Pride

8th July 2017 was my first pride and I went all out and bit the bullet to go to the UKs biggest gay celebration in London. It is the largest pride march in the UK and happens yearly with support from many companies and the mayor of London, currently Sadiq Khan, as well as reportedly over 1 million spectators. It is honestly one of the most memorable days of my life and the whole day I felt so full with love and happiness.

a long shot of the parade: absolutely packed with placards for Stonewall and rainbow umbrellas

I have lived in the South West of England my whole life and haven’t seen much variation or acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community, unfortunately, however I have educated myself on our history and decided to experience a day dedicated to all things gay. I got together a group of 8 friends and we hopped on the train to the capital. Of course, I boarded with my face partially covered in glitter and bright, colourful makeup and eccentric clothing (eccentric for Dorset) and felt rather overdressed despite knowing the closer we got the more extravagant people would look. Low and behold as more people boarded the spectrum of colour changed from black and white to full on rainbow tutus and glitter in every crevice. I brought along extra glitter for my friends to bedazzle themselves so that when we got off we blended in slightly.

a selfie with 6 out of the 8 friends

As every person who has travelled to London will know, things look a bit dreary and boring but not on the 8th. Waterloo station itself was littered with people going to the march as indicated by, as previously mentioned, glitter, glitter and MORE glitter. I absolutely loved it because not only did these people stand out to the usual but it also reminded me that there are other people either in or supporting the community and I feel like it was an interesting visual to have. In comparison, if a rainbow flag appeared in a window of a Dorset shop the residents are likely to be a little taken aback as our demographic is majorly filled with middle class white elderly people hence the slight confusion or possible dislike for such a symbol.

Anyhow, on this day the flag came out quicker than a born homosexual (we are all born with the gay in us this is just my poor attempt at a metaphor) and we were off. We had a fair few hours before the parade started so we chilled in the park and went to an art gallery to fill time. It was so great seeing huge buildings bearing our flag and such a huge range of beautiful people.

a profile photo of my friends and I sat before the parade started

Not only the quantity but the variety of people at Trafalgar was insane. The sun was blazing, the alcohol was flowing and colours were thriving. The best thing about it was going around and just seeing such gorgeous humans; Dorset has some hidden gems but when such beauties are grouped in one area it’s overwhelming!

We found a spot right up by the barriers halfway down the route and patiently waited. According to my friends Tom Daley was one of the first people who walked down the middle but guess who was so distracted they didn’t even see him (surprise it was me). The floats varied from elaborate, music filled, dancing numbers to walking floats with just about as much energy.

my friends Lydia and Alicia with the rainbow flag draped around them

There were so many tracks playing from ABBA to Lady Gaga (we stan a queen), drag queens, out and proud individuals – the whole shebang. One of my favourite parts was a double decker bus with the elderly LGBTQ+ members which filled my heart with happiness as there is such a saddening number of older people who don’t support us and you always envision them to have outdated views because of laws being different but to see that float was amazing to me as it showed that age really doesn’t count for anything and you are free to love anyone at any age.

placards and balloons representing the ASOS float

After nearly 6 hours of scream singing, cheering and dancing we decided to make tracks for a sit down. This was another fabulous part to the day as there was a large congregation of people decked out in flags and sparkles, chatting, laughing, making memories in the park we chilled in. It was such a happy moment in my life.

the three of us taking a selfie during the parade

I loved it so much that I went to London Pride again in July of 2018 with my, then, boyfriend and, still, best friend. Again, we had an incredible time and it showed Josh something that really mattered and empowered me. This year was no less of a spectacle but it was nice going another time with even more character development for myself and watching it at Piccadilly which meant that the energy was pretty high as it was near the start. I have some really cool photos from this as well because my hair was freshly dyed and shaved from prom and I had these funky rainbow trousers that I absolutely love. Much like last year, it would appear that I looked overdressed but once we hit the threshold of gayness I looked slightly underwhelming if anything! It was also fun going with less people this year as I didn’t feel like I had to keep checking if we were all together and decision making was miles easier.

a photo from behind of Lydia and I walking together, holding hands with the flag wrapped around. possibly my favourite photo of us

The only negative I would say about 2018 was the TERF group that led the parade. Before I went the first year I was quite worried if I would see a hate/ anti LGBT group protesting against the parade however we were lucky enough not to however this year the first group of people we saw was a group of women saying that lesbians should not be part of LGBT. We had no idea what was happening when they crossed us as everyone was super excited for the parade to start so we were all cheering but then the atmosphere changed and people were booing. We didn’t join in as we had no idea what was happening but I later read through PinkNews all about it and it really saddened me. I’ll leave the link to it here – https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/07/07/anti-trans-group-allowed-to-lead-pride-in-london-march-after-hijack/

As frustrating it was to see them and have the confusion of everything and that they were the start of the whole day essentially, at least we proved that they couldn’t dampen our spirits as the parade continued as normal and there were no other threats which was great. Just goes to show that even in a very public display of acceptance there are still blind sighted people who try to ruin our fun and preach their hatred.

a pride float going past with a guy waving a flag and me taking a photo on the foreground showing my rainbow tattoo

I would really like to go to some parades in other cities such as Brighton or Birmingham to see if they do anything different and the types of companies that support it however a few years down the line (or even next year) I would like to go back to London and be part of the parade rather than watching it as the atmosphere is tangible and I revel in the pride cloaking me. It made me feel ‘normal’.