IN PICTURES: Birmingham Pride – 25 Years of Pride and Protest – Scene Magazine

In July 1972, just a week after London’s first Pride March, members of the Birmingham Gay Liberation Front hurriedly organised a small Pride event which saw roughly 20 members of the group handing out leaflets on July 8 at the Bull Ring Shopping Centre before marching up New Street to the Town Hall where they staged a small rally. The following day, they headed to Cannon Hill Park to distribute the remainder of their leaflets. While this event is far from the size of Birmingham Pride today, New Street is still part of the parade route, which makes its way down to the Gay Village.

In the years that followed, there were several other similar gatherings, but by the mid-70s, the group had disbanded, and the idea of Birmingham Pride fizzled out with it.

Between 1983 and 1996, a programme of activities, performances and acts called Five Days of Fun was held in Birmingham over August bank holidays. These events took place at the various gay venues in the city and even included an It’s A Knockout contest between teams representing the main bars. These events marked the first time that the managers of these clubs and bars would collaborate. Five Days of Fun, unlike Birmingham Pride today, was held completely behind closed doors within the venues, rather than together in a public space.

During the 1980s, as the city battled against the AIDS epidemic and Section 28, the gay community in Birmingham grew stronger, and by the 1990s the city’s gay village was becoming increasingly established with more shops, bars, and businesses opening in the area. These new venues included Angels, a café bar which opened in 1997, the same year as Birmingham’s first ‘proper’ Pride event.

Bill Gavan – the owner of the former Subway City dance club in Livery Street – was the person to suggest organising a Birmingham Pride, and in November 1996, a small committee came together. Fundraising began for the entirely community-financed Pride.

Taking place over the spring bank holiday in 1997, the first Birmingham Pride – that evolved into what we know today – attracted 15,000 visitors. In 2022, Birmingham Pride celebrates 25 years of Pride and Protest. To celebrate, Scene has curated a collection of photographs and memories which span across the years and capture many of the issues faced by the community and wider society – from marriage equality in 2015 to the tragic Manchester bombing in 2017.

With special thanks to Sally Payne, Garry Jones, and Gay Birmingham Remembered for many of the images and memories featured.

1997

“I did not go on the scene much until the first Pride (1997) and remember Angels particularly, with its plate glass windows. I was amazed when I saw the gay community in the open as I always thought gay people in Birmingham were vampires.” – Tom Matthews, born 1947 (Gay Birmingham Remembered)

1998

2000

2002

2003

2004

2005

“We hit lucky with the weather in 2005 and the Sunday, when we had the bulk of the organised activities, was hot; Monday was sweltering, and with some lower key entertainment and activities on offer, it was a great chill out day to round off the weekend’s partying.” – Lesley Pattenson (Gay Birmingham Remembered)

2006

2007

“The Pink Picnic was in Cannon Hill Park in July 2007, more than 100 people met up, played cricket, had a picnic and enjoyed the sunshine. What was great about the Pink Picnic was that it was a real cross-section of Birmingham’s LGB[T+] community, younger and older lesbians and older gay men from all walks of life. Sometimes when you walk into a gay bar on Hurst Street it’s not representative and it’s dominated by men who are aged between 25 and 40. This picnic had children there, sons and daughters of gay parents, with ages ranging from seven to 90.” – Steve Ball (Gay Birmingham Remembered)