Celebrating Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈

In celebration of Pride month, today we’re hearing from our lovely Programme Manager, Joe, about his recent appointment as a board member at York LGBT Forum – and his experience attending York Pride as a volunteer with this fantastic charity! 

York Pride 2024 

I recently joined the board of York LGBT Forum, a wonderful charity supporting the LGBTQ community. I wanted to be more active in supporting people like me who identify across the spectrums of sexuality and gender, so this was a perfectly timed opportunity.  

After successfully applying and joining, I knew I’d made a great choice. The other trustees were so welcoming and had tremendous passion for helping people of all backgrounds. I felt valued and empowered to contribute my ideas at board meetings.  

York Pride was Saturday 1st June at the Knavesmire. It’s always a big event for the forum, where they run a stall every year. We were all given the opportunity to volunteer to help. I volunteered on the stall, speaking to people about what we do.  

I could be a passionate advocate for the Forum and promote the great support on offer, such as the weekly coffee social groups. Plus, we raised funds for groups and activities by selling merchandise. We had really fabulous merch on offer, from pin badges to picnic blankets.  

I so enjoyed chatting to lovely people and encouraging them to reach out to us and connect. By being a friendly face and giving them information about our offer, I could help them access a supportive network of other LGBTQ folk. Doing this filled me with so much joy and, well, pride!  

During the quiet moments I walked around the other stalls to see what was on offer – and there was so much. York Pride has grown from the small event it used to be. There were many diverse groups there, promoting everything from creative arts to LGBT+ religious groups and more.  

There was the camp fun of live performance too, with great tribute acts including a pretty good Cher impersonator! The main stage closed with the Angels of the North, drag queens from Drag Race UK, who finished the afternoon with the Cha Cha Slide – great silly fun. 

Pride days (which run in many UK cities and towns) are more important than ever. Pride is rooted in the historic struggles of our community against systemic oppression and violence which continue to this day. LGBTQ people, especially the trans community, are under huge threat, with hate crime skyrocketing. Pride month and every Pride event reminds the world that we’re here to stay, we are who we are and love who we love. All we ask is for people to accept us and be allies, don’t hate or fear us.  

Happy Pride Month everyone!   

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A huge Happy Pride Month from the Better Connect team! 🌈 

For news and updates about Pride throughout June, click the link.