By Caitlin Baker | @c8linbaker
13/10/22
The Chairman of Nottingham Pride, Leigh Ellis, spoke to us last week about the safety, the importance, and the evolution of Nottingham Pride and what makes it so unique.
Leigh spoke about the vast importance of pride and the impact it has on society, “visibility is key…education is key.” Talk of education leads him to bring up the absurdity that was clause 28, “Clause 28 where it was banned in schools, you couldn’t be taught…you could be molested.” Clause 28 was a legislative designation which prohibited the promotion of homosexuality causing a vast range of discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community, “We always have to remember our history because if we forget it, it could happen again.”
The LGBTQ+ youth of Nottingham is shown to be underrepresented and lacks support, “I think there's more we could do.” The progression in the acceptance of the LGBTQ+ youth has been steadily growing with one in five having experienced a hate crime or incident because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity within the last 12 months according to a stonewall article based on a YouGov poll of more than 5000 LGBT people in Britain, “there is absolutely more we could do for younger people”. LGBTQ+ youth can help pave the path to representation and support by getting involved in pride, “we ask every year for people to get involved.”
"Nottingham pride, we do it different"
Nottingham pride has increased drastically over the years, from 15,000 people marching in 2021 to 30,000 people in 2022, “more people feel comfortable in coming out...we are a community.” Nottingham Pride encourages those who do not feel they are heard within the community to speak out, “Notts pride is the platform for people to...speak out, be seen, be visible and be heard.” Leigh repetitively states that visibility is key, it's important for the community to be heard hence why the march commutes through the city centre. Commuting through the city centre allows the community to be seen, "people will say why don’t you do it in the park or why don’t you sort of like give it a festival atmosphere? Do you know what, when I was 16 there was nothing more than I would’ve loved to than walk down the street and holding my then boyfriends hand and telling people this is who I am. And that’s why we do it and that’s why I think people turn up."
Safety is a crucial, behind the scenes, aspect of pride, "keeping it safe is vital to, one, our success and two, for people at the event as well, that’s why we work really closely with the police and the city council." Leigh meets on a monthly and a quarterly basis with an organisation that’s a safety advisory group. This allows him, and the organisers to guarantee the safety of the public throughout the day, if anything unfortunate were to happen the police would be at hand and the correct precautions would be taken. Safety measures need to be implicated throughout the day of pride due to the colossal amount of people attending year after year. Nottingham pride takes on safety with the upmost precaution and dedication, "a collection of people of senior leaders that work within the fire service, the ambulance service within the city council and within the police to ensure that we can keep it safe...it all goes towards keeping people safe."
Nottingham pride 2023 is looking to mimic the portrayal of pride 2022, "Notts pride will look similar to it did this year." Leigh states there will possibly be one substantial difference, "well at the
moment we're looking at whether or not we can start to introduce some sort of award event to celebrate the diversity and the great work that organisations and that people do." This will allow the community and the organisations that support the community to feel more involved and represented. Representation is crucial when planning pride in order for the community to feel heard and seen, "when we look at performers for Notts pride it’s really important that it's LGBTQ+ people from Nottingham to perform on the stage."
Do you want to get involved with Nottingham pride? Visit the official Nottingham pride website and become a sponsor or volunteer now!
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