Celebrating Pride with a Picnic in the (car) Park
To mark Pride month 2026, Second Step staff held a Pride Picnic in our Pennywell Road car park. Organised by the Race Equity Group, the event celebrated the LGBTQIA+ community, inclusion, and diversity at Second Step.
We’re also looking forward to having a stall at Bristol Pride on Saturday 11 July, to meet people, celebrate and share information about the mental health support and outreach services we offer across the South West.
This year Bank Staff Administration Assistant Terry Starr has shared his thoughts about the importance of and significance of Pride.
“Every year there is a debate within the gay media as to whether Pride is a party or a protest, a carnival or a commemoration of the militant nights of the Stonewall Riots in 1969.
The answer for me, is that Pride is all of these things, but it is also a transformative experience for all who participate in the celebrations, go on the march, or attend the main festival.
The title Pride was deliberately chosen by the early activists of groups like the Gay Liberation Front and the Gay Activists Alliance in the wake of the Stonewall incident.
These activists realised that Pride could be a demonstration and a march and festival, bringing LGBTQ+ people together to experience Pride in themselves.
You see, as an underground newsletter from 1990 stated, we have been carefully instructed to hate ourselves by institutions and people that would rather we did not exist. This is not a new problem, and it continues to blight LGBT+ lives.
The antidote to this sorry state of affairs is Pride – to take Pride in our lives and identities and live without fear.”
Forging community links
“For a few hours in festival season, we get to experience what it is like to exist in a majority culture and this is transformative. We forge links with the many community groups and organisations that are represented on the march and in the community field.
We get to dance and sing with other LGBT+ people and for weeks after the event, we get to see lampposts and utility bollards adorned with stickers from LGBT+ groups such as sports groups, political committees, social groups and nightlife – giving us an extra boost.
These days, I help local community radio channels BCFM and Bath Sound Radio to cover Pride live through the day, bringing the feeling of euphoria to people who may be ill, housebound or not able to attend personally.
This year, I encourage you to take your positive energy to Pride, to share your love with other LGBT+ people, to feel the power of our diverse, vibrant rainbow community, and to take this through the coming year.”
