{"id":3569,"date":"2022-07-26T10:46:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T10:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/?p=3569"},"modified":"2025-12-17T15:28:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T15:28:04","slug":"celebrating-50-years-of-pride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/2022\/07\/26\/celebrating-50-years-of-pride\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating 50 Years of Pride"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

July 2022 marks the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of the UK\u2019s first Pride march, held in London on 1st<\/sup> July 1972. The first Pride saw around 2,000 participants marching together. Over the past 50 years that number has grown considerably, with the 2019 London Pride seeing 1.5 million people taking part to celebrate LGBTQ+ rights.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Photograph<\/a>
Photograph of London Pride 1987 (Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality (Tyneside CHE) Archive<\/a>, CHE\/03\/02\/01).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The official theme for this year\u2019s march was #AllOurPride, uniting the collective past, present, and future of Pride for all members of the LGBTQ+ community. After a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this year\u2019s London Pride Parade took place on Saturday 2nd<\/sup> July, beginning at Hyde Park, where the first Pride march in 1972 ended.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Photograph<\/a>
Photograph of a display celebrating Gay Pride Week 1979 (Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality (Tyneside CHE) Archive<\/a>, CHE\/03\/07\/02).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

2022 also marks the 50th<\/sup> anniversary of the Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality, a branch of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE) which was established in Lancashire in 1964 and grew to have local groups throughout the country. The archive for the Tyneside CHE contains documents relating to the group\u2019s many campaigns for equal rights. For example, the archive covers the fight for the age of consent for same-sex couples to match that of heterosexual couples, and campaigns against Margaret Thatcher\u2019s 1988 Section 28 legislation banning local authorities from \u2018promoting homosexuality\u2019 by discussing LGBTQ+ issues in schools. As well as campaigning, CHE also provided a social and support network for gay men and lesbians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n
Pride leaflets published by Tyneside CHE (Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality (Tyneside CHE) Archive<\/a>, CHE\/03\/07\/02).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Within the Tyneside CHE archive<\/a>, it is possible to look back at Pride marches across the past five decades. The first Pride march in 1972 took place 5 years after the Sexual Offences Act 1967 which decriminalised sex between gay men over the age of 21 in England and Wales. At the time of the first Pride, however, the LGBTQ+ community still faced much discrimination \u2013 for example gay marriage was not legal, and gay and bisexual people were banned from joining the armed forces.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"CHE<\/a>
CHE Broadsheet, April 1978, article highlighting that this was the first year Pride saw support from allies in meaningful numbers (Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality (Tyneside CHE) Archive<\/a>, CHE\/02\/02).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
\n
\"Close-up<\/a>
Close-up of CHE Bulletin 1978 central article ( Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality (Tyneside CHE) Archive<\/a>, CHE\/02\/02).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Pride movement was influenced by the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York. The riots were a response to a violent police raid at the Stonewall Inn gay bar and were a catalyst for LGBTQ+ equality movements worldwide. The significance of Stonewall is reflected in the Tyneside CHE archive, as the marches of 1979 and 1989 commemorate the 10th<\/sup> and 20th<\/sup> anniversaries of this watershed moment in the LGBTQ+ liberation movement.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Stickers<\/a>
Stickers from Pride 1979 commemorating 10 years since Stonewall (Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality (Tyneside CHE) Archive<\/a>, CHE\/03\/07\/02). <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
\n
\"Pride<\/a>
Pride 1989 Annual Newspaper\/Programme (Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality (Tyneside CHE) Archive<\/a>, CHE\/03\/07\/02).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
\n
\"Pride<\/a>
Pride 1989 Annual Newspaper\/Programme (Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality (Tyneside CHE) Archive<\/a>, CHE\/03\/07\/01).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Throughout the years, Tyneside CHE organised annual trips to the London Pride marches. A coach was arranged, and ticket prices were \u2018related to people\u2019s earnings, so everyone can afford to come down on our bus\u2019. Pricing tickets in this way promoted inclusivity and ensured LGBTQ+ people from across the socio-economic spectrum could participate in Pride.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Tyneside<\/a>
Tyneside CHE Newsletter front page article advertising the organised trip to London Pride and the sale of coach tickets, June 1988, Issue 213 (Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality (Tyneside CHE) Archive<\/a>, CHE\/02\/01).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The London march was not the only way to celebrate Pride, however, with the CHE Tyneside newsletter from 1987 outlining that some events were planned in Tyneside itself.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"CHE<\/a>
CHE Tyneside Newsletter promoting Pride, June 1987, Issue 201 ( Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality (Tyneside CHE) Archive<\/a>, CHE\/02\/01).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Tyneside CHE archive also contains paraphernalia from Pride festivals across Europe, including from the very first EuroPride. EuroPride is a pan-European festival hosted by a different European city each year. The first EuroPride took place in London in 1992 and was attended by over 100,000 people. Not only does 2022 mark 50 years since the first Pride, but it also marks the 30 year anniversary of EuroPride.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Magazine<\/a>
Magazine from the first EuroPride, London 1992, published by the Lesbian and Gay Pride Organisation (Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality (Tyneside CHE) Archive<\/a>, CHE\/03\/07\/01).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Looking through the Tyneside CHE archive it is clear that a lot of progress has been made since the first Pride march 50 years ago. However, with 1 in 5 LGBTQ+ people in Britain experiencing a hate crime, and with conversion therapy still being legal in the UK, there is still a long way to go to achieving true equality.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Pride<\/a>
Pride 1987 Festival Programme (Tyneside Campaign for Homosexual Equality (Tyneside CHE) Archive<\/a>, CHE\/03\/07\/01).<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

CHE materials are used by kind permission of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have sought to ensure that the content of this blog post complies with UK copyright law. Please note however, that we have been unable to ascertain the rights holders of some of the images used. If you are concerned that there may have been a breach of your intellectual property rights, please contact us with the details of the image(s) concerned at libraryhelp@ncl.ac.uk<\/a> and we will have the specified image(s) taken down from the blog post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the UK\u2019s first Pride march, held in London on 1st July 1972. The first Pride saw around 2,000 participants marching together. Over the past 50 years that number has grown considerably, with the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5894,"featured_media":3582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[852,24],"tags":[739,741,743,712,392,740,736,742,737,738],"class_list":["post-3569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-special-for-everyone","category-treasure-of-the-month","tag-gay","tag-lgbt","tag-lgbt-pride","tag-lgbtq","tag-love","tag-love-is-love","tag-pride","tag-pride-month","tag-tyneside-campaign-for-homosexual-equality","tag-tyneside-che"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3569"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4141,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3569\/revisions\/4141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/speccoll\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}