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The long overdue heatwave and bright sunny day blighted most of my attempts to get decent marketable London Pride shots without an assistant. I usually post a whole selection of my Pride images on our web site, but not this year given the poor quality/low volume - partly because of the restrictions on my movements, part exhaustion from carrying too much kit and mainly because (unusually) I was working for a client organisation whose permission I didn't have to freely post the images I did take whilst in their employment.
Peter Tatchell got on stage and helped celebrate the 40 years of achievements since the Gay Liberation Front first came to the fore. He also wrote a piece for Saturday's Guardian about the progress that had been made in his lifetime.
The event seemed to go well and most people were in great spirit, but I have to say I preferred the event when it finished in a park. Trafalgar Square (no pun intended on the use of Square here folks) unlike a big park, lacks huge open spaces for people to rest on the grass and take in the entertainment.
Anyone with even fairly mild claustrophobia I reckon would have been deterred from attending the post march event as it was just too congested. Disability access also appears to have been overlooked yet again. Westminster Council doesn't recognise blue badges and that's just the start. Whilst not everyone's disabilities are visible, I can't ever remember a time when there were fewer wheelchair users than I saw yesterday. I wasn't sure if it was a protest, or just that people with impaired mobility were prevented from getting in, in significant numbers.
Disability access and provisions have been the subject of a number of complaints in past Pride events. Last year a 28 page damning report was written on the failing of organisers to facilitate even the basic requirements of their licensing conditions with regard to heath & safety as it applies to people with disabilities. One of the senior appointed organising personnel repeatedly failed to respond to communications from key players within the disability movement.
The organiser's legal requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act and (despite Pride receiving funds from the public purse) the Public Sector Duty to Promote Disability all appear to have been largely overlooked.
I'm waiting to hear from the people I trust within the disability movement to see if this year was again fraught with problems caused by malaise, mismanagement, lethargy, contempt, a lack of funding or some other reason why it couldn't be made fully inclusive. It's a real shame if such an important event can't be properly joined up and accessible for people who already live with enough barriers because of their sexual orientation without adding disablism to the pot. Despite the lovely warming welcoming hug from a steward as I arrived at the side of the stage, I didn't dare venture anywhere near it with the aforementioned over packed bag of camera gear and restricted space.
If anyone on the organising team reads this - Can we have it in an accessible park for 2011 please?
In these times where everyone (well mainly politicians and dodgy employers to be precise) keep talking about "Modernisation" when they actually mean "Cuts" it strikes me that real modernisation would be a move away from people receiving "Empire" medals. (eg BEM, MBE, OBE, KBE etc). The word Empire is steeped in racism and is really so out of date that it should be scrapped in favour of some sort of award for British excellence - an idea I first heard from Benjamin Zephaniah in 2003.
I'm also puzzled that we live in the United Kingdom when we haven't had a King in over 50 years. Surely it's now the United Queendom? I never got to find out if this person agreed or not as I was moved on by the stewards. I must get a press pass next year.
