Gay about town

This summer in London saw a record-breaking one million people hit the streets of the town to celebrate Gay Pride, making the festival the largest Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transsexual (LGBT) event of the year. Well over 800,000 people attended the parade and festivities, an increase on the 2008 event of nearly 200,000. Pride London has seen many fundamental changes this year, including the first Downing Street reception, a new Arts festival and its very first political debate with gay representatives present from the three main parties.

The Downing Street reception took place on the morning before the London Pride parade on Saturday 4th July, where Gordon Brown hosted a small party for LGBT rights campaigners and the Pink Press, a website for gay news. Communications representative James Lawrence from Stonewall, the main LGBT charity, says that the reception was used by the prime minister to get up to speed with the work that has been going and also to meet with those that have been working towards gay equality over the past few years.

“We think it’s great that the prime minister is taking such an important step as to have this reception for LGBT volunteers. His wife’s support in walking alongside the actual parade has also gone down very well amongst our community in London.”

This year London Pride also organised a two-week LGBT arts festival, where you could listen to music, poetry, watch plays and discuss any LGBT issues. Highlights included a naked male cabaret group, the (Trans)mangina Monologues play, the Queer Book Club boutique featuring celebrated gay authors from around the UK, and the Gay Soho walking tours.

All these events are upping the ante for 2012, when the capital will look forward to hosting WorldPride which will be held during the summer just before the London Olympic and Paralympic Games. The event is expected to attract an extra one million visitors and is being organised by InterPride, the international LGBT Pride coordinators, and will feature colourful international themes throughout the two week festivities.

James from Stonewall says, “This is a great achievement for London, and will really give the LGBT community in our capital something to be proud about.”

With London seeming to lead the way on the LGBT front, it would seem that the postmodern, ‘anything goes’ attitude of the capital has finally fully extended itself to an acceptance of the gay community.

Sky Yarlett, 21, is the head representative of The University of Westminster LGBT society which is active both socially and politically. Sky still believes that the LGBT group has progress to make in London, in particular towards the transsexual community.
“I think that there is still prejudice in London towards gay people, especially in regards to stereotypes and in particular transsexual awareness. London does have a long way to go in terms of gay rights. Until any LGBT couple can show their affection in public without fear of violence or harassment, will we achieve total equality with heterosexuals.”

In London though, there are many LGBT organisations. One of these organisations is called Kairos, which is a community development organisation and charity, which promotes the health of the LGBT community in London. Katherine is facilitator of the company’s weekly event Women’s Voice, a group for gay and bisexual women where creative workshops and group meditation are held in a safe space.

“I should imagine it is easier to be gay in London than in small towns and villages in England. I think a lot of people come to London for the collective gay experience; when you share, you gain courage and a feeling of pride of who you are. That is less accessible in a smaller place.” Unfortunately Kairos is only run in London, and many of the LGBT organisations only take place in the larger cities around the UK.

Another LGBT organisation not only in London, but around the UK, is Regard, which helps those from the LGBT community with disabilities. This year Regard were on hand at London Pride, with specially trained access stewards and designated ‘safe’ areas. There were also sign language interpreters in these areas, and accessible buses joining the end of the parade for those that wanted to join the event.

A communications volunteer for Regard, who wishes to remain anonymous, says,

“Awareness and help towards LGBT disability issues has certainly come a long way since we started Regard in 1989. We are still overlooked sometimes though. For example, this year at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, we were disappointed at the poor accessibility for disabled people and wheelchair users were unable to find access ramps. There were also no subtitles on the main screens.”

Gary Stephens, 53, runs a small fish and chip restaurant in south-west London and has lived in London since his early twenties. Gary says the changes in attitudes towards gay men have changed enormously in the last 30 years.

“I used to walk down the street and be openly stared at if I was with my partner. People would actually come up to me on the tube and call me ‘batty boy’ or ‘bloody queer’ and tell me to get lost, even though I hadn’t even looked at them. Thankfully this hardly ever happens anymore – for the last 10 years I have lived in relative peace from homophobes in public.”

Being gay in London is certainly easier now than in the past, and it would also seem that it is a relatively trouble-free place to be openly gay. However, there are still changes that still need to be made, and with the growing success of London Pride every summer, and WorldPride 2012 in London drawing slowly closer, these transformations will hopefully take place in the near future.