ACOMSDave

Community Journalist

Belfast Pride 2023

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Belfast Pride 2023

Yesterday, the 29th of July 2023, I witnessed and was impressed by the size and infectiousness of Belfast Pride 2023, the theme of which was ‘Stand By Your Trnas’.  There are probably three parts to Pride:-

  • The first phase, ‘The Build Up’ – usually starts off with breakfast taken with your group of choice in different venues. The walk around the streets observing groups of people getting ready, or other groups like the Christians Against Homosexuality with its pontificating of doom and gloom and that we will all be head to hell, and then finally there are the support groups with their flags, infectious smiles, table s full of freebies covering all aspect of society.

These were located down by the ‘Big Fish’.  What is also useful, by visiting them it naturally leads you on to the floats etc being assembled for the ‘dander or parade or march (you choose how you want to describe it); these masses of people are accompanied by a cacophony of noise from single and multiple speakers, from drum groups and single drummers to HiNRG music.  All are accompanied by the security staff, police, ambulance staff and parade marshals.

Belfast Pride 2023, landmark

Big Fish, Belfast

 

  • The middle phase is the actual ‘dander’, march, parade of Belfast Pride 2023 – again your choice of descriptive for it [whatever rocks your boat] – Over the years as the parade has grown so has the audience. Today’s parade was no exception, but what was nice to see was the inclusivity that was generated.  All around me, I could see people and families of all generations, ethnicity, and sexual persuasion; sheltering from the rain around Castle Court, but not rushing to get home.  The anticipation of the march and its runners was more important. 

I was lucky enough to spend some time with a young family, including their two-month-old daughter.  They had come down to enjoy Pride and introduce their daughter to what they hope will be a yearly event for her as she grows up.  They were a lovely couple, the mother obviously involved with the daughter, as the father who took time out to speak with me—finding out why I was their (community journalist and photographer) and also as one of the original instigators of the first Pride in 1991.  It is lovely to see the LGBT+ community being accepted by younger parts of the community.

  • The last stage of the day was the party. For this I will have to beg your forgiveness, I was not able to join in as I had a visit planned to a nursing home to visit Sean McGouran [he of Gay Star, upstart and Update fame, also another member of the first Pride committee].

The first question to ask is, ‘Was this year’s Belfast Pride a success’, the answer is yes a resounding success, but then I also have felt the same for each Belfast Pride since 1991.

Pride is about being kind to yourself and others, about knowing that even with differences we are a family, and to have Pride in being you!

Our month/week/day of celebrating Belfast Pride is something that lasts longer than the time allotted and won’t end until we start next year.

 

Links:

  • Pride Economics – https://bit.ly/3QuJjOe
  • A Pride to be Remembered – 1991 – https://bit.ly/3Y4NRfX
  • Newsletter – The annual Pride parade has taken place in Belfast – https://bit.ly/3DN1nLG

 

Limerick Pride

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Limerick Pride
 
 

Happy Limerick Pride from GOSHH

July 14th – 19th 2015

GOSHH will be providing a wide range of events during this years Limerick Pride Festival
All events take place at GOSHH, Redwood Place, 18 Davis Street, Limerick.
For more information on these events please contact us on 061 314354 or email lgbt@goshh.ie
 

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The YAsTuesday July 14th
The YAs – 5.30pm – 7.00pm
LGBT Group for Adults 18-24 Years Old

This is a safe space for you to express yourself and to meet other young people. The group engages in social activities as well exploring LGBT topics.

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The OutletTuesday July 14th
The OUTlet – 7.30pm – 9.00pm
LGBT Group for Adults aged 25 & over

The OUTlet is a non-alcoholic social group. It is a confidential, safe space. New Members are welcome!

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Pride FlagSaturday July 18th
March with GOSHH at the 2015 Limerick Pride Parade
Meeting at the GOSHH Office at 2pm and we invite you to march behind the GOSHH Banner during the parade.
(The Parade leaves City Hall at 3pm)

Welsh History Month: South Wales’ first ever gay pride march took place in Cardiff with marchers parading down Queen Street

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Picture 83: These activists envisioned this march in Cardiff as a “coming out” for gay and lesbian activism in South Wales and an occasion to celebrate and affirm Wales’ sexually diverse and gender-blended

The Gay Pride march through the centre of Cardiff in 1985
Those who have recently seen the film Pride in the cinema will be familiar with images like this. No, it’s not a picture of the group “Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners” marching in London, but it was taken in the mid-1980s.
Dating from 1985, this image, right, depicts South Wales’ first ever gay pride march. It took place in Cardiff with marchers parading down Queen Street to the bemusement of shoppers and pedestrians. According to the editorial piece accompanying the image, “many [onlookers] shook their heads in disbelief – others laughed and laughed away”.
The presence of policemen and placards in this picture may give the impression of a demonstration, but the theme of this march was pride, not protest.
Holding signs which read “Gay love is good love”and “sing if you’re glad to be gay”, these activists envisioned this march in Cardiff as a “coming out” for gay and lesbian activism in South Wales and an occasion to celebrate and affirm Wales’ sexually diverse and gender-blended society.
The gay rights movement has come a long way since 1985, and Wales’ population continues to be made up of individuals with differing sexual orientations. Nowhere is this diversity celebrated more openly than in Cardiff’s annual LGBT Mardi Gras festival, now Pride Cymru.
Established in 1999, Cardiff’s gay pride festival is held every summer in Cooper’s Field in Bute Park and is the largest event of its kind to take place in Wales. It’s serious and it’s loud, but it is primarily a celebration of diversity, with thousands of people (gay and non-gay) taking part each year.
Gay pride events such as this are not limited to the confines of Wales’ capital city, however. Similar events have been held and continue to be held in other towns and cities in the country such as Aberystwyth’s “Pride on the Prom”, Bangor’s North Wales Pride and Swansea Pride.
Wales has an interesting history of gay activism, one which stretches back further than the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Leo Abse (1917-2008), the Cardiff-born solicitor and Welsh Labour MP for Pontypool and Torfaen between 1958 and 1987, for instance, was an active gay rights campaigner and noted for promoting legislation to decriminalise male homosexual relations in the United Kingdom in the 1960s.
Cai Parry-Jones: “I am a Welsh-speaking Cardiff-born historian. I was awarded a doctorate in History from Bangor University in 2014 and I now work in academic publishing. I have a great interest in the histories and cultures of minority groups and I am currently in the process of turning my PhD thesis on the modern history of Jewish individuals and communities in Wales into a book.”
 
Republished from Wales Online