From protest to parade: A history of Pride in the UK

On May 14 2025, ILGA-Europe (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association) revealed that, following the UK Supreme Court ruling defining what it means to be a woman as simply biological sex, the country fell to 22nd place on ILGA-Europe’s Rainbow Map. The map scores European countries on their “respective legal and policy practices for LGBTQIA+ people,” tracking the trajectory of LGBTQIA+ rights throughout the continent. The UK peaked in 2015, with a score of 86%, but has now fallen to the lowest it’s ever been, scoring just 45.65%. LGBTQIA+ rights have come a long way since the beginnings of Pride protests in the 1970s, but recent widespread, often covert, attacks on LGBTQIA+ rights across Europe suggest that perhaps it is time to turn our parades back into protests.

In 1967, the UK government passed the Sexual Offences Act, which simultaneously “decriminalised private homosexual acts between men aged over 21” and enforced more extreme consequences on public offences. Men who broke these laws could face life in prison if they were discovered. Although the Sexual Offences Act did not explicitly refer to female same-sex relationships, sapphic women often faced “intolerance, suspicion and disgust”. In 1970, the marriage of April Ashley (a transgender woman who had transitioned in 1960) and Arthur Corbett was annulled on the grounds of the courts still considering Ashley to be male. It was in light of the legal struggles of the LGBTQIA+ community that had been ongoing for decades, combined with wider civil rights movements in the US and UK, that Pride first arose.

The Stonewall Riots were part of a larger civil rights movement that was also campaigning for gender equality and anti-racist policies

Perhaps the most well-known beginnings of Pride were the 1969 Stonewall Riots. On June 28 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York. A week of protests against the systemic discrimination and harassment of its LGBTQIA+ patrons by law enforcement followed. Lesbians and transgender women of colour, such as Marsha P. Johnson, played a hugely important role in the uprising. The Stonewall Riots were part of a larger civil rights movement that was also campaigning for gender equality and anti-racist policies. 1970 saw people of colour, women, and LGBTQIA+ people coming together at the Revolutionary People’s Constitutional Convention (RPCC) in Philadelphia. The RPCC aimed to draft a “new constitution that articulated a united vision of a just and free society.” The union of several liberation movements was incredibly important in every movement gaining traction, without pitting them against each other.

The first US Pride march marked the one-year anniversary of Stonewall and was partially organised by the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). British activists who had been in the US at the time of the riots, or had later become involved with the GLF, returned to the UK to form the British Chapter of the group. The British GLF was only active until 1973 but had a huge impact on the progress of LGBTQIA+ rights in the country. They made a series of demands including: the end to systemic discrimination towards gay people of any gender at an institutional level, for psychiatrists to stop treating same-sex attraction as sickness;, and for sex education in schools to “stop being exclusively heterosexual”. The GLF was also instrumental in organising the first Pride in London, held in 1972. Where only 2,000 people took part in the initial London Pride, now more than one million participate every year.

Although LGBTQIA+ visibility was increasing globally, with the increased discourse around queer rights leading to a general liberalisation of attitudes, Pride demonstrations and parades were often met with a heavy police presence, and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s led community attitudes towards LGBTQIA+ people to deteriorate even more. Originally named ‘Gay-Related Immune Deficiency’ (GRID) by the US upon discovery in 1981, the first UK death attributed to AIDS occurred in 1982, and the country spiralled into panic. Education around the illness preyed on peoples’ fears with campaigns such as the infamous monolith advert: an “apocalyptic scene” depicting an erupting volcano followed by a shot of a headstone with ‘AIDS’ engraved and a ‘Don’t Die of Ignorance’ leaflet landing atop it, alongside a bouquet of white lilies.

[Section 28] forbade local authorities from “intentionally promoting homosexuality or publishing material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” and “promoting the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”

Later in the decade, the Conservative Government, under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, passed Section 28. This bill forbade local authorities from “intentionally promoting homosexuality or publishing material with the intention of promoting homosexuality” and “promoting the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.” The homophobic prejudice of leaders at the time actively encouraged homophobic attitudes throughout society as a whole. Helen Randall, in The Law Society Gazette, recalls the impact of Section 28 on lawyers and teachers through an interview with “a lesbian couple who taught in primary schools in London” at the time. The couple say that “everyone had two separate lives,” with the personal costs of the bill including “disguising [their] partner’s identity” and “never getting too close to our colleagues or clients.” Nearly two decades on from Stonewall, it seemed public attitudes towards LGBTQIA+ people were limited in their progress.

Section 28 was not overturned until 2003, meaning progress was halted for 15 years. However, in the years since, there have been rapid changes to LGBTQIA+ rights in the UK. In 2004, civil partnerships were introduced for same-sex couples, and nine years later, same-sex marriage was legalised. Discrimination based on sexual orientation was outlawed in 2008.

Pride in the UK has become a celebration of queer love more than a protest in recent years, but should it have lost its ‘radical platform’ so soon?

Companies are often accused of pinkwashing during Pride Month (June) when they utilise Pride as a marketing strategy without contributing in any meaningful way to the progression and protection of LGBTQIA+ rights

Over the past few years, organisers of Pride in London have been “criticised for corporate ‘pinkwashing’”. Pinkwashing refers to the exploitation of supposed support for the LGBTQIA+ community, often by corporations, for the purpose of benefiting financially or distracting from ‘a separate agenda’. Companies are often accused of pinkwashing during Pride Month (June) when they utilise Pride as a marketing strategy without contributing in any meaningful way to the progression and protection of LGBTQIA+ rights.

In 2018, the LGBTQIA+ charity, Stonewall, withdrew support from Pride in London, due to “a lack of diversity,” and in 2024, other LGBTQIA+ groups withdrew from the march, “citing concerns over ties between […] event sponsors and Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.” Despite Pride in London being less overt of a protest, these concerns do suggest that LGBTQIA+ people are still utilising Pride as a moment of unity for many liberation movements.

At the University of Warwick, LGBTQIA+ societies “have called for a boycott of Warwick’s Pride Month, after condemning the University’s handling of its transgender inclusion policies”

It is moments of solidarity with every minority community by participants in Pride parades that provide hope for the future of Pride. Oxford and Newbury Prides have recently joined Birmingham, Brighton, London, and Manchester in banning political parties from attending “in response to […] ‘growing inequalities’ faced by transgender people.” At the University of Warwick, LGBTQIA+ societies “have called for a boycott of Warwick’s Pride Month, after condemning the University’s handling of its transgender inclusion policies.” The societies have emphasised the “historic role of the trans community at the ‘forefront of activism’.” With trans rights increasingly under attack in the UK – as evident in April’s Supreme Court ruling – the origins of Pride as a protest seem to be becoming increasingly relevant once more.

The rapid progress in LGBTQIA+ rights in the 21st century, compared to that of the 20th, may have caused us to become complacent. Overt attacks on trans rights, amongst other current liberation movements, are once again spurring the entire LGBTQIA+ community to get back in touch with their roots in civil rights movements and transform Pride into a protest once more.