- The first pride parade was in New York was in 1970,
a year after the Stonewall riots, and it was called
the Christopher Street Liberation Day march.
Other marches in LA and Chicago also happened that year,
and thousands of people attended across the country.
Pride parades are rooted in those riots, and,
for a lot of people, that should always be at the forefront
of the way that we go about celebrating pride.
But not for everyone.
Now, it's interesting to note that there had been
events prior to Stonewall to protest for gay rights.
The Annual Reminder in Philadelphia, for example,
but they were all rooted in seeming as normal as possible,
they had dress codes where men had to wear suits and ties
and women had to wear dresses, the idea was,
we're just like you.
They held placards saying things like,
homosexuals should be judged as individuals,
it was very, I'm not like those gays, I'm a good gay.
And there had also been spontaneous protests before.
Outside the Black Cat Tavern in LA, for example.
But Stonewall was this turning point.
You had the bravery of the people at the fringes
of even our community, the queer women of colour,
the drag queens, the hustlers, but then you also had people
who were in touch with networks of gay and lesbian people,
who were able to spread the news of what was happening,
and people who work for gay publications like the Advocate.
We spread that news, Stonewall wasn't just the telling point
because it was, it was a turning point
because we said it was.
So, undeniably, pride parades have roots within these riots,
within this protest culture.
But is that all they are?
And if they're a multitude of things, can those co-exist?
That is what we're gonna try and unpick in this video today.
So, for some people, the mantra of,
pride is a protest, is, like, that's a full sentence.
Pride is a protest, end of story that's it.
And, for some people, it's the opposite, it's a party,
it's a celebration and that's the end of the sentence
and that's it, and these two ideas, this is not new,
this isn't a case of, like, millennials are ruining pride,
you know, it has always been political
and now suddenly it's a party.
Literally, from the very first year
that pride parades were going on, this was something
that people were questioning and complaining about.
You know, we had Christopher Street West,
which was the West Hollywood, kind of, pride
that was happening in 1970, and that was a complaint
because that was organised, as well as by activists,
by artists, be religious leaders, by social, kind of,
leaders, and had much more of, what was, like,
said to be, a celebratory vibe, and that was criticised,
even back then.
But here's where those things, like,
maybe clash a little bit, which is that, like,
is the party in itself political?
Like, the Queer Liberation Front,
in the years after Stonewall, held gay-ins.
Being open and out and yourself, like, even today,
is still a pretty radical act for a lot
of queer and trans people.
Other things that we might, kind of,
distinctively say pride is, in its totality,
is like a community event.
Or a political march, right?
There's lots of ideas about what pride can be,
kind of, in individual strands.
You know, is pride about bringing the community together?
Is pride about fighting for rights?
Is it about discussing issues?
Is it about sharing history?
And like, personally, I think that to just condense it down
to the very pithy, like, pride is a protest,
ignores some of the, kind of, things that we need
as a community that can't just be settled in
that very specific way.
However, I think it's pretty idealistic to say
that all of these things can peacefully exist together
with no friction, particularly with the rise of the,
sort of, party element of pride culture.
This party element often increases the size and, therefore,
the cost of pride events and we have some examples of, like,
LGBT community groups being priced out
of the parade when they have to pay for a space,
which brands then get.
And we also have cases like Sheffield pride
which has gone very hard line, that pride is a celebration
and not a protest, and, therefore, will be able
to remove placards that it, say, are not appropriate to
that particular message, they haven't been very specific
with, like, what those guidelines are gonna be,
but we do know that, for example, you won't be allowed
to use swearing on the placards.
Increased size and scale and cost also means that,
as I mentioned, brands are increasingly being
bought into it.
So the brands marching thing is a bit of a sticky issue,
on the one hand it's like, is there anything wrong
with these brands wanting to support the community,
is there anything wrong with them wanting
to support the employees that they have that are LGBTQ+,
and which are often the ones who are gonna be
on the float themselves.
But on the other hand, are there any cheques
and balances to work out, like, are these brands doing,
like, supporting their employees the rest of the year?
Are pride actually checking this?
Or is it just a case of, like, you can buy a float,
give us the money, and you can have a float.
Also the question is, are brands marching
and having floats in pride different
to brands sponsoring pride, so,
if brands are sponsoring pride,
are they actually doing more, are they giving directly
to the community, or are they just tryna
get a bigger profile, and do they have any control over
the event itself and the messages
that can be portrayed there.
And I do think that it would be very easy to say well, like,
just don't have brands, but I think
that potentially underestimates how much pride costs,
so Brighton actually has a list of, like,
all of its costs on its website and it is, like,
multiple hundreds of thousands of pounds.
At this scale, brand involvement kind of seems inevitable,
so if we say we don't want brands,
we have to bring down the scale,
but if we bring down the scale that means
that there is a barrier to access for people,
there's like a cap, there's a limit on the amount
of people who can attend.
Or they would have to charge people money to attend,
so, there's kind of a lack of accessibility in both ways,
either you have to be able to afford to come
or you have to be some of the first people to sign up,
I suppose, or turn up.
And I think it's important to not forget
that pride celebrations often are not just the march itself,
pride London, for example, has, like,
I'm pretty sure at this point, like, hundreds of events
that get run under its banner, which are much more small,
much more niche, much more specific,
there's a lot of intersectional events that get put on,
and those just wouldn't be possible without the kind
of funding that brands bring in.
And if all of the drama around pride London's finances are
to be believed, there's also a lot of restrictions
that are put on pride parades by, like, local councils
and the police, in order to make sure that it's safe,
and also it doesn't disrupt local businesses.
Some people, including Peter Tatchell, have pointed out
that a lot of these rising costs imposed on pride don't seem
to be equitable to the costs that are imposed
on other marches and protests, but they are being, so.
So, yeah, I think it's easy to say that brands
and corporations should have no place in pride,
but I think, ultimately, right now that's not possible,
I think what we need to do is work out, like,
a way in which we can integrate this cohesively,
so is it possible to have brands sponsoring
but also to make sure that the most vulnerable people
in our community are taken care of,
that the issues are being raised properly, like,
those two things don't have to be mutually exclusive.
So, like, for example, should a certain percentage
of places on the march be taken up with activist groups
and non-profits?
Should a requirement of brands marching be
that they have to showcase one of these issues?
Is it possible for companies to fund pride
but refrain from the flashy shows of labels
and products on their floats?
Now, these questions don't necessarily have answers,
and I think there's also some sticky issues
within sponsorship as well, for example,
a lot of prides are sponsored by alcohol brands,
they're some of the first brands that got involved
with the pride movement, and, again, on the one hand,
it makes sense because bars are often the only places
that we can socialise and bars
and alcohol go together pretty well,
it seems like a perfect match,
but if we're looking at the issue side of things, like,
gay people have an increased risk of alcohol dependency
and alcoholism.
Are these the brands that we want
to be sponsoring these events?
Like, how do we fit this
wide sweeping corporate sponsorship,
alongside the activists who are trying
to deal with this issue in the first place.
And I think that people are coming up
with small-scale solutions,
so we often have smaller pride events
that are happening alongside the main event,
we have, kind of, like, community picnics
and particularly intersectional events,
but these are very small in scale, they kind of have to be
because as soon as they grow they get into the issues
that the main pride is having.
'Cause here's the thing, in like Plato's perfect form
of a pride, absolutely we would have no brand sponsorships,
we would, as many people who wanted to come would be able
to come, we would be able to protest and celebrate together,
but, unfortunately, we do not exist in the Platonic ideal
of 2018.
So, yeah, compromises will have to be made somewhere.
I suppose my question is just, like,
can we get the compromises to be made on the side
of the corporations and not on the side of the community?
Like, maybe asking corporations to make space
for LGBTQ+ people at these events,
to support the community all year round,
to work with non-profits, to, like,
genuinely raise their profile.
Basically to not just create a massive advert
during this parade to sell their products,
according to the Financial Times,
Reykjaviik pride is doing this now,
sponsors don't have logos on the floats,
the logos are on the website, that's something separate.
Whether you think the message of pride should be political,
or celebratory, or supportive, or defiant, ultimately,
those messages are all lost if all we can see
are the shiny lights and logos of companies trying
to sell us something.
So, what do you think?
I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below,
I'm gonna leave a link to my Patreon if you would like
to help support me make these videos,
along with links to all my social media,
so you can find me all over the internet,
and until I see you next time, bye.