After two years without in-person Pride celebrations in the city region, LCR Pride Foundation has revealed its new annual theme for 2022/23 – Come Together.
The annual theme, presented by Barclays, celebrates the return of the charity’s flagship event Pride in Liverpool (30th July) and the annual March with Pride on the same date. In keeping with the theme’s ethos of togetherness and collaboration, LCR Pride Foundation is also supporting events in other parts of the region, including St Helens Pride (2nd July) and Pride at the Seaside (27th August), a brand new event in New Brighton, Wirral.
“Come Together” also speaks to the need for the LGBT+ community and its allies in the region to unite, take action and be heard on issues such as hate crime against LGBT+ people, the exclusion of Trans and Non-Binary people from the proposed conversion therapy ban and continued discrimination against the LGBT+ community.
The new campaign year will see LCR Pride Foundation continue to work with partners from across the region to progress its founding aim of making the Liverpool City Region the most LGBT+ friendly in the UK.
As part of the “Come Together” campaign, the foundation will continue to provide a platform for LGBT+ news, interviews and events through its newsdesk and weekly newsletter. It will also continue to grow its “You’re Safe Here” training programme, which has already seen more than 70 businesses and venues trained to know how respond to hate crimes and incidents, and deliver further community consultations, like those launched in Halton and Sefton, to ascertain the wants and needs of the community across the six boroughs.
LCR Pride Foundation’s Film With Pride will also return under the “Come Together” banner, as will the LCR Pride Awards, whose inaugural ceremony took place in 2019.
Andi Herring, CEO and Co-Founder of LCR Pride Foundation, said:
“After more than two years of staying apart due to the pandemic is it time for us to come together once again in protest, in celebration and with the intention of working together to improve the lives of LGBT+ in the Liverpool City Region and beyond.
“Our community has faced immense challenges over the past two years, from horrific hate crimes against LGBT+ people, to disproportionate mental health issues due to isolation. While LCR Pride Foundation’s physical events may have been on hold, our work has not.
“We have continued to support our community through our online platforms, initiatives such as the ‘You’re Safe Here’ programme, funded by Merseyside PCC, Culture Liverpool and Liverpool BID Company, and through extensive partnership working.
“Over the past two years we have supported the re-establishment of the city’s Pride Quarter, the launch of new CMAGIC services improving Trans, Non-Binary and Intersex healthcare, artistic responses and intervention alongside Homotopia and Culture Liverpool to address hate crime targeting the LGBT+ community and we continue to see projects funded from our community fund deliver real, lasting change for the LGBT+ community in the city region.
“This year will allow us to ‘come together’ as a community, consolidate all of this work and forge a path forward that will allow LGBT+ people to live their authentic lives visibly, safely and happily in our region.”
Updates will be shared in the LCR Pride Foundation weekly newsletter, which is sent to subscribers every Tuesday. People can sign up to receive it here.
For more information on our theme, events, initiatives and organisational activities visit: https://lcrpride.co.uk
