LGSM News
It's quite illogical to say ‘I’m gay and I’m into defending the gay community but I don’t care about anything else.’ It’s important that if you're defending communities, you’re defending all communities and not just one.
Mark Ashton
It's quite illogical to say ‘I’m gay and I’m into defending the gay community but I don’t care about anything else.’ It’s important that if you're defending communities, you’re defending all communities and not just one.
Mark Ashton
LGSM members participated in the Norwich Pride Parade and festival on Saturday 25 July. Along the route of the Parade, we were joined by a large contingent of friends and supporters and our banner was again greeted with applause along the route by those who had turned out to watch the Parade pass. The level of recognition in Norwich was noticeably lower than at some of recent events we have attended, and this may well be down to the fact that there is no history of mining in East Anglia.
LGSM led the Northern Pride Parade in Newcastle on Saturday 18 July, with the Dunston Silver Band. Our banner was followed by the Durham Miners Association banner and contingent and our friends from Durham Pride were also there in numbers. Along the route of the Parade, we were joined by a host of friends and supporters from across the North-East. And our banner was greeted with applause all along the route by those who had turned out to watch the Parade pass.
39 years ago I left my mining village in County Durham to go to University ‘down South’. At the time I was a single, ostensibly heterosexual young man who believed that I still hadn’t met the right woman. Two weeks after starting Uni I discovered that ‘the right woman’ was, in fact,a man!
The worldwide response to the film Pride has been amazing – it has given LGSM a whole new audience of contacts to link up with. We have had speakers and representatives at events in Turkey, Hawaii and Mexico. LGSM has been proud to bring its message of solidarity and support to Pride marches, film festivals and protests across Europe and across Britain.
The Seoul Parade is scheduled for 28 June, but the police have banned it after lobbying and protests by right-wing Christian groups. Japanese and Korean LGBT groups have formed a solidarity campaign to overturn it, with a slogan of ’Solidarity under the Rainbow - Stand up for somebody’. Follow on Twitter
