Plans take shape for gay pride parade
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A RALLY celebrating gay culture is being planned in the Highlands – for the first time in nearly 20 years.
Organisers say the Inverness parade called Proud Ness, which is funded by an £8000 lottery grant and tied to a chain of gay pride street-stall events in Ross-shire and beyond, was a long-time coming.
"We feel excited about it," said a Highland LGBTI forum spokeswoman, who is spearheading the celebrations.
"There was a pride event in 2002 in Inverness – the forum itself sprang from that event – but nothing has been held since then. That’s why this is important.
"It’s being set up so we can say to everyone ‘we are part of society, we are here, we’re just people, there’s nothing scary about us, we’re just like everybody else, out to have a bit of fun’."
The forum, supporting people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex is seeking permission from Highland Council to stage the October 6 march.
Eden Court in Inverness will be the main event hub with stalls in the foyer, and lectures, exhibitions, screenings and debates in the La Scala Cinema and the MacLean Room.
Fringe events will take place on other dates across the Highlands including Portree on August 25 and Ullapool on September 1.
The spokeswoman from Highland LGBTI said it aimed to break barriers, spread awareness and create a show of solidarity for the LGBTI community.
She knows first-hand how daunting it is for people to "come out", but her experience in Inverness was positive.
She said rural areas sometimes tell a different story.
"Inverness is not too bad," she said. "But if you go further afield it gets more difficult. I have been to a college fresher’s fair on Skye. They invite us each year and we have a stall, which is great.
"The people that we meet have no problems at all.
"But it’s quite interesting what you see when you’re on the stall.
"People walk down the stalls and then take a wide berth when they are going past our stall, and then continue."
She added: "The general public reaction can be quite funny because they’re not sure, they don’t know what to say to us, they do not understand – and that is one of the things we want to try and help people with.
"We want to help people to understand what LGBTI is and understand the terminology."
The plans for the march come weeks after Nicola Sturgeon donned a t-shirt with a rainbow coloured Choose Love logo, and headed up Glasgow Pride as it left Clyde Place, alongside Suki Wan, chairwoman of the Scottish Youth Parliament.
The last known gay pride demonstration in Inverness was in 2002.
It was one of several satellite events which took place all over Scotland as part of the Pride Scotland Festival.
Eden Court chief executive James Mackenzie-Blackman, who relocated from London in October to take on the theatre’s top role, strongly welcomed the forthcoming Proud Ness event.
He said: "My absolute position is that this is brilliant – and how exciting that something like this is happening in the Highlands.
"Let’s all work together and see if we can make it the best success that we can.
"There are some really dedicated and passionate people behind this event.
"It’s all about supporting the project."
