It seems there’s no more effective catalyst to get the LGBTQ+ community on the streets expressing our passion, our pride, our love than challenge. The AIDS crisis was a key factor in birthing the globally connected network we have now, in the UK Clause 28 mobilised us in the 1990s to form stronger community bonds and institutions… yet it seems when life gets easier (for some of us), when the attacks abate a while, the community soon gets complacent, starts arguing with itself. However, right now in the mid 2020s the pressure on us is building again, and maybe we are remembering the bigger picture and can pull together as one.
In 2026 some of those attacks on Pride and the LGBTQ+ community in general have come from gay men and lesbians who loudly protest that they are mono-gender sexual beings who have nothing in common with gender-blending trans people, or those strange queer, non-binary types. Gay men complaining that Pride has got too ‘sexual’ (wearing dog masks and showing butt in front of the children!), or that it’s become too corporate (wake up honeys we were protesting business sponsorship already 2 decades ago — and on the whole I would say Pride events learned the lesson and have succeeded in creating community events in which gay members of corporations, armed and emergency services are included, not highlighted).
Or complaining that they were called queer as a kid and therefore will never accept that word as an umbrella term for the community — despite the fact we’ve already been doing that for nearly 4 decades — thus condemning us to always use the ever expanding alphabet of identities, which also of course upsets them.
To those separatist types I want to say open your eyes. To those who hate us you are no different to trans people — gay men and women have always been regarded as gender-benders, subversive at the core. Those who hate us will use every trick, even twist the facts of history to get their evil across and you will not be spared:
Matthew Vines, author of God and the Gay Christian (which is credited with assisting many evangelical gays come to terms with their sexual nature), gained massive online exposure on the last day of this year’s Pride month with his New York Times Article “I’m Gay, Not Queer. It Matters” in which he blames the a decline in acceptance of LGB people on the Trans and Queer folk, whom he sees as having a political agenda than contradicts his wish to fit into society and have a ‘normal’ life. The response from the queernet has been awesome — he and people like him have hopefully listened and learned. The LGBTQ+ community is having a debate! Gay Christians are among those speaking up, such as singer/songwriter Flamy Grant who posted online: “There is no such thing as a normal gay person, Matthew. Our subversion of social norms is our power, friends. We exist in God’s creation specifically to be a thorn in the side of those who demand conformity.” Gay Christian author Brandan Robertson wrote a response on Substack titled “Queer Isn’t the Threat. Respectability Politics Is.” — he writes,
“The fundamental problem with this critique is that it amounts to a defense of the privilege of a portion of the LGBTQ community at the expense of the rest. It relies on outdated ways of understanding sexuality and gender, and it clings to a utopian vision in which gays and lesbians can be accepted in society and in religion so long as they conform to every other ‘norm’ required of them, ignoring the millions of transgender, nonbinary, asexual, bisexual and queer people who exist in every corner of this country.”
Robertson powerfully states: “Those who adopt the label of ‘queer’ do so because they understand that their own identities are more complex than the simple binaries that those like Vines are trying to force them into.”
What I actually saw at London Pride: a parade showcasing the incredible diversity of LGBTQ+ people and communities. It’s so moving to see groups of queers from African and other countries where homosexual acts are illegal, proudly proclaiming their queer nature and challenging the narratives put out by politicians in those lands. Pride is still a protest — and everyone there, while partying, is doing so in solidarity with our kind all over the world, as well as the bigots and naysayers here in the West, who, perhaps because they have seen cracks opening in our rainbow coalition, seem suddenly emboldened to loudly attack us again.
Great too at Pride to see football clubs sponsoring floats and celebrating the queer members of their communities and religious groups walking on the parade, putting out a positive message while some of their disturbed fellow believers still waste their day waving their protesting placards on the sidelines.
I’ve been going to London Pride for 40 years, the first parade I attended was followed by a party in Jubilee Gardens on the South Bank. The park afterparties that we enjoyed for many years were great but became too big to sustain, too expensive to put on. London shifted to a Soho focussed street party about 15 years ago, and this continues today, with evening after parties across the city. In the past few year I noticed a few changes have happened. Pride seems way less dominated by gay men than it used to be, it is now a truly diverse and universal celebration of all kinds of people, our allies, our straight friends included and the whole of central London becomes a very happy, relaxed, colourful place for the day where people from all the world’s ethnicities, faiths and cultures are mingling together in safety and joy. Even the police always seem to be smiling and playing along. I remember the first few years of the Soho post pride party the streets seemed to be a chaotic mess of inebriated gay men, but this year I felt I was part of a genuinely joyful celebration energy that included everyone.
Pride is a protest but it has no enemies except those who make enemies out of us.
We don’t oppose straight people, we don’t oppose families…
The rainbow flag stands for FREEDOM for all people:
Freedom from oppression, freedom to love whomever we love
Freedom of self expression, autonomy over our own bodies.
Pride is important because ignorant bigotry still exists, and it’s not hiding; because same sex love is still punished in dozens of countries around the world — due to attitudes and laws that Europeans imported to those lands. People who regard and criticise Pride as a celebration of sexuality are missing the point entirely and are revealing the contents of their own shadowy minds! Pride has always been about love, about self expression and community. I saw this writ large across central London at Pride 2026.
rainbow messenger 