It is that time of year again often referred to colloquially as ‘Gay Christmas’. Pride season is generally throughout July and the last one in the pride calendar is usually Manchester around the August bank holiday. I have been attending Manchester Pride for a lot longer than I would particularly care to admit. Mummy knew this was the one time that my phone would go on a temporary hiatus and all communication would resume after the bank holiday… much like public transport. I would always get the same message every single year, “Make sure and be safe, have fun and try to ring me for a quick 5 minutes at least some point over the weekend”. The last part I must admit I was shamefully bad at. I was usually out enjoying the music, the food and the dancing or….. I would be recovering a comatose state trying to get a shot of adrenaline to help me cope with the 4 days I had to power through.
Their is something magical about pride, and the thing is you don’t have to be particularly gay to enjoy it, though it does help. It is very much like a festival catering to many a different crowd. Music lovers rejoice at all the live acts to choose from, be it pop, indie or straight up dance. The party goers revel in the many bars and pop-up beer tents scattered across the gay village. Their is also arts and craft stalls for people who like to fill their houses with an assortment of rainbow themed merchandise. The entire weekend culminates in a candlelight vigil to remember those who have lost their battle with the HIV virus. Many people today will wonder what the correlation between gay pride and HIV is, however many will remember the 1980’s with Thatcher’s section 28 and the 80’s gay disease. Back then HIV was very much promoted as a gay disease and to some it very much still is.
My mother was all for pride and one day she started to quiz me on why we have it? Now as far as mothers go she was very enlightened for her time. She was definitely a fag-hag back in her day, the closeted gays of Ballymena would flock to her side. She asked me quite innocently why in this day and age we needed gay pride? My response to her and to anyone is very simple.
Be thankful you never needed one.
In all the commerciality and frolicking that upstages the pride message we need to recall a time when homosexuality was illegal. It was the Stonewall riots that really kicked off the pride movement. During the swinging 60’s gay liberation was starting to take affect. The cultural movement for both homosexuals and heterosexuals was that of sexual liberation. A counterculture was forming across the western world that was in face of the de facto status quo (now theirs a mouthful). People were embracing sex like they never had before and celebrating their differences. The dark-side however was that many gay, lesbian and trans people were getting arrested all the time, for living their lives. The most common reason was if they were wearing 2 pieces of clothing not traditionally associated with their gender. The police would use any excuse to arrest and humiliate these fringe citizens who they seen as an attack on traditional family value and their way of life.
On June 28th 1969 the NYPD decided to raid the Stonewall Inn under the pretence of a lack of liquor licence (though that is a grain of truth I can imagine). This community had been pushed around for years. They were finally starting to taste freedom and poke their heads above the sand and being shoved right back down their by the people sworn to protect them. The people had enough. The exact nature of how the riots started varies, though many accredit infamous Gay Rights icon Martha P. Johnson as the instigator. The riots spilled out from the Stonewall Inn, out onto the streets of New York. The had enough! This was the beginning of it all. Worldwide demonstrations were taking place for Gay liberation. The fuse had been lit and is was never going to go out.
Aside from the Rainbow flag another iconic Gay rights symbol is the inverted pink triangle. This was used in the Nazi concentration camp to identify gay people, intended to shame and humiliate those wearing it. It has been reclaimed as a badge of honour and second to the rainbow flag as an international symbol of gay rights.
So why do we need gay pride? Lest we forget….And I repeat what I said to my mother, be thankful you never needed a straight pride.
Ok that sounded very lecturing and that’s probably how my mummy felt too. She knew her baby boy loved a soap box every now and then. What she always acknowledged though was I would always show my passion to 150%. Sometimes though, as she would say, “Rain it in a bit Michael”. Too which I would roll my eyes and agree to it. What a wise old Lioness she was.
So it is great that in this modern world we can paint our faces with glitter, dance to our favourite bands and importantly love who we want to love. For me that Is what Pride truly embodies. A celebration of love, and having the right to love who we want.
Sidebar – if this was a movie narration the trumpets would be playing against —“All you need is love”………. “dooo dooo doo do do!!!!!!!”
So with a few short days I welcome the time to spend with my friends and celebrate life, love and Living………. I’m sure I have heard that somewhere before?
xx
A Grievers Guide to the Galaxy 