Friday June 21st at the Pride in London gala dinner, British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful OBE gave the keynote speech. The spectacular event kicks off a month-long celebration of Pride in London, culminating in the annual Pride in London parade on July 6.
More than one million people are expected to come out and support Pride in London this year, including 450 different groups from community organisations, charities, public services, and LGBTQIA+ employee networks from the UK’s leading businesses. Pride in London is a not-for-profit organisation run by a group of around 150 passionate volunteers.
This year marks an important jubilee year for Pride in London. On November 27 1970, London’s first ever gay rights rally took place in Highbury Fields. It marked the first of many important moments for LGBTQIA+ rights in the capital.
Enninful welcomed guests to the special gala evening with a heartfelt tribute to young people everywhere. “To see a new generation of young people who are redefining their identities, opening our eyes to who and how we can love, is so exciting. These truly are the people who are going to change society forever.”
Read Enninful’s speech in full below:
Let me first say that as someone who grew up as a gay young man in Ladbroke Grove in the 1980s, I know first-hand how important this event is. Aged 16, I had never met another gay person. Then I found fashion, and with it an amazing new set of friends and collaborators, who introduced me to a whole new world. I’m sad to say that many of them, such as Ray Petri and Jalle Bakke, are no longer with us. It was a beautiful time, but it was a hard time as well. Every age has its battles.
I vividly remember going to my first London Pride. I don’t mind telling you that it blew my mind. I was a sheltered teenager, and the release of finding a whole new community of people was euphoric. I walked around in a Katherine Hamnett T-shirt, cycling shorts and boots. I felt like I’d waited my whole life to feel this free. Seeing the creativity of everyone, I felt liberated. I felt a sense of community. This is what Pride has always meant to me: community.
Today, it makes me so happy to see how our community is broadening. My work has always been about diversity and inclusion across the board: gender, race, class, size… Everything. To see a new generation of young people who are redefining their identities, opening our eyes to who and how we can love, is so exciting. These truly are the people who are going to change society forever.
Social media has been a powerful tool in bringing this community together, but there is nothing like taking a day to gather on the streets of the greatest city on earth to show the world a beautiful vision of the future. That is the power of Pride.
Source: Vogue
