FTL at the Mayor of London’s Pride Reception

In my capacity as the Family Representative of the Community Advisory Board of Pride in London, I was invited with many others to the Mayor of London’s Pride Reception at City Hall.  Sadiq Khan was introduced by the Night Czar, Amy Lame whose job it is to ensure London’s nightlife runs safely.  As she said, she doesn’t work just at night but during the day too!!  Quite a job for a city which runs 24 hours a day.

Sadiq’s speech was uplifting and he was frequently applauded.  He is a champion of the LGBT community and is very aware of the difficulties that we see too frequently relating to homophobic abuse, both mentally and physically.

He asked us to fly the Pride flag for all the LGBT people who are not as fortunate as us in the UK.  Countries where being gay is a criminal offence, of which there are too many.

Sadiq in turn then introduced The Joyful Noise Choir.  I would have loved to have put a photo on the website of this choir but we were told not to take photos of them.  The reason being that they are an inclusive, peer support group made up entirely of people living with HIV, both LGBT and straight.  Some of them might not have come out to family and friends as being HIV so we must respect their wishes.  I do recommend you look them up on Google and listen to some of their wonderful songs.  They sang and we sang with them.  Some of us also danced!

For me this was a great start to Pride 2019.

Jackie Briggs