Description: Pride 1992 was both a triumph and a disaster. It was the biggest lesbian & gay event Brighton had ever seen, and it sent its organising committee immediately into bankruptcy. Brighton Council had given a grant of £5,000 to Lesbian Strength to support women’s participation in the celebrations, and this had proved extremely controversial, with Labour almost losing control of the council as a result.

So organising Pride in 1993 was a hot potato that nobody wanted to pick up. Brighton OUTrights! (the renamed Section 28 campaign) took it on, but the group’s momentum was dissipating and the work of coordinating Pride fell mainly to two women – myself and Linda Pointing. Linda, in particular, was convinced that a 1993 event was vital if Pride was going to survive into the future. Despite being deeply exhausted by my experience with Pride 1992, I agreed to help make it happen.

The first ideas meeting, in December 1992, envisaged about a dozen events over a 10 day period. My notes show responsibility for these ideas divided between the two of us.

By February 1993 we had settled on a more realistic plan to organise just two events: a march ending with a low-key picnic in Queens Park and a public meeting. We would invite other groups to hold their own events in the 10 days leading up to the march and pull together a programme listing all of these plus anything vaguely lesbian or gay in the Brighton Festival.
We rattled buckets, did a sponsored ballroom dance along Western Road, sent out press releases, made hundreds of phone calls and scribbled plans at late night meetings. Ten days before the march, our itinerary for the day still had some question marks on it, but it was basically there. The document lists the names of 16 volunteers: Susanne, Annette, Lisa, Linda, Helen, Karen, Ruth, Dani, Clare, Jude, Jamie, Steve, Brian, Maggie, Melita, and Jane.

Altogether, I think there must have been a couple of dozen people, mostly women, all unpaid, whose efforts kept Pride going in that crucial moment. It was a heroic effort, and truly exhausting.