By Kevan Garvey
The UK’s first Pride march was in 1972. That’s 52 years ago. I represented WTF at this year’s Derby Pride Festival. I’m privileged, middle aged and straighter than a stake that soft fruit grows up, so the Pride branding is not positioned at me or my demographic. Though, just like homophobic critics of Pride, you may say I’m protesting a little too much. However, just because the various postfix category letters on LGBQT+, like randomly spilled tiles from a scrabble bag, don’t represent me, they don’t exclude me either. Maybe we all have a potentially representative letter in there. We’re all included.
My first Derby pride was joyous. The colour, the optimism, the overwhelming feeling of being part of something. A community where being yourself is celebrated, where different is normal and where Lady Gaga and Tayler Swift drag tribute acts pale in comparison to the “fabulousness” of most of the festival goers. Tayler and “So Gaga” were made to look much closer to base camp than peak ostentatious.
Yet it was the conversations again. Talking with a community that still, after 52 years, is marginalised, targeted, and still facing significant social barriers. Talking is still the key to better mental health. More so for this community. Afterall, numerous studies have shown that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth have a higher rate of suicide attempts than their non queer peers. The Trevor Project 2023 survey, states that 18% of LGBT young people have attempted suicide, a rate 2 times higher than their contemporaries.
Being proud, apparently, is a sin. Not just any sin-lite, but a deadly one. However, everything you do, you must take gratification in this sin. Confused? At Derby Pride, there are no mixed messages. Sins are ugly and miserable. Everything at Derby Pride, flamboyantly screams beauty and happy.
Pride is a collective noun. It symbolises being part of a family. Beit Lions or proud peacocks. Pride is not a pack, a gaggle or herd, but a group that now has pride of place on WTF’s calendar of events. And we’re all proud as punch about that.
