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BBC News
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Reading Pride returns amid financial pressures
Organisers of Reading Pride parade and festival say support from local companies has halved, leaving the event with a £30,000 comes after the UK Pride Organisers Network said 75% of Pride events across the UK have seen a decline in Engagement Officer of Reading Pride, Tom Price said: "Regular sponsors don't have the same funds as last year and there is a real concern for the future."Each year, it costs over £110,000 to host the event in the town. It has been a challenging year for Pride events nationwide, with cancellations due to funding and volunteer UK's Pride movement began in 1972 when a group called the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) decided that, as well as protesting, it was also important to celebrate the community. Mr Price said he believes this year's funding shortage is due to "various worldwide events"."We've come up a bit short in terms of funding, as we have lost two major sponsors and some of our UK sponsors are struggling for money."It's just become a bit difficult this year."Liverpool's annual Pride event and the city's March with Pride were cancelled last a group of organisations and people in Plymouth created their own event after the official Pride event was cancelled due to a lack of Price said: "There are a couple of other pride events that have collapsed due to financial problems that we are all facing - we are seeing it happen a lot." He explained that the volunteer committee are working "really hard to try and make up that money" through "fundraising and finding ways to trim bits of the festival that are not necessary"."We will put on a festival this year, definitely but we are really concerned about the future of Reading Pride," Mr Price added."We do have a little bit of a buffer but if we go into that this year, then next year we will be in a worse situation.""It is a very worrying time, and there is a real concern that we will struggle in the future." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook and X.
Vancouver Sun
11-07-2025
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
Vancouver Pride in peril? Parade will proceed despite losing nearly half its sponsors
Ron Dutton will never forget stepping into Vancouver's first unsanctioned Pride Parade in 1978 — not with floats or cheering crowds, but with fear in his chest as about 50 people, mostly from the Gay Liberation Front, quietly marched on West End sidewalks wearing paper bags over their heads to avoid being identified. 'We were all criminals,' Dutton said, now in his late 70s, recalling how the law treated him before homosexuality was decriminalized in Canada. 'If you were found out, you could lose your job, your family, your safety. You lived in hiding.' Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. More than four decades later, Dutton still goes to Vancouver's official Pride Parade each year with his husband — but this year, he has a new worry. Close to half of the corporate sponsors have pulled out of funding the 2025 Vancouver Pride Parade, according to the Vancouver Pride Society, citing a chilling political climate across North America. The parade is going ahead on Aug. 3, but just barely. For Dutton, the waning support is a sobering reminder that progress must be actively defended. 'Rights that can be given, can also be taken away,' he said. Morgane Oger, board chair of the Vancouver Pride Society, says the parade's funding challenges mirror those of Pride Toronto, which recently reported a $900,000 shortfall tied to rising costs and sponsor withdrawals. The organization attributed the pullouts to political backlash against diversity and inclusion efforts in the U.S. under President Donald Trump. 'We're seeing corporate sponsors with ties to the U.S. distance themselves from Vancouver Pride this year,' said Oger. Six major sponsors, including Walmart, withdrew their support for this year's Vancouver Pride Parade, resulting in a loss of about $400,000 from the event's usual $900,000 in annual commercial sponsorship revenue. In a statement Wednesday, Vancouver Pride confirmed that the full summer festival is still moving ahead with more than 150 parade entries in place. But behind the scenes, Oger says the organization faces significant financial strain from the lost sponsorships, rising costs, and what it describes as a lack of material support from the City of Vancouver. 'The board remains concerned by (the) small amount of material support provided by the city to date — particularly given the Pride Festival's cultural, economic, and civic value to Vancouver and its residents,' it said in a statement. The society says it is still covering a shortfall from last year's event, partly due to the city's event licensing fee, which includes policing costs and totals around $150,000. Oger also noted that while Vancouver Pride Society received $115,000 from the city's B.C. Fairs, Festivals and Events Fund in 2024, that amount was cut to $45,000 this year under a new program. Additionally, a city grant that previously funded four summer student positions was denied this year. Vancouver Coun. Peter Meiszner says the city has provided the Vancouver Pride Society with nearly $100,000 annually in cultural project grants since 2020. Additionally, the city allocates $75,000 each year to cover services such as traffic control and policing, and funds any extra public safety measures required by police. 'The mayor and city council are doing everything they can to help support Pride,' Meiszner said Thursday. Even if corporate sponsorship and municipal funding further decline, the Vancouver Pride Society says it won't back down in the years ahead. 'Pride celebrations can take many forms,' Oger said. 'If it becomes too costly to run a parade through the Vancouver Pride Society, we will explore other ways to hold a non-permitted march.' For Dutton, joining thousands annually parading each year in Vancouver's closed-off streets is a celebration of what was once unthinkable. 'To see the kind of ease with which the next generations have been able to live their lives gives me immense pleasure,' he said Thursday, referring to young people he has witnessed dance openly in the middle of city streets during the march. 'I can't tell you how thrilled I am just to be there.' But Dutton believes that the struggle is far from over. 'Look at what's happening in the United States. Laws are being overturned, and support is fading. Our rights exist only as long as we are willing to defend them.' This year's Pride Parade takes place Aug. 3, beginning at 1 p.m. on Pacific Boulevard just past Griffiths Way. The route heads west along Pacific and flows into the Davie Village Pride Festival, which starts at 2 p.m. in the West End. sgrochowski@
BBC News
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
London Pride returns as events struggle with falling funds
On Saturday more than one million people are expected to attend Pride in London, the UK's largest LGBTQ+ despite huge visitor numbers, organisers say the event - and others like it around the country - face an uncertain future due to a drop in funding and falling volunteer than 85 Pride organisations say they've seen a reduction in corporate sponsorships or partnerships, according to a questionnaire by the UK Pride Organisers Network (UKPON), which said it represents the majority of UK Pride celebrations have already been cancelled or postponed, while others are scaling back plans or charging for tickets to what have previously been free-to-attend events. The UK's Pride movement began in 1972 when a group called the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) decided that, as well as protesting, it was also important to celebrate the the time, same-sex couples showing affection in public could have seen them Pride events take part across the world, often combining protest, in the form of marches and rallies, with parties and live News has spoken to a number of Pride organisers about their worries for the future of Pride events, and what they believe is behind the drop in funding. 'If America sneezes, the UK catches a cold' Dee Llewellyn is volunteer chair of UKPON, and also works full-time as Pride in London's head of believes that, for large-scale celebrations such as in Pride in London, international corporations moving away from Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies is one of the driving forces behind the drop in said: "There's an old saying, if America sneezes, then the UK catches a cold, and I think we're really feeling that right now."Global corporations, with head offices based in America, have had their DEI funding cut, which has meant that some corporations, even ones that have been really long-standing supporters of Pride in the UK, have no longer got a budget to do so."Despite the difficulties it faces, London continues to be the UK's largest Pride event and over the past few years attendance has grown to 1.5 million people, making it one of the city's largest public to the Pride in London website, the cost of their 2024 event was £1.7m. Asked why a Pride event - which is seen by many as a form of protest first and foremost - costs this much to run, Dee told the BBC: "It's about making safe spaces, not just emotionally safe but physically safe for everybody there as well - it means paying for security staff, barriers, road closures."As Pride grows, and the numbers grow, the cost and the level of health and safety and other infrastructure grows as well. No Pride would be able to go ahead without meeting those health and safety regulations."Although the focus this weekend will be very much on the capital, UKPON told the BBC that Pride events up and down the country are facing similar April UKPON asked its 201 members whether they were facing any financial or operational the 112 organisations that responded:More than 85 reported lost revenue from corporate sponsorships and partnerships this yearMore than 40 said that the drop was between 26% - 50% compared to last year21 said they'd experienced their revenue fall by more than half in that same periodMore than 60 said they'd seen reductions in grants from corporations or charitiesIn recent weeks, several Pride organisations have taken the decision to cancel City Region Pride announced in June that rising costs and difficulty securing funding "made it impossible to bring Pride to Liverpool this year".Another charity has since stepped in to organise an alternative event. 'I'm absolutely gutted' Plymouth Pride, which organisers say usually has an estimated 6,000-7,000 attendees, will this year also not go ahead in its official told the BBC they were £12,000 short of the estimated £35,000 it costs to put on their annual event, which includes a march through the city and a number of stages showing MacDonald, chair of Plymouth Pride, told the BBC that rising costs for things like security, first aid and toilet facilities, combined with a drop in grant funding, had left the organisation with no choice but to cancel the official said: "Ultimately it was [grant] funding that was the make or break for us and this year it didn't work."I'm just absolutely gutted because I think it's more important this year to have Pride than any other year."A smaller group, Plymouth Community Pride, has now raised funds to host an alternative event in the city."We've been very lucky this year, the community rallied together and a separate organisation is putting on lots of little events. We'll hopefully come back bigger and stronger next year," Alex added. Charging for tickets is 'one of the most difficult decisions' In June, more than 6,000 people attended The Pink Picnic, an event organised by a team of volunteers from Salford Pride in the city's Peel in 2011, it's marketed by organisers as a small, community-focused Pride event and is seen as a quieter alternative to Manchester Pride, a ticketed multi-day event with celebrity headliners which takes place a few miles down the 2025, Salford Pride took the decision to charge for tickets for the first time in order to plug what they say was a £40,000 shortfall in sponsorships from corporate team, made up entirely of volunteers, decided to charge £5 per ticket, but estimate that the event costs around £18 per Holmes, event lead for Salford Pride, said it was "one of the most difficult decisions" his team of volunteers have had to make and that it led to some "being subjected to quite a lot of abuse online."Despite The Pink Picnic being a relatively small event, costs such as security and stewards - which Reece said are essential to run a public event - mean it costs around £100,000 a year to told the BBC: "We've had a 28% increase in costs from 2024, but we've also lost three corporate sponsors since then. "It's a mixture of economic issues and I think the political climate at the minute, I think [companies] are a little bit scared to support Prides."Reece said that without charging for tickets to cover some of the costs, the event would not have been able to go ahead."We're being forced to make these kinds of decisions due to a lack of funding, due to economic issues and due to the political climate."Although many Prides have told the BBC they are struggling financially, and may have to scale back or charge more for events in the future, Dee Llewellyn said there is "no chance" Pride as a movement will added: "We need to remember that we as a community are incredibly resilient."We have always been resilient and we always will be, so while we might go through this ebb and flow, and we've fallen off a cliff this year with corporate partnerships, we will find ways around that."We are going to club together, stand together and be stronger and more united and we will come back stronger."
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Sylvia Rivera Fought to Make the Gay Liberation Movement More Inclusive
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." 1951–2002 Sylvia Rivera was one of the most influential activists in the Gay Liberation Movement of the 1960s and '70s. A drag queen and transgender woman, Rivera was a key figure in the Stonewall Riots of 1969 and later cofounded the Gay Liberation Front, which became a leading group in the movement. She also co-created the transgender rights organization STAR with fellow LGBTQ activist Marsha P. Johnson. Rivera died of cancer in 2002 at age 50.$7.15 at FULL NAME: Sylvia RiveraBORN: July 2, 1951DIED: February 19, 2002BIRTHPLACE: New York, New YorkASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Cancer Sylvia Rivera was born on July 2, 1951, in the Bronx borough of New York City. Rivera, who was assigned male at birth, was of Puerto Rican and Venezuelan descent. She had a troubled childhood starting with her father's abandonment shortly after her birth. As a toddler, she was orphaned when her mother died by suicide. Her grandmother stepped in to raise her, but Rivera was rejected and beaten for her effeminate behavior. At age 11, she ran away from home and became a victim of child sexual exploitation. While living on the streets, Rivera met a group of drag queens who welcomed her into their fold. It was with their support that she took the name Sylvia and began identifying as a drag queen. Later in life, she considered herself transgender, though she disliked labels. Against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Rights Movement, and the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, Rivera's activism began to take shape. In June 1969, at age 17, she took part in the famous Stonewall Riots by allegedly throwing the second molotov cocktail in protest to a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Manhattan. The six-day event was one of the major catalysts of the gay liberation movement, and to further push the agenda forward, Rivera cofounded the Gay Liberation Front the next month. In later interviews, Rivera reminisced about her special place in history. 'We were the frontliners. We didn't take no shit from nobody. We had nothing to lose,' she said. Along with the establishment of the Gay Liberation Front, Rivera teamed up with friend Marsha P. Johnson to cofound STAR—officially the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries—in 1970. The group met regularly to organize and discuss political issues affecting the trans community. Soon after, the activists founded STAR House in Manhattan's East Village to provide food, clothing, and housing for LGBTQ youth in need. Like Rivera, Johnson had also been homeless as a teenager. River was only 19 years old at the time. Later, she recalled that she and Johnson had 'decided it was time to help each other and help our other kids.' Defiant of labels, Rivera confounded many in the mainstream gay liberation movement because of her own diverse and complex background. She was poor, trans, a drag queen, a person of color, a former sex worker, and someone who also experienced drug addiction, incarceration, and homelessness. For all of these reasons, Rivera fought for not only gay and trans rights but also for racial, economic, and criminal justice issues. But the gay middle-class white men and lesbian feminists didn't seem to understand or share her passion for uplifting marginalized groups within the larger LGBTQ community. Angered by the lack of inclusion, Rivera delivered her fiery 'Ya'll Better Quiet Down' speech at the 1973 Christopher Street Liberation Day Rally in Washington Square Park. Amid boos from the crowd, she said: 'You all tell me, go and hide my tail between my legs.I will no longer put up with this shit.I have been beaten.I have had my nose broken.I have been thrown in jail.I have lost my job.I have lost my gay liberation, and you all treat me this way?What the f––'s wrong with you all?Think about that!' Eager to protect the rights of trans people, Rivera advocated for the passage of New York City's Gay Rights Bill in the 1970s, which aimed to prevent discrimination in housing, employment, and public accommodations. She was even arrested while petitioning in Times Square. Although trans people were initially included in discussions about the bill, the final version passed in 1986 only prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. 'They have a little backroom deal without inviting Miss Sylvia and some of the other trans activists to this backroom deal with these politicians. The deal was, 'You take them out, we'll pass the bill,'' Rivera later explained. Feeling betrayed by the movement she had fought so long and hard for, Rivera left the city and disappeared from activism for many years. It was around this time that she started a catering business in Tarrytown, New York. Rivera eventually returned to fight for trans issues starting in the mid-1990s amid cultural conversations around issues like gay marriage and LGBTQ people serving in the military. She joined ACT UP, or the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, during the HIV/AIDS crisis. Although she wasn't a founding member, she participated in protests and demonstrations with the organization in New York City, with the aim of raising awareness of AIDS and fighting for better treatment of people living with the disease. She also began working as food pantry director at Metropolitan Community Church. On the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, in 1994, Rivera was given a place of honor in New York City's pride parade. Following a suicide attempt in May 1995, she reflected on the on her place in the gay rights movement. 'The movement had put me on the shelf, but they took me down and dusted me off,' Rivera told The New York Times. 'Still, it was beautiful. I walked down 58th Street, and the young ones were calling from the sidewalk, 'Sylvia, Sylvia, thank you, we know what you did.' After that, I went back on the shelf. It would be wonderful if the movement took care of its own.' After years of living on the streets, in 1997, Rivera moved into Transy House, a collective in Brooklyn that provided housing to trans people. It was there that she met her partner Julia Murray. The two were close friends for a long time before they began dating in 1999. 'She's a person that has made my life different,' Rivera said of Murray to The New York Times that June. 'She's helped me—I'm not doing drugs, and I'm not drinking so much. It's just that we're happy together.' The couple stayed together until Rivera's death in 2002. On February 19, 2002, Rivera died from liver cancer at Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center in New York City. In honor of her activism in the gay and trans community, The Sylvia Rivera Law Project was founded just months after her death. The organization provides legal aid to trans, intersex, and gender-nonconforming individuals, especially people of color. The pioneering activist remains a pivotal figure in the history of the LGBTQ rights movement who ensured trans issues weren't overlooked. Rivera is the only transgender person included in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian. We were the frontliners. We didn't take no shit from nobody. We had nothing to lose. The movement had put me on the shelf, but they took me down and dusted me off. Hell hath no fury like a drag queen scorned. We have to do it because we can no longer stay invisible. We have to be visible. We should not be ashamed of who we are. We have to show the world that we are numerous. I'm glad I was in the Stonewall riot. I remember when someone threw a Molotov cocktail, I thought: 'My god, the revolution is here. The revolution is finally here!' Before I die, I will see our community given the respect we deserve. I'll be damned if I'm going to my grave without having the respect this community deserves. I want to go to wherever I go with that in my soul and peacefully say I've finally overcome. Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! You Might Also Like Nicole Richie's Surprising Adoption Story The Story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Her Mother Queen Camilla's Life in Photos
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
From Stonewall to now: LGBTQ+ elders on navigating fear in dark times
Karla Jay remembers joining the second night of street protests during the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York City. For her, and for so many other LGBTQ+ people, something had shifted: People were angry. They didn't want things to go back to normal — because normal meant police raids. Normal meant living underground. It meant hiding who they were at their jobs and from their families. They wanted a radical change. Radical change meant organizing. Jay joined a meeting with the Gay Liberation Front, which would become the incubator for the modern LGBTQ+ political movement and proliferate in chapters across the country. At those meetings, she remembers discussing what freedom could look like. Holding hands with a lover while walking down the street, without fear of getting beaten up, one person said. Another said they'd like to get married. At the time, those dreams seemed impossible. Jay, now 78, is worried that history will repeat itself. She's worried that LGBTQ+ people will be put in the dark again by the draconian policies of a second Trump administration. 'Are things worse than they were before Stonewall? Not yet,' she said. 'It's certainly possible that people will have to go back to underground lives, that trans people will have to flee to Canada, but it's not worse yet.' The 19th spoke with several LGBTQ+ elders, including Jay, about what survival looks like under a hostile political regime and what advice they would give to young LGBTQ+ people right now. Many states protect LGBTQ+ people through nondiscrimination laws that ensure fair access to housing, public accommodations and employment. Supreme Court precedent does the same through Bostock v. Clayton County. Other states have passed shield laws to protect access to gender-affirming care for trans people. But to Jay, a cisgender lesbian, it all still feels precarious. The Trump administration is trying to make it harder for transgender Americans to live openly and safely, and lawmakers in more than a handful of states want to undermine marriage equality. 'We have forgotten that the laws are written to protect property and not to protect people. They're written to protect White men and their property, and historically, women and children were their property,' she said. 'To expect justice from people who write laws to protect themselves has been a fundamental error of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans community.' To fight back, LGBTQ+ Americans need to organize, Jay said. That starts with thinking locally — supporting local artists, independent stores and small presses, as well as LGBTQ+ organizations taking demonstrable political action and protecting queer culture. 'See what you can do without going crazy. If you can focus on one thing and you can spend one hour a week, or you can spend one day a week, that's much better than being depressed and doing nothing,' she said. 'Because the person you're going to help is yourself. This is the time for all of us to step up.' Renata Ramos feels obligated to share her experiences with young people. As a 63-year-old trans Latina, she wants young people to know that so many of their elders have already been through hard times — which means that they can make it, too, including during this moment. 'I'm not scared in the least. Because we have fought so many battles — the elders. We have fought so many battles, with medicine, with HIV, with marching on Washington, with watching our friends die,' she said. 'It's been one war after another in our community that we have always won. We have always been resilient. We have always stood strong. We have always fought for our truth, and we're still here. They haven't been able to erase us.' As Ramos watches the Trump administration use the power of the federal government to target transgender Americans and erase LGBTQ+ history, she's not afraid for herself. She's afraid for young LGBTQ+ people, especially young trans people who now find themselves at the center of a growing political and cultural war. If someone transitioned six months ago, she said, they now have a target on their back — and little to no experience with what that feels like. 'They don't know what it is like to be a soldier going into war, as far as social issues. So I fear for them,' she said. 'Who wouldn't be scared?' Criss Christoff Smith has seen firsthand what that fear can look like. On January 28, at 3 a.m., he received a phone call from an LGBTQ+ person who was considering taking their own life. This was a stranger — someone who admired from afar Smith's advocacy as a Black trans man and Jamaican immigrant. This was someone who had been considering a gender transition for years, Smith said, who was now feeling broken. He spoke with them for two hours. 'It's been quite dark,' Smith said. The onslaught of policies targeting marginalized people and the turbocharged news cycle are working to keep Black and trans people in a constant state of fear and uncertainty, he said. 'I tell everyone in my community, you have to stop responding to those alerts and just try to go inward,' he said. 'Find a space of peace and spirituality.' To Smith, who is 64, looking inward can mean reflecting on what's still here. Although the Trump administration is going to make daily life harder for LGBTQ+ people, he said, laws can't be undone with the stroke of a pen on an executive order. LGBTQ+ Americans need to find whatever source of strength and peace they can find right now — and try to remove themselves from the daily fray as much as possible — while still finding ways to take action. 'This is the time when we really have to find community, where we really have to hone in on our spiritual feelings and try to talk to someone. Don't keep it to yourself,' he said. Joining protests or lobbying days at state capitols are great ways to find community in-person, Smith said — to be around like-minded people and to not feel so alone. 'That's the best space to be in, not home alone and in your feelings and in your mind, because we can get lost there thinking negatively. So we have to stay positive and stay with like-minded people, and have those people constantly around you to reassure you and just hold you tight in that space,' he said. Protests against the administration's hostile LGBTQ+ policies have been ongoing — including outside the Stonewall National Monument. In at least one way, history is already repeating itself. The National Park Service deleted all references to transgender and queer people from its web page honoring the 1969 Stonewall uprising — the most well-known moment from LGBTQ+ history in the country — leaving references to only lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Hundreds gathered in New York City to protest. Among them was Renee Imperato, a 76-year-old trans woman and New York native. 'Protests like this are our survival,' she told The 19th over email. 'The rhetoric of this administration is driving a violent onslaught against our community. The Stonewall Rebellion is not over. We are at war, and we are still fighting back. What other choice do we have?' Jay, herself an old hand at joining protests and demonstrations, said that she's been afraid before every one of them. She's lost sleep the night before and feared for her safety — but she did it anyway. 'I'm afraid I'll be beaten. I'm afraid I'll be arrested. But if you don't do something even though you're afraid, they win,' she said. The post From Stonewall to now: LGBTQ+ elders on navigating fear in dark times appeared first on The 19th. News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday. Subscribe to our free, daily newsletter.
