Manchester Pride have organised a Listening Group for Women. This will happen on Friday, 5 June 2020, 5.00pm to 7.00pm via Zoom.

The Listening Groups are consultations so that the Manchester Pride team can better represent, support and celebrate the community, not just at Pride, but all year round.

More info on how to sign up here

You can take part using video and audio, video or audio or simply using the chat function. If you would like to take part but don’t feel comfortable using these methods please contact engagement@manchesterpride.com

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Pride is an incredibly important time for many LGBT people. Understandably, many pride events have been cancelled or postponed this year.

#MyPrideIs is a new national LGBT pride campaign set up by the LGBT Foundation to celebrate pride in all its forms – our histories, our love, our families, our communities, our identities, our movement, our rights and more.

Pride is an incredibly important time for many LGBT people. It is a chance for us to celebrate how far we have come on the road to equality, and reenergise ourselves for the struggles ahead. In a world which often tells us there is something wrong with who we are, it is a time to come together as a community and celebrate our richly diverse identities.

For some, Pride is the only time of the year that we see same-gender couples holding hands. For others, it may be the only time of the year that we see others who look like us. When you have spent the majority of your life being a minority, there is magic in being amongst people like you and no longer being the “other”. Pride can be a place where you feel like you finally belong.

In a recent study by LGBT Foundation on the impact of coronavirus on LGBT communities, one person responded:

“Most of the prides have been cancelled […] This makes it extremely hard to have any motivation to work, as all the rewards I work for have been taken away.”

Our sense of Pride comes from our collectiveness, our unity and our resilience. This will never fade away.

#MyPrideIs is a new national LGBT pride campaign to reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness by reassuring our communities that although we can’t be together physically at the moment, our sense of community will prevail. The campaign celebrates the rich diversity and shared histories of our communities – giving a voice to those in our communities who have been marginalised and underrepresented for too long.

The LGBT Foundation are asking you to reflect on what pride means to you, share memories of previous pride events that have played a big role in your life and offer hope and support to others who may be struggling.

#MyPrideIs is all about bringing our communities together, and the LGBT Foundation would LOVE you be a part of it! Below are some of the ways you can get involved:

• To be featured in the campaign, send a photo which represents pride for you and complete the sentence “My pride is…”. You can send this to joe.nellist@lgbt.foundation
• Share your favourite memory of a pride event on social media with your friends and family using #MyPrideIs
• Learn about the history of pride, from the stonewall riots in 1969, the UK Gay Pride Rally of 1972 to the start of your local pride
• Why not host your own pride event at home and invite your friends to join you on videochat? In your photos use the tag #MyPrideIs

There’s a number of digital pride events popping up. This gives us the chance to come together as a global LGBT community like never before!

The LGBT Foundation asked people what pride means to them. Below are some of the responses. What does pride mean to you?

 “My Pride Is…

• supporting my child 110% in whatever choices they make. Not saying it’s easy all of the time, but love comes above all… #bewhoyouare #beproud
• solidarity with LGBT people from across the world
• remembering the struggles & our heroes & using #Pride to highlight the global battles #LGBTQ still need to win!
• celebrating how far we’ve come that we’re able to parade our community through the streets of cities globally showing the diversity of the LGBTQI+ spectrum and all its eccentric uniqueness. Prides may be cancelled this year, but the celebration lives within us. Pride will still be happening this year in the small moments we cultivate to show how proud we are. #lovewins
• finally being able to go to my first pride parade in Philly and NYC last year and finally coming out to friends and family
• to be myself and knowing my existence matters
• celebrating the freedom that for centuries people never had
• people standing up together and saying to the world this is who we are, and also working together every day to make a better world
• coming together, celebrating our progress, showing solidarity with others who suffer and work towards a more inclusive world.
• learning about and understanding all the things that have happened. And celebrating the positive changes.
• we are all together fighting for rights.

Here is my submission:

The LGBT Foundation are still taking submissions for the campaign and plan to run it throughout the summer. If you would like to be a part of the campaign, please contact joe.nellist@lgbt.foundation