Craig's pride experience

"June is Pride month, and even though we are not able to fly the Pride flag above James Graham or light up the Woodhouse building in the city as we would normally to demonstrate our support, I’m encouraged to be able to reminisce on my first Leeds Pride experience

It started at 13:00, Sunday 6 August, 2006.

Groups of Pride goers began to congregate in Millennium Square for what was to be the first ever Leeds Gay Pride (as it was known then).

Coincidently, and unplanned, it just so happened that I was emerging alongside my partner Simon, our friends and families, having just celebrated our 10 year anniversary with our Civil Partnership ceremony.

The ceremony was held in the ‘Blue Room’ and we were honoured to be the first same sex couple to be granted permission by the Lord Mayor to use the room for a Civil Partnership celebration.

There were an estimated 6,000 attendees at that year’s Pride event, which as a good number for what was an inaugural event.

That may have explained the look on my Grandma’s face when we stood on the Civic Hall steps for photographs to cheers and clapping from those gathered for the start of the of the parade and my Grandma’s comment of “ is all this for you?”

Of course, now the attendee numbers have swelled to over 50,000 and the atmosphere is electric.

Thirteen years later, I finally received the opportunity to play my own part in the actual parade as a representative and member of the charity group Friends of Dorothy.

The pride and privilege I felt standing in line waiting to start the March was something I had not felt for a long time and I was bursting with excitement.

Being third in the parade line up also helped and I really did feel the full force of the crowd’s energy and I could barely hold my placard aloft.

This year’s Pride celebration will not be going ahead as we know it, due to the current pandemic, but there are suggestions to hold a virtual event. This is something I really want to get Leeds Beckett University involved with - so keep an eye on the E&I and Rainbow Rose WEB pages and on future editions of LBU Voices for further details.

This current situation should not, and will not, stop us from celebrating who we are and the Pride we share."