Liverpool Strong And Proud

International News, By Joal, 11th November, 2009

Liverpool is undergoing a pride festival revival in the wake of several homophobic attacks, one on a young police officer and another ending in a young man’s death.

Planned so as not to clash with other festivals Liverpool Pride will be held August 7, 2010.

Not having held a pride festival for ten years, over 3,000 people joined a Facebook group pushing for pride to be revived in Britain’s sixth largest city.

“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,” says Tommy McIlravey, Chair of Liverpool’s LGB&T Network.

The Liverpool gay community already celebrates Homotopia, a gay arts festival, but in the wake of recent homophobic attacks, there have been rallies in support of victims and a groundswell of support for a pride festival to take place.

The festival will take place around the time of the anniversary of the death of young gay Liverpool man Michael Causer. 18-years-old and beaten to death, while the man trialed for the murder was found not to have been motivated by homophobia, the murder sent shock waves through the community.

Further momentum for Pride was gained when 22-year-old police officer James Parkes was attacked in Liverpool’s gay district. Out with friends, Parkes and his partner were attacked by a group of youth between the ages 14 and 18. Hospitalised after the attack, Parkes has now been allowed to return home to recover.

At the time of the group attack, Liverpool’s Detective Chief Inspector Tim Keelan condemned the attack.

“We are treating the assault as a homophobic hate crime and this incident shows there are still some people who have not learnt that crimes of this type are completely unacceptable. People who commit hate crimes can expect the full attention of the police and we will not rest until the offenders are brought to justice. The offenders will learn their lesson the hard way,” said Keelan.