Members of Harrogate’s LGBTQ+ community will be holding a free event at Revolución de Cuba on Parliament Street this week.
One Love, which is organised by Harrogate Pride Events, is intended as an inclusive event where like-minded people can meet up, drink, dance and relax in a safe space.
Organiser and DJ Craig Joynson told the Stray Ferret:
“We’re not charging any money for this. It’s really somewhere you can be yourself and relax with other people who are being themselves too.
“It’s also a way of letting people know that there is an LGBTQ community here in Harrogate.”
One Love is the latest in a series of such events that have been held at various places around the town, including a packed evening at Major Tom’s Social on the August Bank Holiday, quiz nights at Lilypad and a regular evening at The Disappearing Chin on the first Friday of each month.
Mr Joynson and other members of the LGBTQ community hope these events will all help to focus efforts to put on a Pride parade in Harrogate next year. He said:
“That’s the ambition over the longer term. There were a few Pride parades held in Harrogate before the lockdowns and they were very successful, so we’d really like to bring them back.
“We’ve got a committee now, which is in talks about the council about holding an event, but we don’t know yet where or when it will be held, or even if we have permission, so it’s very much in its infancy.”
One Love will be held at Revolución de Cuba on Friday, November 24, from 7pm.
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New Pride train to pass through Harrogate
London North Eastern Railway has revealed a new named and full liveried train as Pride celebrations get underway.
The Azuma train will call at more than 50 stations, including Harrogate.
Featuring eight LGBTQ+ flags, the train was revealed today to coincide with the start of Pride month.
Named ‘Together’, it celebrates LNER’s support of Pride activities as well as the company’s commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion.
An LNER press release said the name “champions the unification of all communities which LNER is proud to support”.
David Horne, managing director at LNER, said:
“It’s a momentous occasion for everyone at LNER to be unveiling the first full liveried Azuma in celebration of Pride ahead of our summer of supporting Pride events on our route.”
LNER will be supporting Pride events in York, Edinburgh and London this month on the east coast route.
The flags included on the train are the intersex-inclusive progress pride flag, the transgender pride flag, the bisexual flag, the trans-inclusive gay men’s flag, the lesbian pride flag, the pansexual pride flag, the nonbinary pride flag and the asexual pride flag.
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Exhibition brings Harrogate’s LGBTQ+ stories to the forefront
Pride in Diversity launched its Speaking Out exhibition last night, which gives a voice to Harrogate’s LGBTQ+ community.
The project has been in the works since 2019 and includes oral history recordings, loaned objects and photographs.
But rather than presenting the exhibition in the form of a sterile gallery, it has been designed to raise awareness, challenge stereotypes and start conversations. The displays include a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone to listen to human voices.
Pride in Diversity’s chair Leonora Wassell was delighted to see the exhibition, which had to be paused due to covid, finally launch at Cold Bath Brewing Co on Kings Road. It will move between locations in Harrogate,
Last night’s launch coincided with National Coming Out Day and Hate Crime Awareness Week.
Rev Wassell said:
“We are speaking out about who we are.
“People who commit hate crimes are bullies and cowards. That’s why we’ve come out with these stories. We disempower them. If we stand together our bullies go away.”
Leonora Wassell
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Harrogate Museums is a partner on the project. Karen Southworth, a curator at the museum, said it was important to document the voices of a community that has been marginalised in Harrogate.
The museum is in the Royal Pump Rooms and is operated by Harrogate Borough Council.
Ms Southworth said:
“These stories were completely absent in the museum. But we’re now living through a revolution for representation.”
Cllr Pat Marsh, leader of the Liberal Democrats on Harrogate Borough Council, also attended the launch. She said:
“We have supported the LGBT community since the start. We are out there for our community and we are proud to be here.”
Matt Walker and Cllr Pat Marsh.
The exhibition will go on display in the Victoria Shopping Centre from Friday for one week before it moves to Harrogate Library and then Geek Retreat on Oxford Street.
If you’d like the exhibition to be featured in your space, email pid.hg1@outlook.com
Drag queen visits care home to celebrate Pride 2021Residents at The Manor House care home in Knaresborough have celebrated Pride Month with a drag queen belting out hits in their garden.
Miss Bailey Bubbles entertained the residents with showtunes, songs made famous by Doris Day and a few Abba hits.
Carer Alison Morgan said:
“After a long year of covid restrictions at the home it was lovely to share laughter with the residents with our first live entertainment in the garden since last year.”
(Left-right) Care home staff Jo Meredith, Leigh Rudzinski and Hanna Wilks dressed for Pride
Residents June Sharp and Kath Topping agreed. They said:
“It was very different to anything we’ve seen before but we loved it.
“It was a fun afternoon and Bailey took time to speak to all of us afterwards.”
Care home staff Katie Victoria Pickering and Ali Morgan with a Pride rainbow flag
The residents also enjoyed rainbow-inspired art therapy sessions, quizzes and games of bingo. They also helped dress the home and garden with bright, rainbow-themed decorations.
Katie Victoria Pickering, who organised the activities, said:
“The residents embraced the day and everything it stands for, they were happy to be involved in the lead-up and event itself.”
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Harrogate hospital unveils LGBTQ+ rainbow crossings
Harrogate District Hospital has unveiled rainbow crossings to welcome LGBTQ+ patients, visitors and staff.
The hospital has painted three crossings so far and plans to add a further two crossings.
It hopes the crossings “act as a visual symbol of inclusion” and “enhances the work we’ve been doing” to better support LGBTQ+ people.
During the last year Harrogate hospital has launched three staff networks for LGBTQ+, BAME and disabled staff.
We’re delighted with our freshly painted rainbow Pride crossings (the first three of five) at Harrogate District Hospital.
They send a message that the hospital – and the Trust as a whole – is an open, inclusive and non-judgemental place for LGBTQ+ patients, visitors and staff. pic.twitter.com/z69vEUTmQo— Harrogate NHS FT (@HarrogateNHSFT) October 11, 2020
Stonewall, which campaigns for LGBTQ+ rights, found that LGBTQ+ people face widespread discrimination in healthcare settings.
Some NHS trusts and national NHS bodies have made it onto Stonewall’s top 100 employers over the past decade.
Harrogate and District NHS Trust hope its launch of rainbow badges and the appointment of its first equality and diversity lead will help it make it on the list.
A Care Quality Commission inspection in 2019, which rated HDFT as good overall, found a lack of diversity at senior level and said senior leaders “were aware that they need to undertake more work”.
A spokesperson for HDFT said:
“We’re delighted with our freshly painted rainbow Pride crossings at Harrogate District Hospital. They send a message that the hospital – and the trust as a whole – is an open, inclusive and non-judgemental place for LGBTQ+ patients, visitors and staff.”