Pride or pretence? The struggle to keep the soul of protest alive

By Josephine White

June is arguably when Durham is at its most joyful. Exams come to an end, British summertime appears for a few days, and Pride is celebrated. However, this year – and arguably throughout the last few years – it is clear that the celebrations have been clouded over somewhat by commercialisation and the increasingly worrying political context in Durham and elsewhere.

Pride was born in an era of social mobilisation. It was a protest in a cultural context where LGBTQ people simply existing was a protest in itself. The boldness and the perseverance of the movement is what brought the relative legislative freedoms that are enjoyed today, and in the early life of Pride, it can be said that brands and investors in the event helped speed this progress along. Brands like Absolut Vodka, RayBan and Wells Fargo were all early investors in Pride as an event, and the funds they provided and the visibility they promoted were valuable. IKEA even gave us the first widely recognisable advertisement featuring a gay couple.

Since then, however, Pride has arguably become the most famous method for companies and politicians to display token support for a social cause. While Adidas got credit for its rainbow “pride pack”, it sponsored World Cup events in Qatar and Russia, where its LGBTQ supporters were not welcome. While McDonald’s has proudly shown Pride colours, this year it quietly cut back its internal inclusion initiatives amid increasing conservative scrutiny, including reducing pronoun button programs and gender identity training for staff. Most egregious by far, however, has been the token support from British politicians like Keir Starmer who proudly and loudly participated in 2022’s 50th anniversary Pride Festival. The same Keir Starmer who now can’t even say ‘a trans woman is a woman’ in front of a camara. It’s basically economic and political queerbaiting.

The rainbow flag is not a marketing tactic; for many, it’s a symbol of safety

This trend is so harmful because it is diminishing the meaning of Pride. Pride is a protest for the right to exist and be proud and be safe, in an authentic identity. The rainbow flag is not a marketing tactic; for many, it’s a symbol of safety. In the tangled mess that has become the support base for Pride month, the soul of Pride is slipping away at a time when this protest needs to be at its strongest.

This year, as Reform UK now resides in Durham, many LGBTQ members were disturbed by the absence of the Pride flag at Durham County Hall. Council Deputy leader Darren Grimes defended the move by saying that it was an act of “anti-tokenism”. Darren Grimes himself is a member of the LGBTQ community, but even so, what does this mean? Isn’t a Pride flag the bare minimum of support? This could make sense given Reform UK’s clear history of homophobia and transphobia. Only last summer, Undercover journalists captured Reform UK activists in Clacton describing a Pride flag as a “degenerate flag” and insinuating LGBTQ+ individuals are “paedophiles”. The party’s 2024 manifesto proposed abolishing the Equality Act, seeking to remove legal safeguards against discrimination at work, in services, and in public life. Given the clear lack of support, Darren Grimes is arguably right; flying the flag would be an empty, token gesture because it’s clear that Reform UK members are not in favour of LGBTQ Pride.

This feeling of unease in Durham is something especially upsetting. You only need to visit Monday Night Osbourne’s or Unhinged Thursdays at Fab’s or even the regular topics that come up in Overheard or Durfess to see that Durham’s student body has an active LGBTQ presence. Protecting Durham’s Pride is protecting your classmates.

In its lifetime, Pride as a protest has made incredible progress. But now, in the UK and worldwide, new threats are arising and it is possible that LGBTQ freedoms and security may be at the brink of slipping backwards. The meaning and nature of Pride has been corrupted somewhat in recent times, but it is still a protest, and it needs to continue to exist as such now more than ever. This community has earned what it has gained since 1969, and now it faces the next great obstacle of holding on to it.

Image: Silar via Wikimedia Commons