Gloucester Pride was on Saturday 9th September 2023 in Gloucester Park, there was then a march from the cathedral to the park. It was a fun day with many events planned well into the evening.
Gloucester and Cheltenham branches join forces each year to be in the community for this event. On a sweltering day, twelve Samaritans took part in the march and despite the heat, had a very positive day at this annual event. There were lots of lovely comments from the people of Gloucester and it was great to raise awareness of our service.
June is Pride month and we want to highlight our support for Pride, both as a local branch and a wider organisation.
We support anyone in distress of course but, during Pride month, we have a special awareness of many of the lived experiences that callers from the LQBTQ+ - and growing definitions of sexuality and gender – communities cope with. Whilst for many, Pride is often a time of visibility and celebration, for others the event can heighten feelings of anxiety, of feeling excluded and often of loneliness, through either being unable to join in, for a whole host of reasons, or fear generated by the increased awareness and scrutiny by others. Samaritans recognise that this month may increase feelings of vulnerability, disconnect and distress and we would say loudly – call us…. we are here for you, all of you. Please don’t allow negative feelings to overwhelm you.
If Pride month is a time of celebration and release for you, then ENJOY! Happy PRIDE everyone!
A little Pride history?
Why Pride? Why June, as a month? Well, we have to travel back to New York, USA, in fact back to Saturday, 28thJune, 1969, and to the Stonewall Inn at 43 Christopher Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan. It was there at around 1.20 am, the New York Police Department raided the bar… again. This time the usual raid activity became hostile, with the crowd resisting, what was seen as, the unfairness of the police raid. This quickly evolved into a series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the LGBT community in Greenwich Village. The ‘Stonewall Riots’ are widely considered to constitute one of the most important events leading to the ‘gay liberation’ movement and subsequent fight for LGBT rights. To mark these protests, the first organised march was held on June 28, 1970, and progressed from Greenwich Village to the Sheep Meadow in Central Park. From this early beginning, the Pride march events grew and spread outside of the USA to other countries in the world, now annually remembering and celebrating the events that happened on that early June morning, back in 1969.
The Rainbow Flag?
The first Rainbow flags flew in San Francisco, in June 1978. They replaced the previously used symbolism of the ‘Pink Triangle’ once used in Nazi Germany to identify homosexual people. In 1978, rather than using a symbol of oppression, a group wished to design a flag that represented “the dawn of a new gay consciousness and freedom”. Why a rainbow design was chosen has many offerings, including, from the Hippie movement of the 1960’s, to Judy Garland’s song “Somewhere over the Rainbow”, to previous symbols of World peace. The original flag had eight striped colours, including ‘hot pink’! Each colour represented an element, such as sunlight, sex, nature, healing, etc. As popularity grew for the flag, a more traditional rainbow colour spectrum was used and, practically, hot pink as a fabric was hard to source. So the now famous seven stripe colour rainbow flag was born. The flag at the top of this article also shows an ongoing progression to be more inclusive of all people who identify as LGBTQ+.
Our branch will be supporting the Gloucestershire wide Pride Day, being scheduled for Saturday 9th September 2023 at Gloucester Park. We will have a gazebo for the event and will see it as an opportunity to show our support, and be visible, within our local LGBTQ+ communities. See you there!