Gathering with friends off Oxford Street as they prepared to join Saturday’s Pride in London parade, Vito Ward reflected on just how much had changed in the decades since the first event she had attended.



“You’d have to hide the fact of where you were going when you made the journey, and I knew people who were beaten up when they were discovered,” recalled Ward, 71, who was parading with the Older Lesbian Network on one of the most auspicious dates in the event’s 45-year history.

As ever, music was at the heart of revelries, not least when a military brass band lit up thousands of faces as they struck up the theme from Fame. But there was also history as the parade marked 50 years since the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which decriminalised homosexuality in England and Wales.

Its significance was not lost on Ward and her friends, even if they also had sympathy for the claims this week by Peter Tatchell that Pride had “morphed into a commercialised, bureaucratic and rule-bound event”.

A huge rainbow flag represented all nations. Photograph: Guy Bell/Rex/Shutterstock

A celebration that he had taken part in since its beginnings in 1972 had now become commodified, added the veteran gay-rights campaigner, in one of the latest reiterations of the claim that commercialisation was stealing the event’s soul.

“I would have to agree with him, to be honest,” said Beth Moir, a friend of Ward’s, as she used her hands to rattle one of the metal barriers separating onlookers from parade participants, including the members of their party, a lesbian-run group for over-40s.

“I know it’s for security but it’s hard to get away from the feeling of us being kettled,” she added.

Transgender pensioner Margaret Pepper, 73, holds a placard. Photograph: Pete Maclaine/EPA

Nevertheless, both she and Ward remained adamant about the need for the parade to play a political role.

“It’s about making sure that we do this for people elsewhere in the world who don’t have rights,” said Ward, who told of being kicked out of the Royal Navy for being gay 10 years after joining as a teenager. Years later, she became a psychotherapist as well as an ambassador for the LGBT community and Age UK. A reconciliation with the navy came when she marched with them in the Pride parade.

Among 200 members of the armed forces taking part this year was naval commander Sam Truelove, 42, the co-chair of Compass, the navy’s LGBT+ network, who joined when being gay in the armed forces was illegal.

“The law changed a few years later and, while it does take time for the culture to also catch up, I think that we have come a long way,” she added. “We still have some way to go but we have all the policy in the right place now. It’s important that we continue to have support from a senior level.”

Along the route, some of the loudest cheers from onlookers were for members of the emergency services who had responded to recent terror attacks and the Grenfell fire disaster. Staff from the Metropolitan police, London ambulance service and London fire brigade joined flag-bearers representing countries around the world, including those where it is still illegal to be LGBT+.

More than 26,000 people were estimated have taken part in the parade, which began north of Oxford Circus, in Regent Street, and was watched by a crowd that was expected to number about a million. In the crowd, there was a range of views about Tatchell’s comments.

Corporate involvement was loud and unavoidable, whether in the prominent logos and floats bearing the names of major companies or in the presence of the rainbow flag’s colours in the shopfronts of banks and other businesses the length and breadth of Oxford Street.

Participants enjoyed dressing in their brightest colours. Photograph: Guy Bell/Rex/Shutterstock

A double-decker bus was decorated to promote the introduction of gender-neutral titles at HSBC, and an elaborate Tesco-sponsored float carried a sound system urging onlookers to cheer more loudly.

“Peter Tatchell’s always been controversial but now he’s old news, to be honest,” said Viv Sherran, who had come from Bedford with her wife, Sarah, and her daughter, and was full of praise for the event’s organisation. “Pride is about people being out and enjoying themselves. If companies are involved in the way that they are and it raises awareness of people’s rights, then that can only be a good thing.”

Nearby, there was more sympathy for Tatchell from two schoolfriends with rainbow flags around their necks – Jess and Roz, from Southend.

“This is my third year, and when it was the first time, I was able to join in, but then last year I found that I had to march at the back because I wasn’t part of a big group that was taking part. This year I thought that I would come along and just watch, but it’s still great to be here,” said Jess.