Belfast's Pride takes place annually for ten days packed full of events, entertainment and with the main parade taking place.
Pride is a way of celebrating the LGBTQ community and taking a positive stance against discrimination.
Pride is celebrated each year around the anniversary of the Stonewall Inn raiding that took place in June 1969 in New York. During this time many LGBTQ people were still widely being persecuted under state laws. This event was the catalyst for the many years of activism that were to follow.
The first pride took place in Belfast in 1991 and 100 brave people marched from Ulster University to Botanic Gardens to show their support for the LGBTQ community.
These marches were taking place all over the world in the hopes of inspiring a growing gay activist movement. However, the marches and hopes for equality were initially delayed in Belfast due to the violence and conflict of the Troubles, which was generally standing in the way of social political activism.
Despite this, P.A. Mag Louchlainn and a few other organisers gathered inspiration from the London and Dublin Pride. They were motivated to increase the visibility of the LGBT community here in Belfast, as they felt, "freedom requires viability".
From then, The Belfast Pride Parade has evolved into the biggest cross community parade in the city and continues to grow in popularity, with 50,000 people attending in 2017.
Belfast will be an explosion of colour and representing the rainbow flag this year from the 26th July to 4th August with the main parade taking place at 1pm on 3rd August in the city centre.
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