Manchester pride

[CervixSampler]

I’m not sure why Manchester pride is a different month to other places but it’s bedecked with flags and the side of a building as you come down the station approach is a massive pride flag and something to do with buses or transport. A whole tram was emblazoned with the new pride colours. It’s a dirty city with many issues (like many cities) but I’m glad they’ve got money to spend on repainting trams.
I’m a bit baffled by the family pride Manchester section. Single parent families are included in this. Is that any single parent family or those that fall under the umbrella? I’m not seeing the connection but am a bit slow on the uptake so might have missed it.
I like the way they have acknowledged their sponsors. The mermaids biscuit was an abomination from Starbucks but it disappeared years ago and I went back to buying their drinks. Last week there was nothing in stores that implied any pride sponsorship.
Has pride Manchester always been like this with so many aspects to it and lots of sponsors or is it bigger this year? Or smaller?

MCR pride is so old it predates June becoming ‘Pride Month’.

it’s been heavily criticised for years re: corporate pink washing and expensive ticket prices for the main stages/events.

In past years there has been a sort of crap protest version of the parade the day after the main parade but I’ve not being paying attention the last couple of years

(there are a number of smaller prides in greater Manchester too, one that was founded THIS YEAR ended up with the only actual openly gay owned business in the town being excommunicated on the day of the pride event for daring to say that the trans movement has damaged the gay movement - the main organiser of this new pride is a middle aged heterosexual mother who calls herself nonbinary - so at least the teenagers round this way are likely to see trans as super uncool very soon!)

Here’s some PR guff about 2024’s Alternative Pride (along with various stereotypical soundbites about how Gay Pride isn’t Queer enough): www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/64461/1/manchester-alternative-pride

Manchester pride has always been like this (massively sponsored/corporate) and for as long as I can remember it's been on the August bank holiday - my memory predates the whole 'pride month' thing.

The main party is no longer in the gay village, it's at Mayfield depot which is close to the station and there will be stuff happening all over the city.

It's always been a big event for the city - I don't think it is particularly bigger this year - honestly I think it peaked about a decade ago. There seems to be more neighbourhood pride events across the city now which are more grass roots.

The city fully embraces being a tourist destination and there are events across the year that cater for masses of visitors. It was the same for the oasis gigs and will be for Christmas markets, St Patrick's day. All the tat feeds into this, it's obviously a money spinner for the city.

The wiki page documents some of the corporate criticisms (infights ongoing since 2007, apparently! The Bank Holiday weekend event dates back to the mid 80s but wasn’t called Pride then, it was the Gay Pub & Club Olympics originally) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Pride

themanc.com/feature/history-of-manchester-pride-and-how-far-its-come/

I must have missed it because I don’t tend to go into Manchester much. Thanks for the replies!

I get you - I’m like the grandpa in The Lost Boys these days:

yarn.co/yarn-clip/ea18793a-fa49-4424-8df8-d9c3a54a6942

I ventured into the transbow washed city with Ds for something and even the straws in Starbucks were rainbow. Balloon arch on somewhere-think it was a photography shop. Balloons randomly about the place. A few flags but huge window stickers of swirling flags in Starbucks, Lloyd’s, Halifax and 3. EE were more subtle and went for Be Proud Of Your Identity. Foul smelling lush smelt less bad today and their window was strangely absent of flags. Thankfully the Lego shop was a safe haven, just the lgbt staff going about their business selling Lego as normal. Northern trains had progress British rail pin badges. M&S had a random staff member with a rainbow lei tied around her head but otherwise nothing. Piccadilly gardens was its usual den of iniquity that we quickly walked through making eye contact with no one. Pandora was awash with rainbow colours. Most places weren’t taking part or if they were it wasn’t obvious. The guy selling the Big Issue put rainbow neckerchiefs on his big scary XL bully dog (muzzled thank goodness as ds is terrified) and his other dog that looked a similar breed. Ds had lots of questions. We pondered whether or not companies actually did anything to support the lgbt etc community or if it was just window dressing and virtue signalling. How would companies such as a bank support someone because how would their needs be different? I’m not sure they are any different when it comes to banking. Or coffee. Or mobile phone networks. Or public transport. I might be missing something or it might be virtue signalling bollocks. It was also very busy today and I now know what week to miss next year. I don’t like crowded places and have little reason to go there usually. It’s dirty and grotty in many places and perhaps council money would be better spent cleaning up the place and helping the many, many homeless, tackling gang issues or even VAWG. Radical I know. Plastering rainbows on everything doesn’t make anything better for anyone in my opinion.

The companies/sponsors pay for the rainbows, rather than the council. But yes it is a massive exercise of rainbow washing - the companies do little but bankroll. It's a huge money generating event for businesses in the city and the council rightly recognise the cultural and financial gains it brings.

Of course it was busy, it's been one of the largest gay parties/festivals in Europe for decades, in a city which has a thriving gay scene all year round. It's an international event that thousands of people attend. If you don't like crowds then avoid the city centre when there is an event on, be that pride or something else.

It's not that long ago that being gay really did affect how services such as healthcare and banking interacted with you, difficulty accessing insurance/mortgage products with a same sex partner for instance. Or that you couldn't be sure that staff wouldn't turn a blind eye to homophobic abuse, even violence on trains or in shops. I'm old enough to have been told to not hold hands with my partner in a venue because 'its upsetting customers' It's not so much that the LGBT community have different needs, its about the fact for a long time we were treated differently and companies are now making clear that this is no longer the case.

The impact of such exclusion from society had on people should not be minimised or forgotten and celebrating the progress that's been made is a good thing IMO.