City shows its Pride

Don Frame

August 29, 2009

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THOUSANDS of people turned out for Manchester's outrageous and exotic Pride Parade.

Bigger and better than ever, this year's colourful procession numbered well over 70 floats representing businesses, organisations and community groups as diverse as Age Concern, Manchester Prairie Dogs Line Dance Club, and Sparkle, the International Transgender Celebration, which was supporting the event with the 'biggest gay bus in the world'.

The parade moved off from Liverpool Road, Castlefield at 1pm, and wound its way through the heart of the city centre via Deansgate, St Anne Street, Cross Street, Princess Street and Whitworth Street into the Gay Village.

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Is It Me? (29/08/2009 at 14:56)

I don't know why the good people of Manchester allow this! Proud to be Mancunian,eh,holding the biggest homosexual event in Europe?
Flaunting their sexuality turns normal people against them. I know the arguments but no family would choose for their child to be a homosexual and any caring parent would keep them away from events like this in case they think it is normal! A young man or woman who is shy of the opposite sex(like I was at 16) can easily be turned but when they get a bit older they find it easier to connect with the opposite sex! Homosexuals can do what they want at home but DO NOT ADVERTISE for recruits! It is akin to subliminal brainwashing. Leave our children to find themselves!

Stewart Livingston (04/09/2011 at 22:09)

We are not RECRUITING for more homosexuals! Pride is a PROTEST! A protest that people like you, are still homophobic and we are NOT EQUAL! We only want to be equal, to flaunt our sexuality just as much as any straight person can do. To hold hands in the streets with our partners like any other "normal" couple would do! Yet we face this stigma! People can't be swayed into homosexuality, coz Baby I was born this way!!!

Steve an alternative view (29/08/2009 at 15:08)

Why?

Andanotherthing, Mcr (29/08/2009 at 15:57)

The biggest gay bus in the world. Imagine that Mr Angry, I have heard Matchbox are going to manufacture a scale model.

ebble, manchester (29/08/2009 at 16:58)

Why are homosexual people proud to be homosexual? I'm not proud of being heterosexual, it's just how I was born and I had no choice in the matter so I can't see it as a matter for pride.

It's a good job heterosexual people don't feel proud of their sexuality. The city centre would be clogged up for most of the summer holding enough marches for them all to go on.

At least City weren't at home on the day of the march this year so I won't be inconvenienced by all the road closures.

Stewart Livingston (04/09/2011 at 22:11)

We have to march as we are not EQUAL. Pride is a protest! We only want to have the same rights and be as accepted as hetrosexual people!

mort (29/08/2009 at 20:11)

do tax payers hve to pay for this pathetic parade??? i hope not

Stewart Livingston (04/09/2011 at 22:12)

No they do not! Manchester Pride is a charity organisation who run the Pride Events.

Anthony Portman Jones (29/08/2009 at 21:12)

This years Parade was to be very honest and blunt a waste of time.
Last Saw it three years ago and sorry to say again same old same.
Was good to see more Police in the parade.
I think it needs a new look a new route and new folks to run it

Mr Angry, Bury (30/08/2009 at 10:06)

a festival of filth!!!!

shaggy, hulme (30/08/2009 at 10:07)

i unfortunately couldn't watch the parade yesterday.
did i miss something good?

CRAIG-SALFORD, SALFORD (30/08/2009 at 11:52)

Is it me you're talking rubbish - a lot of the comments on here prove why Gay Pride Events need to be celebrated. Whilst our country has come on leaps and bounds in recognising that we ALL have rights there are still hundreds if not thousands of people who are discriminated against, attacked and sadly even killed because they are Gay - for no other reason, and all of this is still happening and on the increase in 2009! (I am NOT some raving Gay Rights person either - I only want equality and not to be tolerated....humoured...and definitely not to be classed as "Them"......

lebist, blackley (30/08/2009 at 12:13)

Looked to me like a lot of people dressing up and having a good time.A bit like the Rag Rag parades and Whit walks I watched in the 50s and 60s but without the homophobic commenters raising their ugly heads.

redberry, Manchester (30/08/2009 at 12:40)

I would attend a parade of heterosexuals flaunting our pride of being normal as nature intended. As regards the homosexual parade wont be in 100 miles of this disgusting spectacle.

Schwyz (30/08/2009 at 12:47)

Some great comments and some nasty, mean spirited ones! Saw parade and thought it very good natured. Made me proud to be part of this city.
To put the matter straight gays do not go around recruiting!!! Also, in view of the fact they were so badly treated in the past (REMEMBER ALUN TURING??!! AND ANDERTON'S EVIL, UNCHRISTIAN COMMENTS BACK IN THE HORRID THATCHER 1980'S ?) they deserve to party a bit. Think of the party years in Spain once Franco had gone!
It all seems more like a cry "Look we are here, from all walks of life, and we come in all shapes and sizes. Get used to it!" Frankly good luck to them all................

Deejay, Bury (30/08/2009 at 13:06)

For those of you sad dimwitted folks who believe that sexuality is chosen, wake up and realise that it's a part of who people are - regardless of being homo or hetero. I'm sure many gay and lesbian people decided one day to get up and say to themselves "Oh I'll chose today to be persecuted and ridiculed by becoming homosexual". It's genetics and determined long before birth. I pity you should your children ever come home and tell you they are gay. "Leave our children to find themselves" (Is it me) - you clearly have no idea of the irony of that statement. Celebrate life, and stop worrying about the inconsequential things.
As for those of you who believe it disgusting - it was a celebration of flamboyancy and fun, and was a true Mardi Gras parade. Old & Young, Gay and Straight, Male and female - everyone around where we were enjoyed it and found it entertaining. Is it too much to ask in these times of economic hardship that people can have some fun and laughter. And no - the taxpayers do not pay for it - most of it is voluntary, and the rest is funded by business.

Joe Pub, Manchester (30/08/2009 at 13:10)

How did they get past the bollards on Cross Street, glad to have missed it I think this sort of behaviour is disgraceful, and now sorry for reading article.

Integrity samaritan (30/08/2009 at 13:58)

Didn’t really expect too many intelligent comments from those who never engaged their brains before they open their mouths, but hey it is Bank holiday time again in the UK. Nice to see that Homophobia is still alive and well in the UK, but having read so many homophobic comments on here, it is breathtaking that so much prejudice still exists.
Good luck to you who are enjoying the Pride Parade, and pity those who have to enjoy a “Traditional heterosexual Manchester Bank Holiday weekend” throwing up on someone’s car or fighting outside a pub, learning how to put a sentence together without using the f word, spending hours in casualty departments, throwing up in the back of taxis, beating up on their partners.
Some of you homophobes need to look at yourselves and your lifestyles before you criticise others. Such intellect overwhelms me at times, and that is why the UK is the pit it is because most of the intelligent life form left and now live in countries where such diversity isn’t tolerated it is embraced. Will the last person who leaves the UK switch the light out and leave the dim wits to their petty prejudices.

Rorschach, Round the Corner (30/08/2009 at 14:08)

Thank you to Is It Me 29/08/2009 at 14:56: you single-handedly nailed on the head why parades like this still need to happen in today's society. Because there are still homophobic bigots with their head still firmly planted up their dark ages.

I think it's people like YOU who need to keep their ideas behind closed doors, and let everyone else get on with evolving as a society.

morticia, worsley (30/08/2009 at 14:09)

Mort, homosexuals pay taxes too!

morticia, worsley (30/08/2009 at 14:12)

Cannot anyone enjoy themselves anymore, whether gay or hetro? To many bigots on this site. Maybe you are all closet Hitler's?

tiggerluc, somewhere in shaw (30/08/2009 at 14:18)

Why was it a festival of filth Mr angry , Bury -- did you go? if not then how can you say it was filth?

Theowolfe (30/08/2009 at 14:39)

The continuous cry of 'homophobia' is really tiresome. Having a religious, moral or social dislike of homosexuality is not mental illness, as is a phobia, which is irrational. I certainly don't subscribe to the view of George Weinberg, who allegedly first coined the phrase homophobia.

It is quite reasonable to have a view about homosexuality on many grounds without excusing discrimination or bigotry. Somehow it has become taboo to have a negative view of homosexuality and even more so to express that view.

If the so called 'gay community' choose to organize such high profile events then it should be expected that there will be criticisms from various standpoints. The response should be to challenge those views with reasoned argument not to vilify the people who express them with charges of bigotry and 'phobia.'

Audenshaw Bob (30/08/2009 at 14:49)

Is it me, I have lots of gays freinds and two relatives are as well but just to reassure you that none of them dress up like this. Only a tiny minority do. Most are fed up of being patronised and don't need the people in teh parade dressing like they do and pushing every stereotype that bigots have.

Gay people work in offices, go to local pubs etc and are around in every day life. They are not all leather cowboy chap weraing blokes with their backsides out. All the parade does is seperate them further from straight people..

My friends couldn't give a monkeys about the parade, they just went straight to the village to get off their faces.

I really don't understand why the polie marched - very patronising.

Bigmouth strikes again, Manchester (30/08/2009 at 15:19)

Wow, we still have a lot of sad people about. Why can't you just accept people for what they are, I didn't choose to be straight, I was born that way, Just as gay people are. It's good for the city and I have no problem with it. And for those that think it's disgusting, I take it you don't own any music by Elton John, George Michael, REM, Queen, Morrissey, The Scissor Sisters, KD Lang, Rufus Wainwright, Sam Sparrow, Will Young, Little Richard or The Pet Shop Boys? or respect people like Stephen Fry, Ian McKellen, Kevin Spacey or Alan Turing? I find the gay and lesbian community friendly and a lot less trouble than the straight hooligans in other parts of the city!

Andy, Wythenshawe (30/08/2009 at 15:26)

Audenshaw Bob "My friends couldn't give a monkeys about the parade, they just went straight to the village to get off their faces. "

Ah, that's all right then, far better than having a bit of fun in a parade where the overwhelming majority didn't dress as a tabloid stereotype.... isn't it?

Andanotherthing, Mcr (30/08/2009 at 15:44)

a festival of filth!!!!
Mr Angry, Bury

You posses a fine oak privy closet Sir. Whilst I desire tjhat I have Enraged you sire..Be Proud................Like that matey

Felix, manchester uk (30/08/2009 at 16:05)

"It's a good job heterosexual people don't feel proud of their sexuality." Ebble - they do. That's exactly why they have mocked and intimidated gay, lesbian and bisexual people for so long and why we need to affirm that we're not ashamed of who we are. Heterosexual people shove their sexuality in our faces all day every day - chatting about their girlfriends or boyfriends or husbands or wives, collecting for wedding presents in the office, holding hands in the street (and worse), claiming Family Tax Credit which is at least partly funded by tax paid by us - they are constantly and visibly proud.
Incidentally, anyone who thinks the police were being patronizing by marching in the Parade obviously did not read their banner - they are members of the GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL and TRANSGENDER police association and there under the own steam. And no, they didn't get paid to attend. By the taxpayer or anyone else.

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