Pride: Past and Present

This evening we went to a screening of the new British film 'Pride', organised by Unison's North West LGBT Group.

The film's very much in the tradition of 'Brassed Off', 'The Full Monty' or 'Made In Dagenham' and tells the true story of the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners Group, back in the 80s, and how mutual prejudices were overcome and firm friendships formed between mining communities and the LGBT community in the days of the miner's strike, the initial AIDS crisis and the, so-called, "enemy within".

The story begins at London's Pride march in 1984 and finishes at the 1985 Pride march where representatives from the mining communities led the march in solidarity with the lesbians and gay men who had raised funds and supported them throughout the grim days of the strike.

It took me right back to my student days when I'd just arrived up north from the south coast and threw myself into student politics with gusto! I was in the CND and Anti-Apartheid groups, of course, but also the Gay Soc (as it was called back then) and the Miners Support Group and I went and joined the picket line at the nearest available pit, Bold Colliery in St Helens.

The 1985 Pride march in London was the first I ever attended and the snapshot above shows me as a callow 19 year old down at Embankment that day.

So much has changed for the better in the 29 years since then but complacency is never an option for me. A recent survey we conducted at work shows how much fear and stigma LGBT people still live with and despite legal gains and a huge shift in social attitudes in this country people are still being gay-bashed and bullied here and still being imprisoned, tortured and routinely murdered around the world. And the former mining communities of these isles are, largely, still suffering badly from the loss of industry and ongoing economic decline.

I still believe wholeheartedly that ghettoising ourselves or working in silos is never as effective as working with others towards a common goal and that our diversity as human beings is what makes us so special!

Go and see the film if you can. It's an absolute treat and features lovely performances from Bill Nighy, Paddy Considine and Imelda Staunton amongst many others. My only criticism would be that the women of the Dulais Valley mining community are portrayed much more effectively than the women involved in the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners group. Still, you can't have everything!

Incidentally... Bold Colliery was closed in November 1985 with the loss of over 800 miners' jobs and with an estimated 500 additional supply jobs also lost.