What Pride means to me

??As we come to the end of Pride, The Daily Star Online's Deputy Showbiz & TV Editor Jack Wetherhill talks about what Pride means to him.?

Pride, to me, is such a meaningful time. It allows us to celebrate the special people and voices that make up the LGBTQ+ community at a time when much of what we see in the media is negativity or attacks on us.

LGBTQ+ people still have to deal with daily attacks – whether that’s virtually or physically – which might surprise people not directly linked with the community. Even in London, as a 29-year-old cis gay man, I’ve had homophobic abuse shouted at me just metres from my front door.

When it seems like one part of the community is “accepted” – or as accepted as is palatable for the people that truly believe we already have equality – another group of us becomes the target. Right now, that is trans people.

Pride gives us a chance to celebrate the voices that are drowned out by the people who have the platform to make their own voices louder normally. It gives us the opportunity to show that we’re here, we deserve to be here and, right now for example, there is no LGB without the T.

Personally, I’ll be going to a few Pride events like Brighton Pride in August. I attended Mighty Hoopla in London’s Brockwell Park and while it isn’t officially a Pride event, being surrounded by so many unapologetically queer, proud and happy people was the perfect way to kickstart Pride month. Events like that give me the confidence to break out of the heteronormativity of my daily life – chuck some glitter on, wear something not considered fitting of your gender norms, be authentically you.

As for the corporate world, every year we see so much transparent “rainbow washing” – where a company will change their logo to rainbow colours for June but not do much else. It’s a completely transparent act that the LGBT community immediately recognises – especially companies that have had previous bad press about LGBT issues. I can't speak for everyone, but I'd rather it just be business as usual and not have companies change their colour scheme or chuck a drag queen on their promotional material for a month to tick a few boxes. If companies can't visibly support their LGBT staff and the community throughout the year, 30 days of a rainbow logo is pointless.

Luckily that isn’t the case at Reach, where we have a diverse staff and specialised network – ReachOut – which regularly holds events like quizzes, or talks, such as a recent one about the history of the HIV Epidemic. Whether or not you choose to engage, it’s great to know we have the resources and a specific team there for us.

And while in an ideal world we wouldn’t need Pride events, it’s so nice to feel the community come together in the month of June and lift each other up.