Manchester Pride: Time for Change

August is the time when the gays get together and party at Manchester Pride. But alas, a year doesn’t seem to pass without there being some kind of drama. I think it’s fair to say that the shit has definitely hit the fan this year.

First year not going to pride

I had already made the decision quite early on, that if Manchester Pride was to go ahead this year, that I wouldn’t attend. This was more for my mental health than anything else.

Instead, a small group of friends decided to go for a spa weekend break in the middle of the forest. So my Pride weekend was more chilled and relaxing compared to what it is normally is.

But as everything started to unfold on the run-up to the weekend, I’m glad that I was not supporting Manchester Pride this year. This is the year, that I’ve now decided that I will no longer support Manchester Pride as it stands.

It didn’t rain, it poured

No Parade

Criticism started to arise when Manchester Pride announced that the ‘festival’ will be going ahead, however, the parade will not be happening.

I understand why they made this decision, but I also can’t help but agree with the cynicism that one of the free events was cancelled as it didn’t make enough money.

To be fair, it was replaced by 5 small equality marches, although let’s be honest, from what I saw and heard, all of this was overshadowed by Manchester Pride Protest marching through the streets of Manchester and through Canal Street.

Charity Funding

We all understand that coming out of lockdown, that a lot of charities and organisations would be affected, however, we weren’t expecting to hear that after 27 years of partnership, Manchester Pride was ending the condom and lube funding.

I think it is fair to say that people were angry. I know I was. So while I wasn’t going to attend, I donated what would have been my entry fee to LGBT Foundation.

Within days, George House Trust also confirmed that it had also had its funding dropped from Manchester Pride.

In the process of all this whole debacle, GHT confirmed that Manchester Pride wanted donations to support only LGBT+ people. Which is an absolute diabolical stance to take.

Community Come Together

I don’t think Manchester Pride were ready for the outcry that this created. The fact, they didn’t think that they didn’t personally communicate the changes until after shows how lack-lustre they are.

In response, the Villiage Business Licence Association (VLBA) got together and set up a Go Fund Me page to raise £100k for both charities. As well as donating a substantial amount themselves, the total raised is ½ way to the target. So congrats to all that have donated.

PR Disaster

Manchester Pride’s PR of the whole situation (and in general) has been piss poor. Whether this is about the current disaster or previous events.

Mark Fletcher, the main guy at Manchester Pride, normally does an interview with Gaydio on the run-up to the weekend but cancelled for ‘personal reasons’. Of course, everyone saw through the bullshit, and know that he didn’t want to answer the awkward questions.

However, this added more fuel to the fire, and instead, he had to actually do his job and give interviews to the press to answer the awkward questions that he has every-so-badly tried to avoid!

Let’s just say, it was a car-crash PR nightmare! While listening to Gaydio’s interview, Mark lied about money that was being donated to the above charities receiving money. He also said that he listened to the community, but in the same breath said that he was ignoring the criticism.

BBC Radio Manchester was probably more brutal of an interview. The fact that again, he lied about donations again, which both charities gave a joint statement to confirm that this was untrue.

Then there was the situation where he tried to claim his £20k payrise wasn’t infact a payrise, and the presenter just retorted ‘Regardless of what you call it, it’s a payrise!”.

Finance

And to top it off it was about the financial breakdown that caused and raised a lot of questions. In 2018, Manchester Pride donated nearly £150,000 to charity which equates to around 6% of the revenue.

However the following year, where the revenue was 67% higher at a record breaking £3.94m, Manchester Pride reduced their charity donations to just 3% of the revenue donating £121,135

This is what has been sticking out for the community. Manchester Pride has lost it’s way. It’s clear that their vision is more for a festival, than it is for pride.

And the list goes on

There is far more incidents where Manchester Pride has fucked up, but I can’t be arsed going into great details about it.

Such as the initial communication for the Candlevit Vigil omited anything to do with HIV/AIDS. Taking into account they removed GHT from the event, and scrapped funding, you can understand how that went down.

Or then there is the time that decided to label the car park ‘Albert Kennedy Square’, but was quickly renamed ‘The Playground’ after a very harsh critism.

For those that don’t understand, Albert Kennedy was a gay teenager who died after falling off Chorlton Street Coach Station after being chased by homophobes. This square, which contained fairground rides and a maypole (WTF?) was situated opposite where he died.

On top of that, there was criticism that is no record of any funding being provided the AKT charity.

There is always a past

Let’s be honest, this is not the first time that there has been issues with Manchester Pride. It has a history of failures/criticism.

Fences

There was a lot of issues when the fences were places around the Gay Village, and people had to start paying.

Personally, I didn’t mind. Having been a victim of homophobia during pride events, have a safe space meant that I never experienced it within the Village. And having to pay for that didn’t bother me either. However I know, that my opinion is different to others.

There has been a widespread acknowledgement that legally, Manchester Pride can’t stop anyone from entering the village without a pass. As this is becoming more known, we are seeing people entering the village without the pass. 2019 was also the first time where I witnessed homophobia within the village, which was sad.

While you can enter the space without paying, the venues used to stop people entering the premises without a wristband. This year, none of the premises were supporting this rule, which shows that there is definitely a breakdown between VBLA & Manchester Pride.

Manchester Pride Split

For a few years now, there has concern that Manchester City Council are trying to erase the Gay Village from the map, with development of the area losing it’s identity.

Over the last few years, we have seen residential homes being developed within the area, which has raised concern about residents complaining of noise pollution, and venues having to close. Which is a similar situation that happened in the Northern Quarter.

Manchester Pride took the situation that they would split the event over two areas, to minimise the risk of disruption if development started in the area. One thing that they never did is ever take a stand to prevent the development from happening, which you would expect from a charity that is supposed to be for the Manchester LGBT+ community!

The Village Party would still be in the village with smaller events happening. While the main live stage will now be positioned in Mayfield. Obviously, all with a higher entrance fee!

Personally, I don’t mind it being split. I actually enjoyed the village more, as it felt more community led as the venues placed on their own events.

As for the criticism that went towards the live event…well there was a lot!

Restructuring Nightmare

Putting on an event at the scale of Manchester Pride, takes a lot of organising and people. And previous years, certain areas where given to different people to organise, such as the Candlelight Vigil was organised by GHT, and Manchester Markets used to be in charge of the stalls.

This was a wise move, because it meant that people with the relevant skills could look after the specific areas, while allowing Manchester Pride who openly admitted the don’t have that many people working at the charity, to concentrate on the bigger tasks.

2019 was the biggeset event that has ever been placed on. So was it wise trying to organise it all yourself? Absolutely not. In return, there was communication issues (well lack of) from all areas. And criticism that Manchester Pride were trying to eradicate areas of the LGBT+ community to suit their beliefs.

What does the future hold?

I personally don’t see how Manchester Pride can come back from this, unless there are some drastic changes to the way it is run/organised.

Manchester Pride belongs to the community

At the end of the day, Manchester Pride is and should always be a community owned event.

While you may name your business Manchester Pride, it doesn’t mean that you own the weekend. It’s clear the the negativity towards the organisation is growing, and our voices are being heard, and action can and will be taken.

This year, Manchester City Council were listening, and they called a meeting to try and sort this out. So like a bad pupil going to the headmasters office, Manchester Pride went and promised to donate £10,000 to LGBT Foundation and GHT, after lying that they had already done it. And that the will hold a larger transparent review.

They know they’ve fucked up, but they refuse to admit it.

Manchester Festival

This year, it became very apparant that Manchester Pride wanted to erase Pride from the weekend event, by continuously calling it a Festival.

The live event is successful, so I don’t think we should get rid of it. But it should be its own separate event, and no longer associated or related to Manchester Pride.

The name Manchester Pride, should no longer be used by the organisation. This should be transferred to a new team to organise the August Bank Holiday Pride event. Ideally, I would like to get that community feel back, with the VBLA involved in some way.

Mark Fletcher et al

If Manchester Pride is to continue as the official pride event, then a huge restructure needs to happen. This includes Mark Fletcher and the trustees leaving.

While I don’t think Mark has done an awful job, he hasn’t done a perfect one either. However, it does feel that there comes a natural end to someone staying in the role…and his time has come.

It’s clear that Mark and the trustees are no longer listening to the community. If they are, it’s only the ones that are stroking their egos.

This year, showed us that Mark would rather run away from his responsibilities and answer those awkward questions. I honestly feel he was forced to do the interviews, where he just lied and was caught out.

He is no longer suitable to run the company. And his arrogance in the interviews confirmed that he has no intention to leave his role. So hopefully, the trustees will do the right thing and replace him.

I will no longer support Manchester Pride

As I stated at the present moment, I will no longer support Manchester Pride as it is, and I will publicly promote that other people do the same.

I will use my legal right to enter the village without a wristband, and enjoy the weekend as I normally would. Instead, I will donate directly to the LGBT+ charities, then I know exactly where my monies is going.