Take Pride In Your Parade

There was a time when the word Pride did not conjure to mind a parade of many people, carrying a multitude of flags, and each accepting each others diversity, well mostly all, as will be revealed later.

Welcome to “Trans Wise Trans Strong”, I am Carolyne O’Reilly.

Episode twenty-five, “Take Pride In Your Parade”

There are now Pride events around the world and in every part of the UK, from the largest, the London and Brighton Prides, to smaller and more local Prides, but there was a time when June wasn’t synonymous for Pride, nor was the whole of June Pride month.

It was in 1999, that President Bill Clinton declared June to be, "Gay and Lesbian Pride Month", then in 2011, President Barack Obama expanded the official recognition to include the entire LGBTQIA+ communities.

The UK has so far not officially recognised June as Pride Month, although many shops, for example, will change their online logos to the colours of the Progress Pride Flag in June, as for when the UK began to recognise Pride Month, as far as I could find out, it gradually began to be recognised.

However, in February 2005, the charity, Schools OUT, founded LGBT History Month, to mark the abolition of Section 28, finally in England and Wales in 2003, having already been abolished in Scotland in 2000, and interestingly, this hateful legislation was never enacted in Northern Ireland.

And if you are not familiar with what section 28 was, it was a section of the Local Government Act 1988, that the Margaret Thatcher led Conservative government introduced, that in summary, prohibited local authorities from, “promoting homosexuality by teaching or by publishing material”, I mean, you couldn’t make it up.

And over time this celebration has become more inclusive and now is often referred to as LGBTQIA+ History Month, and is, officially recognised.

And although the UK was early to embrace Pride, for the first we need to look to the United States, and 1970, however before Pride, there was the “Annual Reminders”, organised by the East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO), which was established in Philadelphia in January 1963.

The first Annual Reminders, took place on the 4th of July 1965, outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, and was to remind people of the lack of civil rights protection afforded to gay people.

And until the proceeding July, another minority group was also without civil rights protection, a minority that was 11% of the population, 21.3 million people, that was until President Lyndon B. Johnson on the 2nd of July 1964, signed in to law “The Civil Rights Act of 1964”.

Its origin, was a nationally televised address by President John F. Kennedy, on the 6th of June 1963, where he urged the nation to take action toward guaranteeing equal treatment of every American regardless of race.

And did it end racial prejudice and hatred, of course not, yes it banned legislative discrimination, however sections of US society then and now still harbours the cancer of racism, that is possibly helped to metastasise through parts of American society by the currant part time incumbent of Pennsylvania Avenue.

And in an interview with, “The New York Times”, published on the 11th of January 2026, they commented on “The Civil Rights Act of 1964”, by saying, “…it accomplished some very wonderful things, but it also hurt a lot of people…”, so, that would be white people?

And of course people of colour from the LGBTQIA+ communities experience the double whammy of racism and homophobia and/or transphobia, and in fact trans people, or more accurately trans female people of colour experience a far greater level of danger compared to their white trans sisters.

I wonder how Dr Martin Luther King Jr. would have responded if asked what do you think about the concept of discrimination if white?

I believe he had a wonderful sense of humour, so perhaps a hearty, although ironic laugh?

In the autumn of 1965 there was an ECHO meeting at which there was a proposal for a national planning conference, and in 1966 the National Planning Conference of Homophile Organizations (NPCHO) was founded, to unite regional and local gay rights groups under one umbrella organisation.

The NPCHO would later change its name to the North American Conference of Homophile Organizations (NACHO), and also in 1966, ECHO became the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO), and was a subsidiary of NACHO.

It was at the 1969 November meeting in Philadelphia of the ERCHO, that Craig Rodwell, who had help to organise the Annual Reminders, proposed that the Philadelphia demonstrations should become something greater and more relevant.

And the ERCHO decided to commemorate the Christopher Street Stonewall Uprising,

that had began on the 28th of June 1969, and lasted six days, by holding a march in New York each year in June.

And it is perhaps mentioning how the US government’s National Park Service’s page about the Stonewall National Monument, now describes that uprising.

Under the heading, “Uprising”, it starts, “Stonewall was a milestone for gay and lesbian civil rights that provided momentum for a movement.”, and the authors of the page were apparently comfortable with using the stigmatising term homosexual, four times in the opening paragraph.

The thing is, the catalyst for the Stonewall Uprising, is now considered to be the police’s violent attempt at arresting, Stormé DeLarverie, and perhaps it was her cry of, "Why don't you guys do something?".

Stormé was gender-nonconforming and of mixed heritage, and the police’s attempt at arrest, resulted in Stormé bleeding from a head wound, and I said again, attempt, as Stormé was able to break free from the police.

Other key heroes of the Uprising were, Marsha P. Johnson, a black trans woman, and Sylvia Rivera a Latino trans woman, they would together co-found the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) to support homeless queer youth.

Tragically, on the 6th of July 1992, Marsha’s body was found floating in the Hudson River in New York City, she was just 46 years old, and a mystery remains about the circumstance that lead to her death.

However you wouldn’t about the trans and queer peoples involvement, if you relied on the National Park Service’s webpage about the Uprising, although previously they were included, any guesses as to who decided on their exclusion?

And one last thought, in 1984 George Orwell coined the terms, “Newspeak”, and “Double think”, and one of the party slogans in the book was, “War is Peace”, now why do these phrases seems to echo the thinking of someone with a Truth Social account.

But back to the planning meeting, L. Craig Schoonmaker argued for "Pride", to describe the event, and this would indeed be the event's core slogan and guiding concept.

Another proposed name for the event was "Gay Power", but Schoonmaker argued that gay people did not currently have political or institutional power, but taking pride in what one stood for was universal.

And on Sunday the 28th of June 1970, was New York’s first Pride event, the “Christopher Street Liberation Day”, the name was chosen to pay tribute to the Stonewall Uprising.

And in the weeks leading up to the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising in 2019, the New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill gave this apology: “The actions taken by the NYPD were wrong, plain and simple. The actions and the laws were discriminatory and oppressive, and for that, I apologise”.

And the name of New York’s first Pride event, lives on in Switzerland and Germany, where their Pride’s are called Christopher Street Day, which was first celebrated in Switzerland at the Platzspitz park, in Zürich on the 24th of June 1978, and in Germany the following year, on the 30th of June 1979.

Prides are a day of celebration, but Berlin’s 2026 Christopher Street Day, turned into tragedy, when a van was driven into the crowd, killing a Polish woman and injuring at least 29 others, some very seriously.

The man suspected of driving the van was 21-year-old Abdul Ballout, who had an extensive criminal past, and when the police tried to arrest him, he rushed towards them with a knife and was shot dead by them.

However, New York’s Christopher Street Liberation Day, was not the world’s first Pride, as it was pip for the honour by Chicago, where the Chicago Gay Liberation organised the world’s first Pride, which was also to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising, and it was on the day before New York’s, on Saturday the 27th of June 1970.

The starting point for Chicago’s First Pride, according to the Chicago Pride Parade website, was Washington Square and the march culminated in a rally at the Picasso statue in what is now Richard J. Daley Plaza across from City Hall, and had an estimated attendance of between 150 to 200, curiously the National Geographic webpage that mentions this event states that it actually ended at Washington Square.

And in 2026, the Chicago Pride Parade had nearly 1 million in attendance, a great figure, although New York trumped Chicago attendance with one and three quarter million.

And whilst June is when Pride is celebrated in North America and parts of Europe, in Australia and New Zealand, it is February, and Malta celebrates Pride in September.

And the Outright International website detailed that in 2025, 101 countries celebrated Pride, with 66 of those countries, celebrating Pride in more than one city, however 92 countries did not hold a Pride.

And there are many countries where publicly expressing an LGBTQIA+ identity, such as a Pride march, are banned, including Russia and Türkiye, and until recently Hungary, however following Hungary’s recent general election, where Viktor Orbán was defeated by Péter Magyar, on the 27th of June this year, there was a Budapest Pride.

And many countries where Pride is banned, have legislation that would have earned the admiration of the ancient Athenian Draco.

And inspired by Stonewall, and other events across the USA and internationally, Britain saw branches of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) form in the seventies, and the meeting of the first Gay Liberation Front was in London, and was held on the 14th of October 1970, in a classroom of the London School of Economics, the LSE.

The room was booked by Bob Mellors, a second year Sociology student, who had been inspire to form a UK branch of the GLF after spending the summer of 1970 in the USA, where he became involved in the New York Gay Liberation Front.

In September, he met a fellow Brit, Aubrey Walter, at the Revolutionary Peoples’ Constitutional Conference in Philadelphia, sponsored by the Black Panther Movement, which invited delegations from the movements for women’s and LGBTQIA+ rights for the first time.

When the two arrived back in Britain, they spoke on the phone and decided to form the first UK GLF, and as Bob was a student at the LSE, he would be able to book a room, as for the number who attended the first meeting there is no precise figure, however its possible that it ranged from nine to nineteen.

I would like to end this discussion of the founding of London’s GLF, by saying that both men saw the lowering of the age of consent if gay, that I discussed in the, “What Are Words Worth” episode, and the same sex marriage act, that I mentioned in the “Portrait of…Caroline Cossey” episode.

However, whilst Aubrey went on to found, in 1979, the Gay Men’s Press with there romantic partner David Fernbach, Bob in 1991 moved to Warsaw, Poland and on the 24th of March 1996, was murdered during a burglary of their flat, at the same aged that Marsha P. Johnson died, 46.

In August 1971, the GLF youth group held a demonstration in Trafalgar Square, protesting about the age of consent if gay, which then was 21 years or older and in fact being gay had only been decriminalised 4 years earlier.

The GLF youth group’s demonstration, is sometimes referred to as, “Pride before Pride”, and as for the first UK Pride, this took place on Saturday the 1st of July 1972, this Saturday was chosen as it was closest to the Stonewall Uprising on the 28th of June 1969.

The start was in Trafalgar Square and it ended in Hyde Park with a picnic, it was estimated that between 700 to 2,000 people attended, and in the following decades, Prides would be held all across the UK, and this year’s Pride in London, which was on Saturday the 4th of July, and had between 1.5 to 1.8 Million in attendance.

And as mentioned, in 1988 there was Section 28 of the Local Government Act, which resulted in some councils withdrawing support for Pride celebrations, whereas other, better councils, challenged the law by openly pledging funds and support for LGBTQIA+ events.

And whilst London was the first UK City to hold a Pride, other UK cities followed, and the second city was Brighton, it was organised by the Sussex Gay Liberation Front, and was held on Saturday the 7th July 1973.

The starting point was Norfolk Square, and the finish was at the Old Ship Hotel, and in the evening their was a Gay Dance at the Royal Albion Hotel.

And the number that it attracted was a tenth of the upper figure for London’s first Pride, of around 200 people, whereas at this year’s Brighton & Hove Pride had an estimated attendance was up to 450,000 people.

And the other three Nations of Britain would follow.

Wales’s first Pride was organised over a couple of pints of lager by a small group of students of the Cardiff University’s Gay Society, and was on the 20th of June 1985, and started at the Students’ Union and ended at the King’s Cross pub on the corner of Caroline Street.

And this first Welsh Pride had about a couple of dozen in attendance, whereas 2026 Pride Cymru, which was a three day event had an attendance of 50,000.

Northern Ireland’s first Pride was in June 1991, and was suggested at a meeting of the Northern Ireland Gay Rights Association (NIGRA) on the 16th May 1991, and was attended by approximately 100 people, a sharp contrast to Belfast Pride in 2026 when 8,000 people attended.

And Scotland’s first Pride was in 1995, on Saturday the 17th of June, it started at Barony Street, Edinburgh and was organised by the Edinburgh University LGBT Society, and an estimated 3,000 people marched and protested, with the march ending at The Meadows.

And the organisers of this years Pride Edinburgh reported an overall turnout of over 44,500 people.

And what about the rest of the world, the country with the largest population, India, first held a Pride parade, called a "Friendship Walk", in Kolkata in 1999, and is now held annually, and New Delhi and Mumbai also hold major Pride parades.

And the country that for many years had the largest population, China, well there was the Shanhai Pride but due to government restrictions and censorship, it was suspended in 2020.

For the Pride with the largest attendance we need to look to the São Paulo Pride, in Brazil, that draws 3 to 5 million people, whilst for a million plus attendance there is the; Toronto Pride, the Amsterdam Pride and the Cologne Pride.

And the Antipodes are represented by the Sydney Mardi Gras, with up to half a million in attendance, and The Auckland Rainbow Parade with an estimated attendance of over 25,000 people.

And closer to home there was Paris Pride 2026, or rather there wasn’t, it was scheduled for Saturday the 27th of June, however due to an extreme heatwave it was cancelled at the last minute, the day before.

And in UK we have had multiple heatwaves, I think the total so far is five, and there have been numerous heat related records that have been smashed, although what happened in 2018 at a Pride event was not heat related.

Just because a person is part of the LGBTQIA+ community, does not mean that they wont have prejudice towards other parts of the community, as illustrated by what occurred at London’s 2018 Pride.

At London’s 2018 Pride, a small group of anti-trans protestors, who where mostly radical feminists, disrupted it, and this I find disgusting, were eventually allowed to lead the parade by officials, all the way to Trafalgar Square, with a group of ten, called "Get the L Out", handing out hateful and extremely transphobic leaflets.

There were many who quickly condemned both these hateful protestors, and also that the London Pride organisers, allowed them to spue their hatred whilst leading the march.

As a direct response to the hateful event that occurred at London’s 2018 Pride, the following year on Saturday the 14th of September 2019, London hosted its first, Trans+ Pride, inspired by Trans Pride Brighton, where transgender people and allies marched through the streets of that city.

And with what feels like ironic cruelty, in the same year as the first Trans+ Pride, Manchester’s 2019 Pride, was also hijacked by anti-trans protesters, who were allowed to lead the parade whilst being escorted by the police and Pride security.

This group of about 10 to 14 claimed to be affiliated with Get the L Out, which was the group who were allowed to lead London’s 2018 Pride, and like them, also handed out leaflets containing similarly hateful transphobic lies.

The organisers of London’s first Trans+ Pride, included Lucia Blayke and Finn Love, and around 1,500 attended, marching from Hyde Park to Soho, and this years route, which has been the same for a while was from Langham Place near Broadcasting House, to Parliament Square.

And the attendance of London’s Trans+ Pride 2026 surpassed by 50,000 the previous year’s, with an estimated attendance of 150,000, and perhaps was a visibly challenge to last year’s transphobic Supreme Court ruling

But as mentioned, London was not the first to host a Trans Pride, that honour goes to Trans Pride Brighton, and was first held on Saturday the 27th of July 2013.

The events founders were: Sarah Savage, Fox Fisher, Phoenix Thomas, Stephanie Scott, and Sabah Choudrey, and was to provide a safe space away from the commercialism of the larger, mainstream Pride event, and 2026’s Trans Pride Brighton had a reported 40,000 plus people in attendance.

However for the first Trans Pride, we need to look back to the end of the last century and 1999 Los Angeles, and the Trans Unity Pride, which was a single-afternoon community event, as for how many attended, this was not recorded.

And compared with UK Trans Prides, this year’s Trans Pride Los Angeles 2026, that was hosted by the Los Angeles LGBT Center, on Saturday the 20th of June, had a relatively modest attendance of 1,200 people.

The two largest US Trans Prides are Trans Pride Seattle, and the San Francisco Trans March, both held on Friday the 26th of June, and are comparable in size, although from what I have been able to find from research, Seattle had an attendance of around 30,000 this year, whereas for San Francisco it was 20,000.

But even 30,000, given that the US population is five times that of the UK, it does seems somewhat modest, when compared to the 150,000 of London’s Trans+ Pride 2026.

So, whatever the size of attendance, Prides and Trans Prides are important as a visual reminder of our existence, whether: lesbian, gay, bi, trans, nonbinary or intersex, where here, and we are staying, and hopefully that hateful transphobic ruling in April 2025 by the Supreme Court, will be consigned to history.

Although I hope, much, much sooner than the 15 years it took before Section 28 was kicked into touch.

And before you go, I thought I would let you know that Trans Wise Trans Strong, has been downloaded in 73 countries, it would be wonderful if we could reach 100 by the end of the year, so if you know anyone abroad who you think would be interested, perhaps you could let them know about this podcast.

And also, I have really enjoyed writing the scripts for the episodes, so much so, that I would like to branch out into writing fiction, and therefore to accommodate this, I have decided to now publish the podcast on the first Saturday of the month, so the next episode will be publish on Saturday the 5th of September at 2;00pm UK time.

This episode was written and presented by me, Carolyne O’Reilly, thank you for listening.

Next time, “Pornography and the Trans Community”