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Event Information:
Pride
London is the name of the lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender
registered charity which arranges
LGBT events in London, most notably
the annual gay pride parade which is
held in June/July. The most recent
London Pride was on 3 July 2010 and
was attended by 1 million people ,
making it the largest outdoor event
in the UK. Pride London is a
registered charity. The organisation
is run by volunteers (including the
board of directors). The stated aim
of Pride London is to produce a
highly professional Pride Festival
and an annual Pride Day comprising a
Parade through central London, a
politically based Rally and free
entertainment in central London.
Latest: Find all
the details for this year's
Pride
in London parade, with live coverage, here.
The
upcoming Pride London Parade is on
Saturday 2nd July at 13:00. It
is forming from Portland Place,
London and will leave from the
outside of the BBC Broadcasting
House at 13:00. The route has been
modified slightly this year due to
the closure of Oxford Street. The
route will go from Portland Place,
down Regent Street continuing down
to Waterloo Place, turning onto Pall
Mall and Cockspur Street and finally
dispersing at Whitehall as done
before for many years.
Large
numbers of LGBT-friendly people
(including a significant number of
family, friends and supporters) from
all walks of life take part in the
parade. Since 1991, the Friends of
Dorothy Society of Change Ringers
have rung the bells of the church of
St Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar
Square during the morning of Pride,
and as the parade passes through.
For many the most iconic image is of
a long rainbow flag, in 2006 this
was carried by members of the Metro
Centre. In 2010 it was jointly
carried by EDF Energy and Tesco's
staff network groups. Since 2006
Regent Street and Oxford Street have
been closed off to allow the parade
to pass through. This is seen by
many in the LGBT community as a sign
of wider acceptance, although the
parade once marched down Oxford
Street illegally in protest in the
80s. Groups who participate include
The OutZone Youth Project for gay
and bisexual young men (Project for
Advocacy, Counselling and
Education), Mosaic LGBT Youth, Queer
Youth Network(formally The Queer
Youth Alliance), OutOnThursday,
Metro Centre, Youth@Pride, The Pink
Paper and Transport for London.
Since 2004 the Mayor of London, both
Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson
have participated by walking part of
the route with the rainbow flag.
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