Earlier this week, the leader of Leeds City Council, Councillor James Lewis, deputy leader, Councillor Jonathan Pryor, and LGBT+ champion, Councillor Hannah Bithell were joined by members of the council’s LGBT+ staff network outside the Civic Hall to show their support for Leeds Pride taking place this weekend.
The city centre will be magically transformed this weekend with Leeds Pride rearing to go on Sunday 21 July. It’s the largest free Pride in the UK, with over 50,000 people attending each year.
The Pride Parade will be kicking off at 12pm on Sunday opposite Leeds Town Hall before making its way down to Lower Briggate.
Like every year, Leeds City Council has contributed two access buses to ensure the event is open to everyone. One bus will take part in the parade where spaces have been booked in advance. The second bus runs from Millennium Square to Lower Briggate, before the parade gets there, to help disabled people gain a good vantage position on the platform for the parade.
Saturday is also set to be a day full of celebrations across the city.
The weekly parkrun at Woodhouse Moor will be Pride-themed this Saturday, with participants invited to wear their most rainbow-coloured kit. The run starts at 9am.
There will be a LGBT+ Marketplace in Brodrick Hall at Leeds City Museum, from 11am-3pm, where people can go along to find out about LGBT+ services, support and social groups in Leeds.
Leeds Minster is hosting a Pride celebration service at 4pm on Saturday 20 July. It will be a “service of reflection, prayer and poetry”, organisers said.
Leeds City Council is also using this Pride season to back a new campaign which highlights that good mental health and wellbeing is an ongoing journey for many people, but for LGBTQ+ people that journey can be more challenging.
‘Check In With Pride’, launched by West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, aims to foster a more inclusive and compassionate environment and encourages everyone to ‘check in’ and start more conversations about mental health with LGBTQ+ friends, family, work mates and neighbours. For more information, including links to Leeds support services, visit www.checkinwithpride.co.uk.
Councillor Fiona Venner, Leeds City Council’s executive member for equality, health and wellbeing said: “We love hosting Leeds Pride every year, it’s a great event welcoming people from across Leeds but also the whole of the UK and from overseas. We can’t wait to celebrate our vibrant LGBT+ community but also make sure that we are all talking more about the issues and discrimination the community still faces.”
