Birmingham Pride, Fun & Games or Something More?

I have been going to Pride for 14 years now or is it 13? I can't remember but it has been a long time, to begin with it was nothing more than a good day out for me, the politics of it were pretty much lost to me, things have rather changed, perhaps that is because ever since 2004 I actually got involved with it. It gets under your skin, the politics, the showmanship, the community. One thing is for sure it doesn't just happen, even with the little bits that I get involved in there is stress & I'm only a very minor player in the event, I would hate to go through what some of the main contributors to Pride have to go through. Although I still enjoy Pride it is more for business than pleasure nowadays, supporting the Pagan group, the interfaith network etc. I have also made my flying monkey outfit ( the theme for our float is safari & I decided to go tongue in cheek). The year they cancelled the march as they saw it as not important so protest march was set up, I was involved & I was front page news in the Pink Paper (well more my friend Lorna who had a banner saying Hated by the Daily Mail, but I was standing next to her with a banner saying it's a matter of Pride) after that time the politics really kicked in & it felt more important to march & this year the LGBT Interfaith Network are doing a rallying speech in support of gay marriage instead of a vigil (possibly more to do with the time of day because very few people want death with their lunch). A couple of years the community area was almost squeezed out until it was pointed out they would lose the council funding if they did & one year made it difficult so the community groups had to hold the pride organisers to ransom, which is not fair for either side. For goodness sake play nice with the community & they will play nice with you. But until all is equal & people start treating each other with respect, Pride will still be needed. We will get the tourists that come to gawp at the gays & want to create trouble, their will always be those who are there just to have fun (which to be honest even those on business should get a bit of fun out of it), there will be those who are there for the original if somewhat masked spirit of the occasion. Keep safe have fun & fly my pretties, fly.