00:00My name's Neil Currie. I work with Leeds Pride. For the last two years I've hosted the Community
00:06Stage. Obviously this year because of the World Cup we don't have Millennium Square, so yes,
00:11doing lots of stuff. We will see what I'm actually doing later in the year.
00:16I remember Leeds Pride, or I remember before Leeds Pride Hideout up in Hyde Park,
00:22and then slowly it's transitioned. In 2006 it was Leeds Gay Pride and then it became in 2009
00:27the Leeds Pride we now know. I have so many happy memories. It's just such an amazing event for the
00:33city, culturally, and it brings so much into the city. From 6,000 in the early days, I think 2006
00:39was about 6,000 people, then 9,000 a couple of years later, to 75,000 most recently, and more.
00:47I'm sure we've had more in other years. Those are the figures I've got. This year we've got two days,
00:5218th and 19th of July this year, with the main day being the Sunday. The main day is always the
00:56Sunday.
00:57We have the parade through the city centre, historically starts on the head row and works
01:02its way down to the Freedom Quarter. It's so inclusive and it's that moment where members
01:08of the community can come together. You can walk down the street, hold hands with your partner,
01:12and feel nothing but warmth and love. It reaches out to those who haven't yet come out, haven't been
01:18able to, and lets them know there's a place for them. And of course, to those who've maybe lost
01:23family when they've come out, it shows them that they have a chosen family surrounding them and
01:28lifting them up. We have the amazing Lavoie, who of course stormed the ballroom in Strictly Come Dancing,
01:35and is a Rue girl from RuPaul's Drag Race. We have amazing acts to be announced in the coming weeks.
01:43In 20 years, a lot has changed. A lot has changed. Politically, things change constantly,
01:49and really it's never over. Pride started as a protest, and that remains at the core of it in
01:56the sense of raising awareness that we're your brother, we're your, you know, your aunt, your uncle,
02:02your colleague, and working towards maintaining, you know, the hard-fought battles we've won for
02:09equality and ensuring that those rights don't get taken away from us and that we ensure safety for
02:15future generations of our community. So Leeds is an amazing city. It's so, it is such a welcoming
02:20city. We've got such a great history. If you look back at the history of, of the LGBTQ scene,
02:27you've got rock sharks, bananas, the penny, which is the penny has been, it's one of the country's
02:32oldest queer spaces dating back to I think 1953, 14 years before homosexuality was to be decriminalized.
02:39So that's decades of history of, of LGBTQ history in this city. And Leeds Pride is a real shining
02:46example of that. It brings the city together for not just a party, but you know, to get together
02:52and celebrate the LGBTQ community in Leeds. We are two days this year, so across the whole weekend.
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