We have always been staunch supporters of Brighton Pride. For more years than we can care to remember we’ve dj-ed and worked for our favourite UK pride. Be it behind the decks for Aeon Events or the Candy Bar, we’ve donated our time, energy and passion for free to many a park celebration. There is nothing like being part of your hometown pride. And each time we’ve done so it’s been with the proud knowledge that we have played a small part in helping to raise funds for local LGBT charities and organisations.

For us that is what Pride is all about. Raising funds and raising awareness.

We feel the current proposals to down scale the event are mistake - a case of chucking the baby with the (rainbow coloured) bath water. To remove some of the parks main focal points will change the day beyond recognition and remove for so many visitors the reason they make Brighton Pride the biggest celebration of their gay year.

We should never forget Pride’s celebratory nature. It’s a celebration of every rioting Stonewall queen and butch dyke who took to the streets 40 years ago to scream ‘no more’. Our visibility is political, not matter how we choose to do it. Dancing in a tent, parading a dog, line dancing in cowboy boots, strumming guitars or lip syncing for our lives. Each is an essential part of our culture and one we should cherish.

And we should never forget Pride’s politics. When news broke of Pride’s financial shortfalls earlier this year there was much talk of a need to refocus.

2009 is the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and yet our reflection of this turning point in gay history? A ‘Beside The Seaside’ theme. We need to take the lessons learned by the brave LGBT who matched on their heels and boots before us and pass it on. Ensure the next generations get why us oldies did what we did and why we chanted, marched and sat-in!

We may be civil partnered and enjoying equal consent but there are so many who are not. One cheap Easyjet flight and you’ll be in a European city where turning up to march with Pride can see you threatened with arrest. One long haul flight and you end up in countries where homosexuality can see you arrested, deported or even executed. Surely our Pride needs to stand beside those who cannot stand safely with Pride. A simple ‘twinning’ with Moscow Pride or working alongside organisations including Amnesty International or LGBT Asylum News and we could turn our pride light towards those in great need of our solidarity and support.

Having been a Pride volunteer (Shameless Hussies, Pink Parasol, Lesbian Strength) in the mid-nineties I appreciate the stress of working for nothing, delivering much and feeling under valued.  And no doubt as Pride has grown, these stresses have increased.

But whoever delivers Pride needs to keep the connections open between themselves, the local business community and Pride supporters. This sadly appears to have been missing over the past few months.

We were shocked to see such staunch supporters of Pride being smeared by the Pride Statement (13.11.09). Without supporters like Aeon Events Brighton Pride would not be the event and celebration it is today. Yes, one of our employers is Aeon Events and yes, you could claim we are biased. But we like to believe, as we have worked for Aeon for the past seven years, that we have been in a better position than most to see exactly how hard they work and how much they deliver in both time, expertise and much needed fundraising. Indeed over the years we have worked for many local businesses and venues to fundraise including two glorious Mad Cow years at Charles Street!!!

It is without hesitation that we support the Wilde Ones proposal to save Pride. We believe both their experience and the proposals themselves to be sound in nature and an answer to both the current deficit and Pride’s future.

Every single Monday morning after a Brighton Pride weekend we have an overwhelming sense of Pride. Of our colleagues, our friends and most importantly our city. A city that would not be the same without a viable, loud, proud and gay pride. We are one of the UK’s finest gayest cities. We need a successful Pride to reflect this. To do otherwise would be a mistake.


Queen Josephine & Kate Wildblood