{"id":673922,"date":"2026-07-04T19:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T19:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/673922\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T19:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T19:47:10","slug":"tens-of-thousands-march-in-london-for-annual-pride-parade-lgbtq-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/673922\/","title":{"rendered":"Tens of thousands march in London for annual Pride parade | LGBTQ+ rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tens of thousands of people marched through central London<\/a> for the annual LGBT+ Pride parade.<\/p>\n

Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, joined the crowd as they proceeded through the capital on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The event\u2019s organisers said that more than 35,000 marchers from about 600 groups made their way from Hyde Park Corner to Whitehall via Piccadilly, many carrying rainbow flags.<\/p>\n

The activist Julian Hows<\/a>, 70, who was at the front of the parade, told journalists: \u201cPride is important because it needs to have an underlying level of protest, and you can see the freedoms that we have can so easily be taken away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also always need to push further because there\u2019s always somewhere where our rights are being taken away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Madonna would not be attending the Pride<\/a> event, organisers have said.<\/p>\n

Pride in London posted on social media: \u201cIn response to the rumours, we can confirm that Madonna will not be appearing or performing at Pride in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have two fantastic headliners at Trafalgar Square to conclude a brilliant day of protest and celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pride in London\u2019s chief executive hoped to oversee \u2018the most inclusive Pride in London event yet\u2019. Photograph: Andy Rain\/EPA<\/p>\n

Speaking prior to the event, a Pride spokesperson said: \u201cThe urgency is clear: NHS gender-affirming care waiting lists now exceed four years in some regions while a comprehensive trans-inclusive ban on conversion therapy remains uncodified into law despite a 2018 government pledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, the community infrastructure LGBTQ+ people rely on is shrinking \u2013 since 2006, 58% of London\u2019s LGBTQ+ venues have closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether, these gaps in care, protection and safe spaces are unfolding amid continued hostility, with Home Office figures showing that more than 18,000 hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation were reported to police in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s first official Pride march took place in London in July 1972, inspired by the Stonewall uprising in New York three years earlier.<\/p>\n

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Police raided a popular gay bar called the Stonewall Inn, leading to a week of demonstrations against harassment and discrimination.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Paisis, the event\u2019s interim chief executive, said she wanted to oversee \u201cthe most inclusive Pride in London event yet\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cOur movement has always been built on many voices becoming one united front \u2013 from the people who marched in 1972 to those joining us for the first time this year. That\u2019s where our power lies.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs LGBTQ+ people, we\u2019ve never been strangers to adversity, but neither are we strangers to collective action. This year\u2019s campaign is a reminder that while the community often faces challenges in isolation, it is by coming together that we can change history.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, in recent years, the London event has been criticised by some LGBTQ+ activists who no longer feel represented by it.<\/p>\n

It has faced accusations of \u201cpinkwashing\u201d by allegedly allowing some corporations to profit from their involvement in the event without any real commitment to LGBTQ+ equality. Some activists have also suggested the event is not diverse enough.<\/p>\n

Since 2024, a number of LGBTQ+ groups have tried to distance themselves from the London march, due to concerns about sponsors\u2019 connections to the arms trade and the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tens of thousands of people marched through central London for the annual LGBT+ Pride parade. Sadiq Khan, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-673922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}