they are all our kids.’ That’s motherhood in 2026. We’re really fiery about this in the Mammies.
“All forms of activism right now have to address these things. Everything is crumbling all at the same time, and it is all centred around deconstructing these old ways of being that are manifestly failing us.”
Of course, by being visible both in standing for trans rights and challenging traditional norms, the Mammies have taken some of the heat that they intended to divert from trans young people. “We’ve had a lot of abuse,” recalls Karen. “I don’t need to tell you the trajectory that has taken place over the last four years. We’re looking at the same stuff everybody else is looking at. We are very frightened and very concerned about what’s happening, and we are trying to find ways as parents to carve out little niches of safety, and that’s what we feel people identify with.”
So, how best to achieve that? “I know that we have a moral obligation not to do nothing. That’s what I know,” argues Karen. “That’s the key bit because it would be really easy to feel overwhelmed. We can only do this bit that we are doing and keep pushing as much as we can, having conversations, making connections, building relationships, and working from a place of authenticity. We keep doing the piece that we can do.”
The Mammies are aiming to make those connections by expanding their reach even further. “Our aim this year is to concentrate on the more rural Prides,” says Karen. “We think that there is pretty good representation for trans groups now in most of the big ones, but in the rural ones, we think maybe it might be more impactful if the Mammies were there. That would have been unimaginable even four years ago; we just wouldn’t have had the numbers. Now we can realistically plan to do most of them.”
That expansion has come about as a result of their focus on care and optimism, which shines through from their attitude and actions. “One thing that we’re really passionate about is empowering people,” Karen states. “Even if it is writing one letter to a local TD and just saying how concerned you are, or if it is going to Pride and just standing in the crowd – cheering people are great – that’s fabulous. Or find a group like ourselves and march with us! You don’t have to do anything except rock up on the day. We’ll hand you a t-shirt and some badges, and that’s it, and it’s great fun.
“We really just want people to feel empowered to do something because the ‘doing something’ gives you that sense of power and community. For me, that is the act of rebellion. It is building community at a time that tells us that we’re on our own and that we’re lonely and that there’s nothing good in the world. If you insist on knowing that love, community, and friendship win, that in itself is actually an act of resistance, and we need to do that every day.”
Stay up to date with the Mammies on Instagram @mammies4transrights.
This article is part of GCN’s new Amach le Bród (Out with Pride) series, to combat anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation and platform underrepresented voices. The project was funded by the Coimisiún na Meán News Reporting Scheme.