50 years of Pride

Today over a million people are expected to attend the Pride march in London, the first since the pandemic and the march is to be led by the Gay Liberation Front - the group that organised the first parade 50 years ago.

On 1st July 1972 around 1000 people turned up to a heavily policed 'carnival of protest' against the treatment of LGBTQ+ community. Whereas today the parade is celebrated by much of society, those who turned up to the first march took great risk to make a stand against bigotry. It had only been five years since the 1967 Sexual Offences Act had decriminalised homosexual acts between two men. Although a step in the right direction this law only applied in England and Wales, to those over 21 (compared to 16 for heterosexuals and lesbians) and the acts, including holding hands had to be done in private.

Almost immediately after this step forward, there was a leap backwards - in 1968 the World Heath Organisation (WHO) adopted the American classification of homosexuality as a mental disorder. This gave the green light to aversion and conversion therapies resulting in decades of painful and humiliating treatments in order to be 'cured'. The WHO only removed homosexuality from the list of mental disorders in 1992.

In the early hours in June 28th 1969 the NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich, New York City. The raid sparked a riot amongst the patron and neighbours, leading to six days of violent clashes. The Stonewall Riots served as a catalyst to the gay rights movement across the world and the first pride march in London on 1st July 1972 was held on the closest Saturday to the anniversary of the riots. Those who attended that first pride march recall the day being mostly positive - for many it was the first time they had publicly expressed their true selves. Despite the large police presence the reaction from the public was one of bemusement, society wasn't used to seeing such a public display of open homosexuality.

The journey from 1972 to today has been a long and difficult road, with victories and setbacks. Perceptions have changed and society is more inclusive than it was but this has taken time and the continued pressure of activities to push for true equality. The LGBTQ+ community has achieved much in the last 50 years which it can be proud of. The equalisation of consent age, civil partnerships, same-sex marriage, the Equality Act 2010 and the Alan Turing Law which pardoned all historic instances of homosexual criminal convictions demonstrate the progress which has been made.

However, in that time there was also the Section 28 of the Local Government Act. The act which was enforceable between 1988 and 2003 expressly denied local authorities the ability to support its LGBTQ+ constituents, funding was withdrawn from arts projects, while educational and resource materials which ‘promoted an alternative gay family’ were censored. The AIDs pandemic which started in the 80s was devastating for the community, thousands have died and the success of Channel 4's 'It's a sin' shows how long it has taken for society to come to terms with what happened. Prejudice and discrimination still exist in the UK, I myself was a victim of a violent homophobic hate crime in 2017 and millions around the world still live in societies where they face imprisonment or death for being who they are. Unfortunately recent events in America have shown that progress and equality is not a linear journey, rights can be taken away which is why Pride as a protest is more important than ever.