"The police really didn't know what to do about it because there was nothing to cover that in their orders!" says Pollard. At one point, around a dozen men stripped naked and danced in a circle: a display of literal gay abandon. It climaxed with a mass kiss-in that was both ingenious and risky given that protestors could have been arrested for public indecency because they were embracing members of the same sex. Pollard describes the march from Trafalgar Square to Hyde Park, which attracted around 700 activists, as both "very serious" and "enormous fun". “For that reason, it was really important for those of us who were able to come out and declare our sexual orientation to do so." LGBTQ+ people don’t show their face in public for fear of arrest, rejection by their friends and family, and being sacked from their jobs. "The theory was that while everybody was hiding their sexuality or gender identity, we were never going to get anywhere," says Nettie Pollard, another GLF member who helped to organise the 1972 march.
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The age of consent for gay sex between men wasn't reduced to 16 – the same as for everyone else – until 2000.īut it was the inaugural Gay Pride Rally held in London on Jthat had a broader agenda. Though the Sexual Offences Act 1967 had ostensibly decriminalised male homosexual acts, it only applied to men of 21 and over. Tatchell points out that many young men were still treated as criminals for sleeping with other men. “They didn’t show their face in public for fear of arrest, rejection by their friends and family, and being sacked from their jobs." “Back then, most LGBTQ+ people were ashamed and closeted,” recalls activist Peter Tatchell, who helped to organise the 1972 march. It came after the UK’s first LGBTQ+ rights demonstration that took place on November 27, 1970, when 150 members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) held a torchlight rally against police harassment in north London’s Highbury Fields. It’s now half a century since the first Pride march took place in London in 1972, in which hundreds took to the streets in protest against oppression, police mistreatment, and homophobia.
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But it’s also a significant year to look back at all of what the LGBTQ+ movement has achieved. Dozens of events will be held this month from Belfast to London and Shetland to Brighton where queer people and their allies will march, raise placards, and party. Anne's Cathedral under a sign reading "The church supports marriage equality" whilst another marched with a placard saying "We are sorry for how the church has treated LGBTQI+ people.2022 is a landmark year for Britain’s LGBTQ+ community as it marks 50 years of UK Pride. One offered the eucharist to Pride participants on the steps of St. Supporters of the global rights group Amnesty held up banners saying "Love is a human right", while members of the clergy were also present.
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"And if it does go through, 100 percent absolutely there'll be a big, huge party."
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"Everybody's entitled to the same rights, so here's hoping, yes, that it goes through," said Mary Francis White, a 53-year-old social care worker whose son is an openly gay Belfast councillor. The law would be changed unless the devolved government in Belfast, which has been suspended since January 2017, is reinstated by October 21. The event comes just weeks after the British parliament voted to extend same-sex marriage and abortion rights to Northern Ireland, which lags behind the rest of the country on equality issues. Organisers hope that Belfast Pride will exceed the crowd of 55,000 they say turned out last year / ©