Advice Line: the history of Pride UK

On 8 July CSP members joined about 40,000 people taking part in London Pride parade, the biggest Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender + (LGBT+) event in the UK. It was a brilliant, family-friendly, day out with floats, dancing, music, costumes and a friendly carnival atmosphere. With a million spectators and corporate sponsors such as Barclays, Starbucks and Tesco it’s easy to think we’ve arrived at a place of acceptance and equal rights for LGBT+ people.

 

The history of Pride has not always been about floats and samba bands however. The first pride march took place in Chicago in 1970 to commemorate the anniversary of the Stonewall riots the previous year. 

 

A police raid on the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village on the 28 June 1969 saw the culmination of years of tension between the police and the LGBT community erupt into a violent six-day protest riot. This is widely acknowledged as the spark that ignited the modern day LGBT rights movement.

 

Unfortunately, that movement still has work to do, both in the UK and worldwide. Even in 2017 homosexuality is still punishable by death in 12 countries including Sudan, Iran and Saudi Arabia. A UK survey by Stonewall in 2015 showed that more than 10 per cent of health care professionals believed that gay people could be ‘cured’.

 

You may be wondering why the CSP goes to Pride? What’s it got to do with physiotherapy? The CSP is a trade union and unions have a proud history of fighting for equality, both in the workplace and in wider society. We were delighted to have the biggest CSP delegation ever to Pride this year. We believe that we have an essential role to play in campaigning for LGBT rights.

 

The CSP has a busy LGBT+ network which meets regularly. We are also active on Facebook and What’sApp. Join us today via the CSP website. Visit here.