At a time when your own rights and the rights of friends, family, and strangers across the globe are being taken away, celebrating pride and being involved within the community is acutely important.
But going to Pride and queer community events offers us something even more valuable this year. They give us the opportunity to find solidarity and a firm sense of community. To recharge ourselves with queer positivity. They show the future generations who see our events that we deserve to be here.
After a rough start trying to find my own place in the world, I’ve come to find pride and community events an essential part of my year-round calendar.
I grew up during Section 28, a piece of legislation that prohibited the promotion of anything LGBTQIA+ in a positive light. The place I lived was not the most welcoming to queer identities, and the connections the internet provides today were a distant light on the horizon. Information about the queer community was severely lacking.
To save myself from being othered, I just stayed in the closet until I was old enough to drink, because my knowledge was limited to the existence of gay bars.
When I finally got to them, I quickly learned that the norm was to get absolutely hammered there every weekend to fit in. In retrospect, that obviously wasn’t great! And nor was it the only way to take part.
In those dimly lit bars, overly cramped, with blaringly loud speakers, I felt like even more of an outsider than before. In the spaces I thought were going to be my saving grace, I ended up isolated again.
Turns out, for decades, I was looking in the wrong place.
Because when I happened across The Sparkle Weekend one day, I found out I’m not the only introvert to ever exist in the queer community.
And because it was relatively sensory-friendly, I didn’t have to burst an eardrum or shout myself hoarse over the music to socialise.
The Sparkle Weekend is a festival-style family event, running from Friday 27th to Sunday 29th June in Sackville Gardens, Manchester.
It's for everyone who identifies as trans, non binary and gender variant, and their friends, families and allies. All ages are welcome! There are talks, performances, music, marketplaces and family areas.
QueerAF are a proud media sponsor as the festival enters it's 20th anniversary year.
Since then, I have been attending it every year, making new friends and seeing people with a hugely diverse range of life experiences genuinely happy and comfortable within themselves,. This made me want to be a bigger part of it and to start volunteering at the Weekend.
Have you noticed that more and more pride and community events have drifted away from the stereotypical alcohol-fueled clubbing sessions recently too?
Queer events are recognising the value in offering a myriad of venues, slowly addressing accessibility issues and lifestyle variations. It seems that the more connected the world becomes, the more we’re able to express ourselves and find groups for queer folks, from knitting, to roller skating, to geeking out over technology.
As for the families that want to keep engaging in queer spaces, prides are creating family zones, and there are support groups for queer parents too.
It feels amazing to connect with someone about shared passions or experiences - it’s even better when you can be openly queer without the fear of getting silently (or not so silently) judged.
It’s always anxiety-inducing being queer in a dominantly straight environment. Even something as simple as being a queer parent can come with unjustified stigma.
Community is more than just an idea. It’s essential to our wellbeing in a world in which we’ve never been so connected, yet never felt so far apart.
The beauty of pride is that it’s for everyone. Celebrating at a pride event, joining in with different communities, even as an ally, and keeping these spaces alive is showing the world that we exist. It gives me hope that despite the challenges, we’ll be alright in the end.
We support our writer to build media careers
"As someone that didn't go to University I often doubt myself as a capable communicator, especially as the first Director I worked for at the Guardian told me I'd never be eloquent enough if I didn't have a degree.
"But I can categorically say that the half-hour editing and feedback chat with Jamie Wareham has built my confidence and given me far more valuable advice. What a profoundly beautiful thing QueerAF are doing within news & media."
That's how one of our creatives, Ray Cooper said about our approach and support when they wrote their queer gaze article.
That's the power of our work; that's the power of our unique approach to journalism; that's what our memberships support.
Will you join the hundreds of QueerAF members who make our work to change the media, to change the country - happen?
