Pride in London parade to honour emergency services
By Ross Semple
Today’s Pride in London parade will pay tribute to members of the emergency services who have responded heroically to recent tragic events.
The parade will be launched by LGBT+ members of London’s Fire and Rescue service, the Metropolitan Police and London Ambulance service.
Those LGBT+ colleagues who were involved in the recent Grenfell Tower fire tragedy, the London Bridge terror attack and the Westminster terror attack will be joined by the Rt. Hon. Lord Mayor of Westminster, Councillor Ian Adams, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, members of the volunteer run Pride in London board and flag bearers showing flags from countries around the world – in particular the 72 countries where it’s still illegal to be LGBT+.
Marking 50 years since Parliament first voted to partially legalise homosexuality in the UK, which applied to England and Wales only, Pride in London will be marching with a global message of hope, acceptance, activism and love and in a show of solidarity to LGBT+ people living in Northern Ireland which has yet to legalise same-sex marriage.
The parade will be a protest against hate. A recent hate crime report showed nearly half of LGBT+ people in London say they’ve experienced hate crime compared with a national figure of 18%.
With over 330 groups including around 80 floats, the Pride in London Parade is set to be the biggest and most colourful yet as it shuts down Regent Street.
The Parade will be the pinnacle of what is believed to the be the world’s largest Pride Festival – with well over 100 events since Saturday 24 June, and will officially close on Sunday 9 July, where awards for best new group, best walking group and best float amongst others will be announced at Pride in the Park with UK Black Pride at 4:15pm on Sunday in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.
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