'Pride began all those years ago as a way for us to come out to society and ourselves, and be loud and proud about our LGBT+ identity.'Īdds executive director of Pride in London, Christopher Joell-Deshields: 'It is important to recognise the activists who were brave enough to come out in 1972 to march for our liberation and pave the way for the rights we enjoy today.' Mayor of London Sadiq Khan at the parade in 2018. 'Taking the same route that we marched along in 1972 is a historical statement of how far we have come,' says Andrew Lumsden, one of the original members of the Gay Liberation Front, whose conception was inspired by the Stonewall riots of 1969 in New York City. The parade strikes east along Piccadilly, and towards Soho - famous for its LGBTQ+ scene - before shifting southward at Piccadilly Circus, heading through Trafalgar Square (the terminus for the 1972 march) and finishing up in Whitehall.
The route of the parade - which takes place on 2 July - encompasses key landmarks of the UK's LGBT+ movement it kicks off at Hyde Park, where the first post-march picnic took place, and where mining communities showed solidarity with the LGBT+ community in 1985. The first Pride in London parade, back in 1972.