Catalogue Number
NMLH.2022.371.8
Object Name
Badge
Title
Gay Pride 1981
Place
Huddersfield; London
People
Gay News
Events
Pride
Description
Badge showing a raised fist in the centre of a pink triangle, surrounded by a blue sky filled with stars. Around the edge of the badge reads "Gay Pride 1981".
Pride parades (or Prides) are gatherings of LGBTQIA people to protest for equal rights and celebrate progress and community. They are usually held annually all around the world, and June is sometimes referred to as Pride Month. The first âofficialâ Pride parades were held in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago on 28th June 1970 to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, though these were the result of years of prior activism and community building including public demonstrations. The first official UK Pride rally occurred on 1st July 1972.
Gay Pride rallies were almost exclusively held in London; however, the 1981 Rally was instead held in Huddersfield in solidarity, and protest, against recurring police raids on the town's popular gay club, the Gemini Club. A newly instated senior police officer had declared he was "going to make Huddersfield a homosexual-free zone" and harrassment of the premises and clientel began. Following the publication of events in Gay News magazine, the decision was made to move the national rally to Huddersfield, with great success. The police backed down and reduced the harrassement of the club. The 1981 Pride was another key moment of Pride being about protest as much as a celebration of identity.
The pink triangle symbol was reclaimed by the gay community after originally being a symbol of persecution. The symbol originated as a pink triangle cloth patch, used to identify gay men in prisons and concentration camps in Nazi Germany. Its reclaimed use spread through the gay liberation movement in the 1970s and 1980s and is now positively associated with the wider LGBTQIA community.
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