I have been watching the backlash to the new proposals for Pride on Facebook with some amusement.

It has just turned into a bitch fest.

So lets get this straight! (Pun intended!). Pride is not Free! It costs thousands every year to put on.

A large portion of the gay community in Brighton including yourselves (GScene), the trustee's, Venue's, Club Promoters, Gay Businesses, Drag Queens our local choirs etc work all through the year giving their time and effort to raise funds to keep Pride going. They give their time and energy for free as they feel passionately about Brighton Pride being the biggest and best in the country.

It has been being reported in your magazine and National press that Brighton Pride is financially in trouble for months. They have literally been screaming for help! Yet there is still a massive shortfall in the money.

Now someone has started a FaceBook page to bitch at the proposed changes that have been made to make Pride work financially.

Suddenly the whole country is passionate about Brighton Pride and how they don't want it to change. Fantastic!

But where have these people been, why weren't they at the meetings. Why when this first hit the press were they not out campaigning and bucket shaking. Why have they waited till now.

I read one comment saying it can't be that hard to find people to give up an hour of their Pride day to shake a bucket.

Don't hide behind the safety of your keyboard bitching about how things are done.
Get out their and help. Shake a bucket, organize a fundraiser.

If you don't like the way its being organized or what the trustees have done, volunteer. Become a trustee.

If you really feel that passionately DO SOMETHING!!!! Don't just bitch about it!
If you want Pride to stay the same put your hand in your pocket, cough up what you can. There is still time to Save Your Pride.

I wonder how many of the people who have vented on Facebook are the same people who bring a picnic to Pride because they won't pay for food on the park, bring supermarket booze with them because they won't pay park prices, or worse, will quite happily chuck a couple of hundred up their noses over the weekend before they would drop a fiver in a bucket? Quite a few I imagine.

I for one don't want Brighton Pride to change, but realise in this financial climate unless we pull together as a community and make it work. Brighton pride will have change. Like it or not.