Liverpool hosts first gay Pride festival in over a decade

Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a pink background.

The city of Liverpool will host its first Pride festival in more than ten years, it has been announced.

The date for Liverpool Pride 2010 will be August 7th, a date organisers say will not clash with any other gay festivals.

Liverpool does not currently have a Pride festival, despite being the sixth most populous metropolitan area in England. It has celebrated Homotopia, an LGBT arts festival, for the last five years.

Gay people in the city have been shaken by a number of homophobic attacks in the last 18 months.

In August 2008, 18-year-old Michael Causer was beaten to death. His murder was treated by police as a homophobic attack, although the judge in the case said killer James O’Connor, who was also 18 at the time, was not motivated by homophobia.

In October, trainee policeman James Parkes, 22, was set upon by up to 20 teenage boys in a gay-hate attack in the city’s gay quarter. He was hospitalised with a fractured skull, although he has since been allowed home to recover.

Tommy McIlravey, chair of Liverpool’s LGBT network, told the Lesbian and Gay Foundation: “The date was chosen based on what people told the Liverpool LGB&T Network in their consultation events last year and in the town hall in May this year.

“We have also looked at other big Pride events across the UK so as not to clash. We’ll be making further announcements about how to get involved, as a volunteer, performer, sponsor or event organiser over the next couple of months.”

The Pride festival will take place five days after the second anniversary of Causer’s death.

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