Pride
Pride is the name given to the marches, parades, rallies and festivals at which lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people affirm themselves openly and publicly – in contrast to earlier generations, for whom concealment was often a legal and social necessity. The name derives from "Gay Pride", conceived from the outset as both a celebration of same-sex love and a protest against discrimination.
Origins
The first event billed as "Gay Pride" in the United Kingdom was a march held in London on 1 July 1972, organised by the Gay Liberation Front. The date was chosen as the nearest Saturday to the anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in New York of 28 June 1969.[1][2] It built on earlier gay-rights demonstrations in London, including a 1971 protest in Trafalgar Square against the unequal age of consent – then 21 for gay men, against 16 for heterosexuals – sometimes called the "Pride before Pride".[3] Partial decriminalisation of homosexual acts in England and Wales had come only five years earlier, under the Sexual Offences Act 1967.[3]
Estimates of the turnout on that first march vary, from a few hundred to around 2,000.[4][5] Participants marched between Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park, encouraged to be visible and celebratory.[1]
Growth and heritage
Pride marches became annual events and spread beyond London. In 1981 the London march moved for one year to Huddersfield, in solidarity with protests against police raids on the Gemini Club; from 1983 the London event was known as "Lesbian and Gay Pride".[5] During the 1980s Pride also became a vehicle for wider solidarity and campaigning – notably around the miners' strike, through Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners in 1985, the fight against Section 28, and support for people affected by HIV/AIDS.[6] Manchester Pride began in 1985, initially as the Manchester Mardi Gras.[6]
From the 1980s and 1990s onwards, Pride festivals were established in towns and cities across the UK – for example Brighton Pride and Manchester Pride – increasingly adopting local names without needing to state explicitly that they were LGBT events.[7]
Contemporary debates
As Pride events have grown, they have also become the subject of debate within LGBT communities.
One recurring criticism concerns commercialisation. Large Pride events now attract substantial corporate sponsorship, and some commentators argue that this has diluted the movement's grassroots, protest-based origins. The writer Simon Edge, a former editor of Capital Gay, argued in 2023 that Pride had come to be dominated by corporate branding and empty sloganeering at the expense of its original purpose.[8] Others counter that corporate visibility reflects hard-won social acceptance, and that Pride retains its protest character, particularly where LGBT rights remain contested or under threat.
A separate debate concerns the relationship between the "LGB" and the "T" within Pride. Some lesbian and gay people, and organisations such as the LGB Alliance – a gender-critical group that campaigns on the basis of sexual orientation, and whose standing within the wider LGBT community is itself disputed – argue that the movement's original focus on same-sex attraction has been displaced by transgender and wider identity-based causes. Mainstream LGBT organisations and most Pride bodies reject this framing, regarding trans people as an integral part of the movement, and some Pride events have declined to include groups they consider hostile to trans inclusion.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 How London Pride began, London Museum.
- ↑ Out of the Shadows, p. 61.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Pride in the UK: From its roots to today, House of Lords Library, 2023.
- ↑ Memories of Britain's First LGBT+ Pride in 1972, Peter Tatchell Foundation.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Pride: The First 25 Years, Bishopsgate Institute.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Proud: The First Gay Pride in London, MyLearning.
- ↑ Pink UK: List of Prides and events in the UK.
- ↑ Simon Edge, "Pride is no place for homosexuals", UnHerd, 2 June 2023.