Thread by @johnpeart, Today would have been @PrideInLondon. I’ve been proud to organise the @cslgbt [...]

Today would have been @PrideInLondon.

I’ve been proud to organise the @cslgbt and @UKCivilService group in the parade for the past few years.

Here’s a look back at some of my favourite moments...

Let’s start with some group photos!

This one is from all the way back in 2015. I can’t remember what the theme was that year.

It would have been one of our largest groups; this was before the strict headcount restrictions started to come in.

We went from purple to all 4 colours of the @ukcsra logo-rainbow in 2016.

(We never did get the blocks of colour to line up other than for the group photo!)

(For some reason I don’t have any pictures of 2017!)

Then @ukcsra became @cslgbt and this village of lovely people came along for #PrideMatters in 2018

#LoveIsGreat

Last year we were majestic in magenta for the #PrideJubilee.

We’ve had a range of messages over the past few years thrown in too.

In 2016, we went with some like these...

Then there was possibly the best thing to have ever come out of a civil servant’s brain...

Yup, it was a tattoo.
(No, it was not my idea!)

2018 was dominated by the mega-brand that is #LoveIsGreat

And we had our #InclusiveCivilService message too.

And of course, when you do these things year-in-year out, you learn *a lot* about what makes an impact and what works.

For four years, and many before, @cslgbt begged, borrowed and pleaded for time and support to make pride happen...

And then we got it!

Someone took a massive gamble and decided I could make all the decisions about what it all looked like.

So we went bigger...

And brighter...

And *really* leaned into the #inclusiveCivilService message...

Genuinely I don’t know how I got away with all this. It seemed totally outrageous to me, but I think the smiles were worth it!

#PrideJubilee

Seriously, it’s not every day you get to hire a 10 metre lorry, slap 2 gigantic LED screens on the side, and drop a 3 metre high, glitter-coated, rainbow-adorned unicorn and lion on the top of it.

But 10/10 for the people that me do this outrageous behemoth of a float. #Pride

And do you know the best thing about our parade group last year?

They were a rainbow of identities, genders, ethnicities and backgrounds like never before.

It would have been easy to just let the same old faces turn up to pride last year; but @k8hughes and I decided that wasn’t good enough.

We proactively and deliberately lifted up the voices and faces of non-white, non-cis, LBT+ people last year.

Last year’s @cslgbt parade group had the largest proportion of women, bi, black, nom-binary and trans people than we’ve ever had before.

We made sure that those who don’t get a platform got a literal glowing platform to shine their own light.

(Every one of those demographic groups were larger, as a proportion of the group, than the national statistics would suggest they “should” be, of that makes any sense. And that was a deliberate choice to reach out and make it happen).

And do you know what?
Our parade group was infinitely better because of it.

The other great thing about pride events is the people you meet and the friends you share it with.

Like this guy...

And this guy...

And these absolute champions...

And many more besides.

So happy #pride

from inside tour living rooms everyone.

We might be physically distant, but that doesn’t mean we have to lose the connection with our LGBT family.

Now for a smattering more photos...