London Pride 2011

Erm yeah this is kind of late but you may have guessed now that I have a short attention span and things rarely seem to be on time. Anyways I noticed a few photos hidden away on my computer from the London pride event that was held a couple of weeks ago (Saturday 2^nd July). So this week’s blog will be on the pride event...

This year was quite special as NUS (National Union of Students) got front place alongside TUC (Trade Union Congress) in the march. The idea is that while the pride is there to celebrate people’s diversity it also serves as a form of protest at the wrongs that still need to be righted. The march assembled at roughly 12.30 so luckily it was not too bad as early starts go.  I can’t remember where we started off but I know we went to Trafalgar square! We had to be up early as this year I was marching with Unison (a public service trade union) and we was meeting in a park (again my sense of direction is rubbish but it had green grass and had a lake... O.o). Anyway my day started early and I made my way over to the park by trains and tube and we began with a champagne breakfast (best way to start a day really!). So we had croissants, pain au chocolates and of course plenty of champagne (cheap student stuff of course).

Our UNISON balloon we had with the LGBT flag attached

it was all weighed down by the cart which

we dumped our entire luggage in!

From there we grabbed our cart of goods and went to assemble for the march. We were quite lucky in that the weather was not too hot but was warm none the less. I think the march lasts about an hour and a bit but the time flies when you are walking and chanting. We had loads of support from the crowd and we had the standard taunts and jeers from what has been dubbed ‘bigots corner’. Basically while the event is extremely positive you do also get a bunch of about 15 so called Christians who turn up every year to flaunt their out dated views. It did not matter too much as the number of people in the march shouting their cheers out easily overcomes the ranting of them!

After the march came more of the party side and the whole of Trafalgar Square was covered with people all dancing and cheering at the acts on stage which this year included Bucks Fizz and also some others which I did not know but they sounded good anyway. Although I thought it was quite sad when Bucks Fizz sang one of their most famous songs (The Land of Make Believe) and no one had heard of it and there was a sort of awkwardness but hey they also did “Making Your Mind Up” which everyone knew, yay!

Aside from all the partying and protesting and shouting we also had to man the Unison stall and help give out info about the union and also some stickers! Hooray! Unison also had a good idea of putting up a board asking “How have the government cuts affected LGBT people?” and yeah I know it may not apply to you etcetera. However a lot of the comments reflected fears and worries that everyone has right now.  See below at a few shots of the board: