Pride: Some women no longer feel safe at what’s meant to be a celebration of all things LGBT

And will erode any goodwill you might have had. Seeing a man like that,who would once have been arrested on sight, makes.me realise that this is a country in decline. Young girls conned into having mastectomies and then being used in advertisements is just sick, sick, sick. The fetishists who join the parade are sick too as well as the organisers who allow them.
LBA was smart to dissociate themselves from these elements.

This is absolute nonsense.

'Mainly men in fetish gear' is absolute BS. Thousands of people march in London Pride, for example. I would say 90%+ of them are dressed as they would be on any day out in London - perhaps just with more colourful clothes or close branded with whatever organisation they are marching with.

'Mainly men in fetish gear' is just a flat out lie.

Are some people in fetish gear? Sure. That's been the case with pride for at least 20 years. But 'mainly men in fetish gear' = just plain dishonest.

I thought handing over the start of the parade to a grifting narcissist straight woman not wearing very much who does not want to shag anyone masquerading as a repressed minority was basically just taking the piss out of everyone.

FFS.

Haven't really heard about it much this year, definitely more low key in the media/social media than previous years.

I thought handing over the start of the parade to a grifting narcissist straight woman not wearing very much who does not want to shag anyone masquerading as a repressed minority was basically just taking the piss out of everyone.

According to its website, this year's Pride cost £1.7 million to produce.

As to funding, it says that "the organisation and event is funded by donations, fundraising and partnerships with organisations". Which explains all those corporate displays.

There's a list here of the acts - no idea whether they're any good.
https://www.mylondon.news/whats-on/whats-on-news/london-pride-2024-full-list-29436589

I don't think it's even that. It felt more like a student protest for Gaza/climate/student loans/global communism/insert other cause of the week, peopled by girls with social anxiety and cropped hair.

I also wondered whether they've lost funding since the collapse of the Trans grift because the music acts and performances were notably lower quality than they used to be. I headed to the Burlesque stage hoping to see amazonian drag queens doing edgy performance art for adults - which is what drag should be. What I saw was three women giving a barely acceptable amateur performance of Whitney Houston hits in fairly dowdy dresses. How is that burlesque or drag or gay???

"Not sure what that's got to do with being gay."

@CantDealwithChristmas that's the thing, it doesn't even pretend to be Gay Pride any more. Pride in London declares and advertises itself as "A home for every part of London’s LGBTQ+ community." It's Queer Pride now.

I was there at London Pride on Saturday. For context I used to go every year (not always London but wherever I lived at the time - have been in Cardiff, Liverpool, Manchester, Belfast) from late 90s to about 2014.

Not sure if the change has been gradual or sudden but it was different this year. No longer recognisable as the Pride I knew.

Used to be all adults, maybe some families for the parade. lesbians have always been a minority and dwindling year on year but definitely used to be represented. Grassroots lesbian organisations, that sort of thing.

Yes the cocks and leather would come out on Old Compton street after the main events and that's fine, the rest of us would just avoid those areas and let the guys get on with it like the consenting adults they are.

My impressions on Saturday: dull, insipid, helplessly watered down. All corporatised - no more grassroots orgs but all Tesco, HSBC, Barclays, plus extractive industies. NHS trusts had bouji expensive looking floats and banners so I'm glad my taxpayer money went there as opposed to more beds and shorter waiting times, lol.

The majority of attendees that I could see, after the gay guys, were young women with some sort of queer identity. Now I'm bi but my gaydar is good and I'd say a fair proportion of them were very shy awkward straight girls rather than budding babydykes. Lots of them seemed to be trying to present as male but in a very grungy deliberately ugly way. Shouted low self esteem. One girl I saw in the queue for the loos had a shirt with a big hand made slogan "Autistic & queer". Not sure what that's got to do with being gay.

Lots of people criticise Pride for the overt display of male gay sexaulaity but tbh I never had an issue with that as long as it was kept to Soho and after the main event. pride is a carnival after all and peope get drunk and frisky at carnivals. I'd much rather that than the insipid event I saw on Saturday which felt more like a social event for shy and anxious teens than a big proud gay and lesbian bash.

Just my opinion! I was there from 2pm to about 7pm and this is just one person's opinion based on what I personally saw.

Just been watching some clips ‘all age/family friendly’ pride from America (San Fran, Washington)

It’s all daytime and in the streets - oh my god its grim and just people strutting about naked/stabbing genitals/simulating sex, very sexualised costumes…

and of course it will try to come over here, as it tends to.

not for kids.

And even worse, around gender.

Pride perpetuates certain stereotypes around homosexuality. A confused teenager is only question themselves more because they're not like what they see at Pride.

Don't think it's good for young teenage boys to go to Pride and then think that when they grow up they've got to wear bondage or drag.

Young teenage girls are made to think that if they're gay they shouldn't say no to a man self-identifying as female. That is heavily promoted by Pride.

Slightly off topic maybe but I accidentally ended up in the middle of pride in London last year with my 2 tween daughters.
4pm in central London, it was one of the most scary experiences I’ve ever had. Not even remotely family friendly, my children were nearly physically separated from me and crushed in an awful drunken crowd of men. They were so rude and unkind. I was pretty shook up.

Surely the issue is with “spicy straights” dominating the parade and changing it for their own narcissistic ends. The woman in that video doesn’t look like a respectful ally supporting the parade but someone who is going to draw attention and who agrees to interviews to speak about it.

I remember when the London Pride post-march festival was in Finsbury Park, the letters were still LGB and we were still fighting Section 28, being surprised at the number of non-LGB people there who seemed to have no idea what it was about.

Thinking about it now, that’s vastly preferable to non-LGB people being there because they’re TQIA etc.

But do you accept that maybe, just maybe, Pride events are not the squeaky clean family friendly events that you are trying to imply they are?

Personally I don't care what people wear at Pride, just advertise it appropriately as a 16+ age appropriate event.

It’s brilliant that your local Pride is like that. But presumably you wouldn’t take your DC to London or Brighton Pride, given the descriptions here?

I was at a concert on Pride Day in London last year.

On the tube, I bumped into an almost naked man in a huge adult nappy and bra waving a trans flag and a banner.

Being proud to be gay isn’t whatever that was. It’s frightening and abusive (and criminal?) to include the general public in your sexual fetish, especially women and children. Supporting it erodes safeguarding.

"There's blackface and womanface and now there's Prideface."

So you don't think straight people should be able to attend? @Abeona ?

The "Mean Boys" article linked on the other thread should be compulsory reading for actors and radio presenters IMO.

If being gay is a non-issue for our young people, that’s FANTASTIC. I do want my dc to understand that it wasn’t always that way.

It’s not an adult thing. Not during the day (it becomes 16+ in the evening here) It was full of kids during the day, plus all their friends from school go and they look forward, and enjoy it.

If it became inappropriate, I might think again but so far it’s a positive experience for them.

It’s an adult thing though. And as you’ve heard from people who were there- it’s getting more adults by the year. I’ve not been for a few years now - and there were a few bare arses early on in the day last time I was. Certain a far cry from the early days - before same sec marriage, gay couples having automatic rights to pensions/say in medical treatment of partners, rights in regards to employment/rent injustices…

Kids see what’s around them. DS knows aunty is a lesbian and his big cousin has a wife. He knows his grandparents best mate was gay and that some of his teachers and my colleagues are gay. He’s never known anything else.

He gets more shit for being ‘mixed race’.

I wasn’t in London, as I said, so can’t comment on that