LGBTQIA+ Pride Month

Medway Pride History – Virtual Medway Pride 2020

The year 2020 will be remembered as the year normal life stopped for most people, due to the measures put in place to try and control the COVID-19 Pandemic. It will also be remembered by the LGBTQIA+ community as the year that Pride like so many other things had to go virtual. The street parades and parties may have been cancelled or postponed but the community has been as creative as ever in replacing the physical events with virtual pride events.

Pride is not just about a party though. It is through pride events that we can reach out to individuals who may feel isolated, to let them know it is ok to be who they are and to love who they love. Pride is a mechanism to break down the barriers of fear and mistrust, by raising awareness, developing understanding, and reducing fear. It is an opportunity to celebrate everyone who is different and raise them up to fight for the equality and human rights we all seek and deserve.

Medway Pride working in collaboration with others who see the importance in delivering #VMPride2020 for the community. It was not the same as the original planed event, but it did bring the community together through You Tube, Facebook, Zoom, Watch Parties and other social media, we still celebrated and supported each other.

Medway Pride is also a means to raise funds to support the development of services for the LGBTQIA+ community of Medway. Services that are not available or have barriers in place that prevent access to those services. It is for these reasons that we held #VMPride2020 as a fundraiser, not only to fund the cost of producing the pride event for 2020 and 2021 but also to create a fund to support service development in Medway for the LGBTQIA+ community.

We began Medway Pride 2020 in February with an Art exhibition during LGBT History Month as we do each year with the support of Nucleus Arts and Artists contributing to the exhibitions now as then we begin Pride Month June 2024 by promoting Pride events running up to Medway Pride 24 in August.

So please, keep an eye out for upcoming events on our web pages, support us by contributing to the Medway Pride Fund and most importantly ‘BE YOU’, keep safe and take care of yourself and others around you.

Peace & Love

Medway Pride CIC