So its June, it is or it should be the start of summer, but for many of us under the LGBTQ+ umbrella it's Pride Month. A month where every business in the land puts up the obligatory rainbow flag in their store front pledging their allegiance to our cause, or wanting us to spend our Pink Pound with them, delete which you feel is more applicable, if they're even more with it they be displaying the Progress Pride Flag, but hey, if they're trying they're trying.
Why am I here writing this then?...well today I was interviewed by the BBC for a piece they're running on 25 years of Pride Cymru, or Cardiff Pride as some of you may know it...or if you're even older (like me) Cardiff Mardi Gras.
I was asked about those early days in the early 2000's when we would all troop to the castle grounds, chucking a fiver in the bucket if we felt like it, hanging around the Club X tent if you were cool (or off your face) enough, or just sitting with copious amounts of fosters, listening to music on the stage (that I cant even remember (Not because I was off my face, but because it so long ago) Come nightfall off we would all go to Club X or Exit, usually you were a Club X or Exit person rarely both, it was Exit for me, however I was never cool enough to stand on the "step" with the cool kids, I'd usually be found just awkwardly wandering round.
But as I've got older (and maybe wiser) Pride for me now is a chance to reflect on the history of how we got where we are, as I said to the journalist, the parade, which incidentally didn't happen in the early days is way more important to me now, than getting sh*tfaced on a load of warm fosters in a park.
For me Pride goes back to its early roots of the Stonewall Riots and how a community came together in the face of adversity, persecution, discrimination and started a movement. A movement which if you are LGBTQ+ you benefit from to this day.
And while we are here, a quick shout out to the people who organise Pride Cymru, what a task that must be, having organised Wales Strongest Woman this year, I cannot imagine the enormity of Pride Cymru, So lets just spare a thought when we're moaning on social media about it as it didn't quite fit your expectations (and yes I've been that person as well)
So as I sit here thinking about my inspirational quote for my T-Shirt to proudly wear on the march, I am, and will forever be grateful to the people who have gone before me, and the sacrifice they faced for me to walk freely down the street with my wife, and also the people who still work tirelessly, people such as *Lisa Power, and *Kate Hutchinson to name a few and the people to come in the future, I march not only to say I'm proud of who I am, but as a mark of thanks to them.
More recently I march because as I reflect on the last 25 years, there were times when we felt safe, protected and we were given rights, however recently there's been a shift, there is an anti trans narrative, and don't be fooled it'll soon seep down to an anti gay narrative, if it hasn't already...people ask "why is there no Straight Pride?" because do you have to worry about your rights to just exist being taken away?... so the last few years and for a while to come I feel we are fighting to protect our rights from a government hell bent on causing division and hate (unless we vote against it)
(*if you don't know who Lisa Power and Kate Hutchinson are then you should, Google them)
So, Yes, 25 years and I was there at the first one, how time flies when you're having fun (or just floundering through life as I was then)....these days my life has more purpose, thankfully...and this allows me to reflect on things such as Pride Cymru and its meaning.
So, see you all in a few days when we will all don our best feather boas, rainbow anything and stomp down Queen Street
Happy Pride Month
Sam
Pic Credit: Media Wales