Tuesday, June 27, 2023

A Pride to remember


Pride is a 2014 British historical comedy-drama film written by Stephen Beresford and directed by Matthew Warchus. Based on a true story, it depicts a group of lesbian and gay activists who raised money to help families affected by the British miners' strike in 1984, at the outset of what would become the Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners campaign.

Upon watching the news about the miners' strike, gay activist Mark Ashton realises that the police have stopped harassing the gay community because their attention is elsewhere. He spontaneously arranges a bucket collection for the miners during the Gay Pride Parade in London. Encouraged by the success, he founds Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM). Among its first members are 20-year-old closeted student Joe Cooper and an older gay couple Gethin and Jonathan, whose bookshop (called Gay's the Word) they use as headquarters.

At first, LGSM faces opposition from the mining community who do not wish to associate with them, as well as within the gay community who feel that the miners have mistreated them in the past. But almost by accident a mini-bus full of gays find themselves in the Welsh village of Onllwyn in the Dulais valley and through their sincere fund raising and Jonathan's nifty disco moves persuade most of the community that they are on the same side. Many grateful miners acknowledge LGSM's role in their release, relations begin to thaw and the two communities quickly become close. 

In March 1985, the miners are defeated and the strike is over and return to work. Surpriseling, at the Pride march the following year a vast contingent of miners show up to repay their comrades with their show of support.

Happy Pride Month!!!




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