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News > World

London Pride Celebrates 50 Years of LGBT Decriminalization

  • Organizers hailed the march as

    Organizers hailed the march as "the biggest and most colorful Pride in London.” | Photo: AFP

Published 9 July 2017
Opinion

“You’d have to hide the fact of where you were going when you made the journey, and I knew people who were beaten up when they were discovered,” stated a long-time participant.

A 26,000-strong crowd marched to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the U.K.'s decriminalization of homosexuality in England and Wales Saturday in the annual LGBT Pride parade.

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London was decorated with the rainbow flags and colorful balloons of the revelers who filed down the popular Oxford and Regent streets.

U.K. Parliament's Palace of Westminster will also be illuminated with a rainbow flag for the very first time to commemorate the anniversary of the U.K. Sexual Offences Act — which decriminalized homosexual acts in private between two men aged at least 21.

Vito Ward reflected on how much had changed in the decades since her first event.

“You’d have to hide the fact of where you were going when you made the journey, and I knew people who were beaten up when they were discovered,” stated Ward.

But, Ward, who recounted being kicked out of the Royal Navy for being gay, stressed, “It’s about making sure that we do this for people elsewhere in the world who don’t have rights.”

Co-chair of Compass — the navy’s LGBT+ network – Naval Commander Sam Truelove, who served when being gay was illegal, marched among 200 members of the armed forces.

“The law changed a few years later and, while it does take time for the culture to also catch up, I think that we have come a long way,” she added.

“We still have some way to go but we have all the policy in the right place now. It’s important that we continue to have support from a senior level.”

Corporate involvement was prominent, with branding from major companies on floats or rainbow colors boldly displayed in banks and other businesses along the march route.

A wrapped double-decker bus was observed promoting gender-neutral titles at HSBC, in addition to a Tesco-sponsored float outfitted with a sound system entertaining the revelers.

Organizers hailed the march as "the biggest and most colorful Pride in London.”

Pride organizers added that they wanted the city's 45th annual parade to send "a global message of hope, acceptance, activism and love ... and a show of solidarity to LGBT-plus people living in Northern Ireland, which has yet to legalize same-sex marriage."

On Twitter, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who attended the parade, wrote, "Here in London you are free to be who you want to be and love who you want to love."

Also making an appearance at the event was British Olympic diver Tom Daley, who recently married his long-term boyfriend.

"It's really important that we remember why Pride started — it's not just to have fun; it's about making sure that we make political progress, and making sure that we try and get equal rights for every single person across the whole world," he told AFP.

Legislation that favored same-sex marriage in England and Wales was passed by the U.K. Parliament in July 2013 and went into effect on March 13, 2014 – with the first ceremony taking place on March 29, 2014.

In Scotland, legislation was passed in February 2014 and went into effect on Dec. 16, 2014.

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