The Story of Pride in the UK and it’s Legacy in the Events Industry – Part 2

Protest against further criminalisation

In a 2019 Vice article titled ‘These Are The Radical Roots of British Gay Pride‘, painter and author Stuart Feather tells writer JS Rafaelli, “When my family found out I was gay, my father beat me up and I had to leave home. When I was accidentally outed at work, the entire factory turned and started shouting and hooting at me – all at once, to my face.”

Feather was part of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), formed in 1970 after founders Bob Mellors and Aubrey Walter travelled to Philadelphia to attend a Black Panthers demonstration. When Mellors and Walter returned, they were inspired. Subsequently, they set up the GLF, holding their first meeting at the London School of Economics that same year. 

The GLF had demands. They wanted a total end to LGBTQ+ discrimination, equal sex education for gay and straight pupils and an end to homosexuality being classed as a mental illness. When they saw discrimination, they fought back. Louis Eakes, a gay man and Young Liberal member, was arrested on suspicion of ‘importuning’ in 1970.

In this case, ‘importuning’ meant that Eakes was arrested on suspicion of meeting another man in a public place for sexual activity. Eakes denied the charge, claiming that he was asking the man for a lighter. In response to the arrest, 150 gay and lesbian GLF members held a rally to protest against the arrest, taking to Islington’s Highbury Fields to march with candles and torches, a precursor to events that would follow in the future. 

The group continued to protest, creating newsletters, holding events, communal meet-ups in parks and demonstrations that challenged issues around the age of consent laws for LGBTQ+ people. These actions would go on to have ground breaking effects for the community as a whole. 

The UK’s First Pride Event

The Gay Liberation Front’s fire continued, and on the 1st July 1972, the group held Britain’s first-ever Pride march.

Around 700 people attended the march, which started at Trafalgar Square and continued to Hyde Park. Speaking to Attitude Magazine in 2023, GLF veteran Ted Brown said: “There were women kissing women, women kissing men, men kissing men, men kissing women on that stage in full view of the public and a lot of police officers. We thought, let’s confront them and make an issue out of this. [We] did our kiss, clambered down and started our march from Trafalgar Square”. 

The group marched through London, chanting in front of the public and finishing at Hyde Park. When they got to the park, they held a ‘kiss-in’, where LGBTQ+ couples kissed each other in full view of the police in protest of what was at the time an arrestable offence. 

In the following years, more Pride marches would begin to spring up. In 1973, the Sussex branch of the Gay Liberation Front marched through Brighton and, similarly to the London march, ended the day with a Gay Dance at the Royal Albion Hall.

By 1979, ‘Gay Pride Week’ events happened in London and Liverpool. In London, 5,000 people marched and danced, with the week culminating in a series of live performances by famous bands of the time. In 1981, London’s Pride event relocated to Huddersfield, where 2,000 people marched through the streets, holding hands, kissing and chanting. 

The reason why the march came to Huddersfield? In defence of a popular gay venue, The Gemini Club. A new senior police officer had begun to work in the force, bringing with him homophobic views. The Gemini Club was hit with minor technicalities in an attempt to have the licence revoked, with men arrested and being outed at their workplaces. 

The first Pride event in the UK showed the power of collective action. By coming together, organising and demanding to be seen and heard, the members of the GLF helped inspire others to stand up and face discrimination head-on. It lit the torch paper for more events; without it, many of the Pride events we have today likely wouldn’t exist. 

How has Pride changed over the years?

Pride events have changed immeasurably over the years. 

The maverick, radical spirit of past Pride events has cooled slightly, with a party atmosphere being high on the list. Take a walk through Manchester’s Gay Village during the August Bank Holiday, and you’ll find a sea of people basking in joy and laughter. Conversations flow and warm greetings are exchanged, while the drag queens of the village entertain eventgoers inside and out of Canal Street’s bars.

However, the burning flame of liberation still shines brightly. At the Manchester Pride Parade, for example, you’ll see the people who make the LGBTQ+ community what it is today: LGBTQ+ sports clubs, choirs and social groups marching through Deansgate and beyond, holding pride and trans flags high, standing together to celebrate the diversity of the community and reminding spectators that the battle for equality is far from over. 

After all, representation and rainbow lanyards are commonplace in the UK. Yet, the trans community face a similar plight to gay men of the 20th Century, derided by parts of the state and media for daring to exist as their true selves. 

The Candlelit Vigil, held at the end of the weekend, commemorates the lives lost to the AIDS crisis. It’s a quiet moment where the community comes together in solidarity, remembering the people who never got the chance to continue their lives and experience the fruits of the hard work that groups like the Gay Liberation Front, The Campaign For Homosexual Equality, the Homosexual Law Reform Society and others carried out in the 20th Century. 

Manchester isn’t the only Pride event, either. London, Birmingham, Brighton, Dublin and Liverpool all boast their own celebrations. As LGBTQ+ rights have gradually become more accepted by most people, Pride events in small cities, towns and local areas have blossomed. 

Chesterfield Pride has gone from strength to strength since it started in 2016. Last year saw over 5,000 people attend the event at Stand Road Park, with the 2023 Pride Awards recognising the event by nominating it for the ‘Grassroots Pride of The Year Award’. 

Pride Events in Chesterfield, Lancaster, Wigan, Bolton and beyond are vital for the LGBTQ+ community. Not only do they give people representation, but they give people of all ages a place to celebrate alongside each other, strengthening bonds in the local area and providing a positive example to young people grappling with their identity. 

The Fight Isn’t Over

While progress has been made, we still have a long way to go. Our Trans brothers and sisters, for example, haven’t been afforded the spoils as the wider community and have been subjected to discriminatory attitudes from the press and public. 

Fortunately, there are many Trans Pride events, often grassroots and volunteer-run, flying the flag for the community. Take Brighton Trans Pride, for example. It’s been running since 2013 and is the first and largest Pride event of its kind. 

In Manchester, Sparkle Weekender, hosted by the national Transgender charity of the same name, takes place from 27th to 29th June. It features a main stage with the best in trans and non-binary talent, a Trans Joy March, a wellness zone and more. 

Over in the capital, London Trans+ Pride has been operating since 2018, their 2023 march gathering more than 35,000 trans+, non-binary, gender non-conforming and intersex people together. In 2023, Trans Pride Hastings was launched, delivering 15 events across 8 days. The celebration will return in 2025. 

Like large-scale Pride celebrations, these events are built on a long-standing tradition of activism in the UK. In the 1960s, The Beaumont Society circulated its Beaumont Bulletin. In the 70s, Gay Switchboard compiled leaflets signposting trans people to help, while groups like FRIEND and SHAFT (Self-Help Association for Transsexuals) provided meeting places and points of contact. 

They were early touchpoints for Trans people and the Pride events of today provide a space for the community to celebrate, protest and find joy.

Twenty years ago, people might have had to travel to the major cities to experience Pride. If they lived in the North, for example, they might not have had access to an extended community of people like them. Now, it’s on their doorstep. Make no mistake, we still have a long way to go when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights, but the work done by the people who came before us has undoubtedly shaped the freedom we are afforded today.