Community Spotlight: Celebrating Pride month

The month of June is chosen to commemorate when lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender people rioted early on Saturday, June 28 1969 after a police raid on the Stonewall Inn which was a gay bar at 43 Christopher Street, Greenwich Village in Manhattan.

This riot and further riots and protests over the following nights became a watershed moment in the modern LGBT rights movement and the impetus for organising Pride marches on a much larger public scale. For us in Crawley this is a time when we can show support and solidarity to our LGBTQU+ community within Crawley. Our very own Crawley LGBT CIC (Community Interest Company) was set up by members of the LGBTQU+ community to support, represent and celebrate being LGBTQU+.

They achieve this by holding regular meet ups and giving a safe place where LGBTQU+ people can come together share experiences and raise awareness through engagement and providing inclusion and diversity training.

Their organisation formed when a group of passionate volunteers came together to deliver Crawleys first Pride event, during which they spoke to thousands of LGBTQU+ people many of which were in desperate need of support for their mental health, social isolation and discrimination. In response they formed their CIC to offer regular support - in the last year they have set up:-

- A weekly helpline

- A quarterly community engagement stall at the county mall

- Essential support for victims of hate crime

- Regular socials/events bringing together LGBTQU+ people to support each other

- Inclusion and diversity training for businesses

- The first of their safe space groups, supporting Trans people

And who can forget how amazing Crawley's first Pride event was. And now they are in full swing preparing for this year's Pride which will include our first PRIDE PARADE and will be bigger and better and will be an amazing weekend celebrating being who you are.

You can find them at:

Facebook: Crawley lgbtqu

Instagram: CrawleyLGBTQU+; crawleylgbt.com