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About Pride In Our City Digital Exhibition
“It’s become interwoven within the city’s fabric. It represents its people, the people who live here or work here, and the people who visit. I think it just makes the city a more vibrant place to be. That’s why it’s important.” – Andy
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many events were cancelled this year – including Pride in Hull.
Here at Hull Museums we also had to temporarily close our doors and put a lot of our plans on hold. However, this allowed us to reach out to our audiences in new and exciting ways. We were able to digitally connect with individuals at home and it became clear we could still bring people together to create something special to celebrate Pride 2020 – and here it is!
All the content that makes up Pride in Our City has been submitted or created during lockdown. Participants have recorded their own videos, capturing their own voices, to share their experiences and thoughts. Others have shared text, poems and images; all to illustrate what Pride means to them.
We hope that this exhibition helps to share the importance of Pride to Hull and its people, and shows that just because we aren’t celebrating together this year, that doesn’t mean that we are celebrating alone.
An introduction to the Pride Movement
When police raided the Stonewall Inn, Manhattan, on 28th June 1969, it sparked three nights of unrest known as the Stonewall Uprising. Its clientele of LGBTQ+ people, long frustrated by police brutality, finally fought back. Lesbians and trans women of colour, notably Stormé DeLarverie, Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson, were some of the key people involved in the act of resistance.
One year later the Christopher Street Liberation Day March took place, spearheaded by a group of activists that included Craig Rodwell, Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, Linda Rhodes and Brenda Howard, for the first anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.
This is widely considered as the first Pride event and attracted over 1,000 participants. Pride has ever since been an important reminder of the power of standing together in defiance of those who seek to divide us.
Three years later, on 1st July 1972, the London Gay Liberation Front (GLF) followed their American comrades in holding Britain’s first ever Pride march. About 2,000 LGBTQ+ people, many in drag, marched through central London, culminating with a kiss-in at Trafalgar Square. The date was chosen as the nearest Saturday to the anniversary of Stonewall – a conscious homage to the rebellion’s first spark.
The rest of the UK followed over the years, meaning there are around 200 various Pride events in the UK to date.
On 17th June 2019, almost exactly 50 years after Stonewall, a crowd of gay, lesbian, trans, non-binary and queer activists gathered at Trafalgar Square, the site of the first London Pride march in 1972. The original GLF members, now in their seventies, gave speeches – and were joined by new, younger activists, with every generation and ethnicity of queer life represented. The original GLF demands, drafted by John Chesterman, were read out – and several modern ones added, focusing on Pride once again defining itself as a protest, free and accessible to all, with environmental consciousness.
Marching with Pride!
Pride is a protest, and these photographs show some of the placards that people have carried in the parade during Pride in Hull.
Many messages are shared this way, from demands for equality and change to declarations of support, togetherness, and pride.
Click here to see images in full size
Bringing Pride to Hull
2002
The very beginning of Pride in Hull, or Hull Pride as it was known back then.
The event was organised by The Warren women’s group and attended by several hundred people and happened out of an urgent need for LGBTQ+ representation in the city and took place in Queens Gardens.
By 2011 the event had moved to Hull’s West Park, celebrating its 10th anniversary headlined by The Vengaboys.
In 2015, Hull Pride was relaunched as Pride in Hull and took place on Baker Street in Hull City Centre, where it remained until 2016. 2015 was also the year Pride in Hull became a registered charity.
2017
Pride in Hull was named the inaugural UK Pride, as well as Hull being the UK City of Culture. Pride and City of Culture celebrated LGBT50, the 50th anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, with an incredible homecoming – returning to Queens Gardens for the first time since 2003, bringing 44,000 back to Pride’s roots in the city.
2019
Pride in Hull kept growing and welcomed over 50,000 people to the party in 2019 – a fifth of the population of the entire city! Becoming one of the biggest events in Hull and one of the biggest free Pride events in the country.
The event marked 50 years since the Stonewall uprising by parading an original Gilbert Baker Pride flag through the streets and volunteers carried specially designed placards marking 5 decades of LGBTQ+ protest, to remind us that Pride is a protest!
In the words of Pride in Hull –
“The remit of our event is simple. We’re here to celebrate the LGBT+ community with our friends and allies. We’re here to celebrate diverse sexualities and genders. We’re here to uplift communities. We’re here to tell people that they do fit in here. And we do it with a great big massive parade, equal parts protest and party.”
2020
While this year, there was no physical event due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, Pride in Hull was part of Global Pride, a 26-hour event steamed across the world.
With a performance from Bright Light Bright Light, and an interview with Queen Harold from The House Of Kings And Queens, a home belonging to a young transgender woman that has become a sanctuary for the LGBT+ community in Freetown, Hull’s sister city in Sierra Leone.
On 25th – 26th July they showed us even a global pandemic won’t stop Pride in Hull, with a day filled with exciting online content marking Pride in Hull 2020 – Home Edition.
In the videos below, members of the Pride in Hull team explain what this event means to them and how all their hard work means that people from across our city can “top up” their pride for the whole year through.
For more videos from the Pride in Hull team, just follow the links below or view the complete collection of Pride In Our City videos on our YouTube playlist.
Lewis, the Gender Diversity Officer chats about how LGBTQ+ rights still have a long way to go in the fight for equality – CLICK HERE
Heidi-Victoria, the Finance Director, explains why Pride in Hull is for everyone including allies, families and parents – CLICK HERE
Charlye, the Family Area Coordinator, shares why being part of the Pride in Hull team makes them proud – CLICK HERE
Full YouTube playlist – CLICK HERE
Find out more about Pride In Hull – CLICK HERE
Find out more about Yorkshire MESMAC – CLICK HERE
“Time to say bye, biphobia”
As the parade passes through Hull, the city is filled with a sea of rainbows, music, and joy.
Representation is essential. Marching in the parade has given many people different things, from liberation to a feeling of belonging. For those who are not openly able to be themselves, the parade can offer a sense of hope and validation, a visible representation of support and acceptance.
Click here to see images in full size
The light of Pride gives me a chance to reveal a truth untold.
As I step away from wrongful shame, to be strong, and proud and bold.
Our mother was Aphrodite, Hermes, they say was our dad.
But through our social constructs, our existence was deemed to be bad.
“Hide them away, never speak of their kind”
The eyes of human truth must forever be blind.
Yet for centuries we have existed, blended in with Adam and Eve.
Pride, for me, is about acceptance and diversity, and this message is what I believe:
Intersex people are valid.
This invisibility and stigma must be addressed.
That’s why I represent the ‘i’ with my LGBTQIA+ siblings.
Because no human should be repressed.
By Amazon
Click here to see images in full size
“One people. One world. One love.”
In 1972 the first Pride march took place in Britain, and now London and Manchester Pride are recognised as large-scale establish events. It might not be as large, but Pride in Hull is well-known for providing a family-friendly atmosphere for all ages to enjoy.
A Pride event is made by its surrounding community, and Hull is no different – Pride in Hull has been fully embraced by the local community. In 2017, as Hull simultaneously celebrated being UK City of Culture, the streets were filled with hundreds of volunteers, in their iconic blue, purple and pink uniforms – with the addition of one or two rainbows!
Click here to see images in full size
