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Great LezBritain do London Pride

“Great LezBritian” is a fortnightly stroll through the very best of British lesbo-centric entertainment and culture. Plus there will be some jolly good interviews with the top ladies who are waving the flag for gay UK.

Whilst watching and singing along to Calamity Jane one mighty cold evening a few months ago Lee turned and whispered into Sarah’s ear: “You know I’ve never been to a Gay Pride before.” Sarah turned to her and said, “Don’t be so ridiculous and why have you stopped singing ‘A Woman’s Touch’ when you know this is my favourite bit?”

As we fell to the sofa and chinked our teacups just like Calamity and Katie do after they finish singing about the setbacks of underestimating the abilities of women, it turns out that the tale Lee had told Sarah was indeed true. Lee in all her lesbian years had never experienced the joys of so many queers gathering together to celebrate the differing of their sexuality from society’s straight and narrow contingency.

So we promised each other that this would be the year that we would don some eighties glow-bands, buy some whistles and throw ourselves full throttle into this year’s fun and gays at Pride London – the 40th year anniversary of the creation of the British Gay Liberation Front. And my goodness we certainly did.

We began our day (Saturday, July 3) with a plethora of breakfast delights at First Out – London’s first and best lesbian and gay cafe-bar – which was acting like a warm bosom for many Gay Pride early bird drinkers. To throw ourselves into the spirit of things, we too had some of the champagne and smoked salmon bagels on offer and decorated ourselves with a few more glow bracelets to ensure we were dressed in as much Pride getup as possible without looking like twats.

We then walked through Soho which had a sweet stench of colourful flamboyancy and pre-parade excitement in the air. Several rumours of celebrity sightings were being spun around already and the favourites ruffling many a feather boa were that Alan Carr was drinking nearby, George Michael was to make an impromptu appearance at Trafalgar Square and that Shabby from Big Brother was going to be let out for the day to try and find her hat.

The focus of Pride was the Parade, which set off from Baker Street at 1pm flaunting around 130 floats and walking groups. Its starting pistol was fired by thinking man’s idiot, Mayor of London, Boris Johnson who said: “I am pleased to support our city’s Pride celebrations and proud of London’s reputation as a place where you can be yourself” – heart-warming stuff.

We met the parade as it was going past Leicester Square and then inadvertently found ourselves amid a marching scout group. With champagne still circling through the bloodstream we linked arm in arm with a scout master and joined in with their chanting of “Scout and Proud.”

We also witnessed over 100 Christians who declared themselves by wearing “Christian and Proud” t-shirts, The Queer Youth Network who had excellent hair, and a double-decker bus brimming with gay, lesbian and transsexual NHS workers. It’s thought that the parade was cheered on by over 1 million people who came out especially to see it, plus a further few thousand unsuspecting and bewildered London tourists that were just en route to buy ‘I love London’ fridge magnets.

The parade finished at Trafalgar Square with two stages of entertainment, but we were pretty underwhelmed by the music offerings. The only acts we were familiar with were the cheesier-than-brie sister and brother duo from X Factor, Same Difference, and 90’s pop-star Sonique. Neither act particularly floated our boat – in fact the prospect of seeing them actually sank it a little.

Needless to say, we avoided the stages and narrowed down our choice of alternative entertainment to the following three: Village Underground’s Big Gay Bash with East London’s finest trans folks in Shoreditch, Perez Hilton’s One Night in London at the O2 (with Peaches and Kelis) or the CODE vs Girl Action Party in Soho.

One of the most pleasurable parts of Pride London’s celebrations is the Soho street party. The gay quarter shone like a prism – hundreds of rainbows glistened in the sunshine so we opted to go for a few shots and stay there for the night. As we maneuvered ourselves through the throngs of fun and celebrations, a girl in pink cowboy boots accosted us – she wanted us to join a viewing gallery she was building and then tried very hard to entertain us all with a pole dance on a lamp post which ended up being a very rude disaster, but nonetheless one of the highlights of the day.

We arrived at the hotly tipped CODE vs. Girl Action party at the Green Carnation at around the same time as every other lesbian in London, which meant that it was mobbed inside and so dancing was a little tricky. After a few martinis and throwing some small shapes on the dance floor (to some really good electro tunes) we made our way down Greek Street through both merriment and post-clubbing tears to stop for some pizza.

The day was slightly tainted by Lee having worn silly shoes, heels that would compete well against most of the drag queens we met. Luckily there was a rickshaw on hand so we traveled past a benevolent London Eye turned rainbow for the occasion and whirled home through London’s cobbled streets.

In the cold light of day, as we scrubbed the various bar stamps from our arms and marveled at the longevity of our fluorescent arm bands, Lee rated her first Pride as four rainbow flags out of five and Sarah proclaimed that every day should be Pride day.

Thanks to www.into-events.com and www.pridelondon.org.

“Great LezBritain” authors Sarah, a Londoner, and Lee, a Glaswegian, met in a gay discotheque one bleak mid winter, eight years ago and have been shacked up together ever since. When not watching Tipping The Velvet, they find time to write, run a PR company, DJ at their own club nights and love a bit of jam on toast. Follow them on Twitter at greatlezbritain.

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