For the 25th year, thousands of people celebrated this year’s Pride in Manchester, parading through the city in solidarity with the gay, bisexual and transgender community.
It’s thought 3,000 people took part in the parade, with thousands more lining the streets as the event focussed on the theme of education to end inequality, under the banner: Organise Class of 2017: The Graduation Parade. Among the colourful floats was one by the Coronation Street cast.
Among those taking part was Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, who was filmed doing the YMCA dance with Manchester police officers.
The city’s newspaper, the Manchester Evening News, as always wrote up the highlights of the event.
But the story received some negative, unreconstructed comments on the newspaper’s website.
But the Manchester Evening News was not going to let it lie, responding to haters in unambiguous fashion.
It wrote:
“Quite remarkable how many negative comments we have to remove or hide on stories like this.
“To those asking when is ‘straight pride day’ or questioning why we still have Pride we’d ask this: Did you know that homosexuality is punishable by death in 12 countries? Celebrating Pride in those places can literally get you killed. Did you know there’s been a recent rise in homophobic hate crimes?
“Did you know that in Britain homophobic attacks rose by 147% in three months from June last year. Did you know nearly half of all trans children in this country have attempted suicide? Or that 80 per cent have self-harmed? Did you know it’s only been 50 years since homosexuality was decriminalised in the UK?
“This is why we still have Pride marches. And Manchester’s is the best in the world.”
