A marcher at today’s Pride in London parade | Photo: Dan Beeson
Over 30,000 people marched in scorching temperatures today [7 July] for the Pride in London parade.
The event, which was marred by lesbian activists protesting trans people as the parade kicked off, is expected to be the most-spectated in its history.
Kicking off at noon from near London’s Oxford Circus station, all colors of the LGBTI rainbow were represented at the march, which ends in Trafalgar Square and continues until 5pm today (GMT).
A spokesperson for the London Metropolitan Police was unable to comment on the amount of Pride goers at the time of writing. However, it is expected to exceed last year, which saw around 1 million+ people descend on the city.
‘24% of people say a pride is a protest’
The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and the Minister for Women and Equalities Penny Mordaunt cut the ribbon to kick of the beginning of the parade.
Shortly afterwards, the aforementioned activists lay down in the road in protest of trans people.
A Pride in London spokesperson told GSN: ‘Given the hot weather and in the interest of safety for everyone attending today’s event, the parade group was allowed to move ahead. We do not condone their approach and message and hope the actions of a very small number [of] people does not overshadow the messages of 30,000 marching today.’
In a statement, Pride in London spokesperson also said: ‘Every year people come to Pride for reasons that matter to the community.
‘As we found in our recent Pride Matters report, 24% of people say a pride is a protest. 78% said it is a celebration.’
They furthermore added: ‘We have made sure that everything we do is about delivering a safe secure event for everyone and that hundreds of thousands of Londoners are demonstrating that pride still matters.’
All photos by GSN staff
