Broadcaster Kathy Caton says why Pride Matters to her.
Pride Matters because we have come so far – but we have so far still to go. It links us to our pasts, our history, those hardy brave souls who put up with the eggs and abuse being chucked at them as they marched through Brighton what is now a generation ago. It lets us celebrate our hard-won freedoms and our moves towards equality. But for me Pride isn’t about complacency. Calling someone ‘gay’ in the playground remains the ultimate pejorative. Transphobia and bi-erasure are serious issues for our community. Even within the Brighton bubble, the wrong look at the wrong person is going to earn you an earful, possibly worse.
My schooling coincided neatly with Section 28, any discussion or reference to homosexuality was only ever in the most negative terms, and the fear of possibly being identified as being gay led to neat little carbon-copy homophobes (self-included) being turned out of my supposedly educationally-progressive school straight to the back of the closet. Going to my first Pride in the 90s scared me stupid and inspired me thoroughly – we owe a debt of thanks to those who have fought so bravely and consistently for our rights, for the repeal of Section 28, and who continue to push for the human rights of all those under the LGBTQUI umbrella.
Pride for me is about visibility, openness, strength and solidarity. It’s about standing shoulder to shoulder with those both domestically and abroad who do not have the freedom to live and love how they want. It’s about remembering and celebrating those who fought to get us where we are today, who consigned Section 28 to history. We must continue to challenge prejudice wherever we find it, to fight complacency, and to make sure these hard-won rights are never eroded
Kathy presents Out In Brighton, your weekly guide to all things Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer in Brighton with news, reviews, interviews, guests from across the spectrum. And some cracking tunes to boot!
Out In Brighton is broadcast live every Saturday from 11-12:00 on Radio Reverb 97.2fm in Brighton and is available as a podcast on Podomatic and iTunes
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