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- From the left Miss Di Vour, Poppy Love, Mayor of Dover, Miss Lilli Berlin, Perry O’Bree and Joy
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- From the left Host Miss Lilli Berlin, Mayor of Dover, Poppy Love and Miss Di Vour
*All photography by Michael and Jayne Burdess, M&J Photography Dover.
Love is Love! CommunityAd spoke with Dover Pride about celebrating Pride after lockdown and why it’s still as vital as ever.
Why is Pride so important?
Pride is important because it is about acceptance, equality, celebrating the work of LGBTQ+ people, education in LGBTQ+ history, and raising awareness of issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community.
It also calls for people to remember how damaging homophobia was and still can be. Pride is all about being proud of who you are no matter who you love.
Why do we need Pride in the UK?
- Only half of LGBTQ+ people feel able to open up about their sexual orientation or gender identity to their family.
- 1 in 5 LGBTQ+ people have experienced a hate crime or incident because of their sexual orientation or identity.
- A quarter of the world’s population still believe that being LGBTQ+ should be a crime.
- More than 1/3 of LGBTQ+ people have hidden that they are LGBTQ+ at their workplace out of fear of discrimination.
- 1 in 5 trans people (20%) have been pressured to access services to suppress their gender identity.
- More than 4 in 5 trans young people have self-harmed, as have 60% of lesbian, gay and bisexual young people who aren’t trans.
- In 2018 3/4 LGBTQ+ people felt they couldn’t show affection to their partner in public.
- Almost 1 in 5 LGBTQ+ people have experienced homelessness at some point in their lives.
- 72 countries criminalise same-sex relationships, and in 45 the law is applied to women as well as men.
- 12% of transgender people in the UK have faced physical abuse at work because of who they are.
- Most governments deny trans people the right to legally change their name and gender from those that were assigned to them at birth.
- A third of LGBTQ+ people of faith aren’t open with anyone in their faith about their sexuality and gender identity.
What was it like to have the first Pride after lockdown?
It was incredible. After hosting our second Pride online last year, it felt amazing to be back together in person for 2021.
It’s been a really hard time for the LGBTQ+ community as it’s very easy to feel isolated at home with no one to see and we had over 1,000 people attend across both of the stages throughout the day! And at least 500 took part in the March through the town.
What were the highlights of the day?
The March through the town was one of the biggest highlights as Pride is a celebration of people coming together in love and friendship, to show how far LGBTQ+ rights have come, and how in some places there’s still work to be done.
With such a small LGBTQ+ community in Dover, it is very quickly growing with the presence of Dover Pride in the town the last three years.
It’s about communities coming together in celebration, protest, unity, and solidarity and it’s also bringing more people to Dover!
What are your goals for Pride 2022?
Build on the success of our first three prides and continue to help support marginalised communities in Dover by being more visible in both the villages and town.
Visibility is incredibly important and we hope to grow Dover Pride to reach more people. The more we reach the better! We want people to feel safe, welcome, and loved in our town.