We're already on our way to Pride in London. July marks the start of the UK's bigger Pride season, and Scene will be riding the Stonewall Inn float, making its London premiere this year.
Marching against a backdrop of declining visibility
Reform UK councils across the country are actively working to reduce LGBTQ+ visibility, in places like libraries and through the removal of Pride flags from town halls. This is exactly what campaign groups predicted years ago. The anti-rights movement tested the water with attacks on Trans+ rights. Having found considerable success there, it has now moved on to wider LGBTQ+ rights.
A flag is never just fabric. When a council takes down a Pride flag and calls it neutrality, that is not neutral at all. It is a choice about who gets to stand at the centre of a community and who gets pushed to its edges. Neutrality only looks neutral to those who were never asked to disappear.
Pride events in 2026 carry a heightened, particular responsibility: to make sure allies and the wider public understand exactly what's happening here. This isn't about politics, though LGBTQ+ identities are inherently political, not because we chose that, but because society made them so.
This is about human rights.
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