Why Pride Is A Protest...
Tuesday 28-08-2018 - 14:51
This year, the University of Salford Students’ Union organised our own entry in Manchester Pride with the aim to empower staff and students. Our entry had campaigning at its heart, with placards returning to this year’s entry with stronger messages about oppression, liberation and resistance. I was proud of the hard work staff and students had put in to make our entry this year so great and I can’t wait to see what work the Students’ Union and the University do for our entry in 2019!
Pride has many different roles for the LGBTQ+ community. It serves as a time of reflection on how far we’ve come fighting for LGBTQ+ rights, where we still need to go but also allows a safe space for LGBTQ+ people to celebrate our achievements together. Pride traditionally marks the anniversary of the protests and actions taken by the LGBTQ+ community in response to police brutality. In Manchester, Chief Constable James Anderton directly targeted the LGBTQ+ community through violent police raids of safe spaces in the 1980s. Anderton also famously said that gay people who had contracted AIDS and HIV were ‘swirling about in a human cesspit of their own making’ at a Greater Manchester seminar about how to deal with patients who’ve contracted AIDS. After his actions and words he still managed to keep his job, despite calls to resign, thanks to the intervention of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Government.
This is a stark reminder that Pride in Manchester is more than partying.
This year, Sheffield Pride organisers attacked the fundamental principles of pride challenging the political nature of the event and warning that banners and placards will be checked. They stated clearly and boldly that ‘Pride is a celebration, not protest’.
With the increasing amount of corporate interest and the depoliticisation of pride, we have to fight to keep our own protests grassroots and centered around liberation and not profit and individual gain. The name of Pride has also changed along with the theme of the parade. From ‘Gay Liberation Day’ to ‘Pride’, we’ve seen less entries campaigning and more company’s marketing their brand.
We need to fight to protect our Pride and everyone has a part to play, be that ally or member of the LGBTQ+ community. So when planning for next year’s entry, remember the hundreds of gay men in Chechnya imprisoned and tortured because of their sexuality, remember the hate crime against LGBTQ+ people soaring in the UK and remember the violent systematic exterminations taken place across the world. Whilst the LGBTQ+ community is oppressed, we will protest.
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