Why Pride Matters

By Dean Newby

“Pride is just an excuse for a party”, “Pride is pointless, it has lost all meaning”.

These are just some of anti-Pride lines I’ve recently heard, and each time I hear them I am forced to argue against them. The first is in itself ridiculous, for the simple fact that I don’t need an excuse for a party, indeed no one needs an excuse for a party!

The second is a little more complex, and it is this argument that I address below.

There is a belief in some and indeed a growing movement to ‘make Pride a protest’, to make it more political and less party like, for it to be ‘meaningful again’.

I can understand where this belief comes from: the parade is generally positive with a festival feel, and very little protest as seen in the original Prides, but I disagree with the premise of their argument.

I believe Pride is still very political, we need only look at news stories from this week; will Mayor Johnson or David Cameron be attending London Pride today, or the excitement about Sarah Brown’s attendance – who while going in a personal capacity, is still very much the wife of our Prime Minister (otherwise she wouldn’t be at the front of the parade), and the fact that LGBT activist Peter Tatchell has promised to question her about gay marriage.

Then there are the speeches and presentations, countless representatives from various organisations and countries, all talking about how we have come a long way, but still need to go further, how we must pressure our elected officials to do more for both LGBT rights & general equality.

Now, I’m not for a second arguing that this makes Pride a purely political event, far from it, but I would argue that it is political enough. Not only does it offer the political parties a chance to get their pro-LGBT message across, it also creates a sort of battle of participation, with each party trying to get as many of their activists out in the parade and on their stalls, vying for the ‘pink vote’. All of this occurring in a relatively relaxed and celebratory atmosphere – putting people in a positive and generally more receptive mood, vastly contrasting the way politics and politicians are usually presented or perceived.

Aside from the politics of Pride, there are several other reasons as to why Pride is still relevant and still matters. It gives us a chance to show people the many different services offered to the LGBT community, the work of different charities, social organisations, support groups, sports teams, LGBT groups from various organisations such as the Police and Fire service, and many more.

It offers us a place to celebrate all that is good, all that we have and remember how fortunate we are compared to those from the not so long ago 80s and further back.

It has the capacity to show those who are not yet openly LGBT, who are scared of the reactions they’ll get upon coming out, that they are not alone, that while it can be a terrifying experience, it can also be a rewarding, extremely worthwhile and life changing one – we want only to be true to ourselves.

It allows us to be openly proud about the community we have built for ourselves and with the help of our wider community.

My passion for Pride is a very personal one, which stems from my first Pride London in 2007, this is why:

On the 30th June 2007, I attended Pride London. I walked proudly waving in the Parade, and listened as the many speakers make their speeches in Trafalgar Square. One such speaker was an organiser from Riga (Latvia) Pride. She told us of the horrific treatment of Riga Pride participants, how they were threatened, beaten and ‘arrested’, simply for taking part in a festival. I was outraged and disgusted, and couldn’t entirely conceive how people could be so hateful. This started a battle inside me. I couldn’t understand why, when I have family and friends who love and care about me, I wasn’t yet ‘out’!? I knew who I was, I knew I was loved, and yet there was a part of me I wasn’t showing the people I care most about.

I realised then that when I live in a country such as ours, in a time such as this, it was vital for me to come out. If for no other reason than simply because I can, because in countries all over our world there are people who are forced to live their lives in secret, knowing that to do otherwise would result in the harshest of treatments. And yet, so many of them refuse to live in secret, refuse to go quietly, instead choosing to stand up, to make themselves heard, to be counted as what they are – human beings.

I came out the next day. That is the power of Pride.