Rochdale in Rainbows celebrates 2021 Pride

This year’s local Pride celebration will take place from 28 June to 4 July, hosted by Rochdale in Rainbows in conjunction with Rochdale Borough Council.

The raising of the LGBTQ+ (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer plus other non-binary sexualities and genderfluid identities) Progress Flag will kick off the week and can be seen in each township area. The Mayor will raise the flag at Number One Riverside in Rochdale town centre with other flags being raised at Queen's Park and Hopwood Park in Heywood; Jubilee Park in Middleton, and in Littleborough and Milnrow, along with Rochdale police station and Rochdale fire and rescue station. 

The Progress flag places a greater emphasis on inclusion and progression as alongside the traditional rainbow colours it includes black and brown stripes to represent marginalised black, Asian and other ethnic minority LGBTQ+ communities, along with the colours pink, light blue and white, which represent the trans community.

During the week, there are a number of events taking place across the borough including an inclusive church service at St Clements Church, a youth service games night at Touchstones Museum in Rochdale, plus a Walk and Talk in Littleborough, along with the Proud Trust. The team at Touchstones have also been working on an ongoing project to uncover hidden narratives in the collection, researching and investigating objects and artworks that highlight LGBTQ+ connections and stories for its latest gallery 2 exhibition - What’s Changed?.

Drag queen story time is back by popular demand and this year there is bingo night, hosted by the Vegan drag queens.

Additionally, the same-sex sexual orientation and trans gender symbol pedestrian crossings have also returned, once again funded by Siemens. In an alternative to the traditional green man, same-sex and transgender relationships have now been represented with special LGBTQ+ filters displaying the widely-recognised conventional gender symbols.
 

Read more: Rochdale in Rainbows: same-sex and trans symbols replace green man at pedestrian crossings for borough’s first PridePublished: 18 November 2019

First used across the borough in 2019, different filters have been applied to the lights, following previous initiatives in London and Manchester.

In 2016, the green man was joined by a same-sex partner in Trafalgar Square, the couple holding hands to depict a heart between them, and a large number of crossings featured the special designs during Manchester Pride in 2018.

Carl Austin-Behan OBE DL, LGBTQ+ advisor to the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham and Rochdale in Rainbows steering group member, said: “It has been brilliant to be able to bring back Rochdale in Rainbows again this year. There are so many enthusiastic people committed to celebrating and supporting the LGBTQ+ community.

"Pride is a time when LGBTQ+ communities come together and reflect on how far we’ve come as well as acknowledge how much there is still to do. Happy Rochdale in Rainbows 2021."

Councillor Susan Smith, the council’s cabinet member for communities and cooperation, said, “We’re pleased that we have been able to organise so many events, under the circumstances to bring Rochdale in Rainbows back to the borough of Rochdale, the steering group have done it again, and hope to bring a further week of events in October.

“There are lots of events to take part in, so please get involved and enjoy the opportunity to maybe even learn something new.”

Rochdale’s LGBTQ+ steering group, Rochdale in Rainbows, was established in November 2018 with the aim of coordinating existing activity and planning new events with LGBTQ+ people.

The group is made up of organisations from across the borough including Hopwood Hall College, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH), and Your Trust (formerly Link4Life).

For information on all Rochdale in Rainbows presents Pride events visit:

• www.rochdale.gov.uk/events-and-activities/events/Pages/rochdale-in-rainbows-events.aspx

 

 

The history of the Pride movement

Pride is a global movement, fighting for equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community. The first official Gay Pride festival took place in London in 1972, with just 2,000 attendees. Now there are hundreds of Pride festivals with thousands of attendees.

With events typically scheduled all summer, Pride Month takes place in June, chosen to remember the Stonewall Riots which broke out in New York City on 28 June 1969 after police raided one of the city’s most popular gay clubs.

The anniversary was marked a year later, going on to give birth to the Pride movement – pride, as opposed to the shame and social stigma surrounding homosexuality in years prior.

The rainbow flag colors are routinely used as a show of LGBTQ+ identity and solidarity, and have been used since 1978.

Homophobia, biphobia and transphobia can result in individuals facing inequalities in many areas of life, from the workplace to healthcare, such as: trans people being denied access to public toilets, using verbal slurs against their gender or sexuality, or even being harassed or attacked.

Pride is also an important opportunity for straight people and those who are cisgender (those who identify as the sex they were born as) to be an ally to the LGBTQ+ community and show support and solidarity for friends, family or colleagues who may hide their true selves.

Whilst it has never been illegal in England for two women to be in a relationship, two men have only been allowed to be in a relationship with each other since 1967, when the decriminalisation of homosexuality took place; there has never been an equivalent law for lesbianism.

Until 1967, gay and bisexual men could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if they broke the law around homosexuality, whilst women were merely prosecuted for “the indecent assault of one woman by another.”

Much oppression and discrimination has been faced by the community: even though you can now marry your same sex partner in England, in many parts of the world, it is still illegal to love someone of the same sex or be in a relationship with them. In some countries, this is even punishable by death.

Before equal marriage was legalised in 2013, same-sex couples have been able to undertake a civil partnership since 2004 – legally uniting in something like a marriage, but without some of the same legal rights. Until as recently as 2002, same-sex couples couldn’t adopt children.

Scientist Alan Turing – who is now celebrated for his role in breaking the German Enigma code, leading to Allied victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two – this year became the first gay man to feature on a British bank note, depicted on the new £50 note.

Whilst Turing is today celebrated for being a war hero, during his life, he was prosecuted for indecency over his relationship with another man. He agreed to be chemically castrated to ‘reduce his libido’ to avoid jail. His criminal record disqualified him from working for the government intelligence agency, and Turing took his own life aged just 41.

It wasn’t until 2009 that then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown publicly apologised for Turing’s “utterly unfair” treatment. Turing was granted a royal pardon by the Queen in 2013, 59 years after his death.

In the UK, during the 1980s and 1990s, there was a law preventing ‘the promotion of homosexuality’. This was repealed in 2003 and schools can now teach in an LGBTQ+ inclusive manner.