First attempt at creating a Brighton Pride memorial In the mid-90s, legendary LGBT activist Arthur Law (RIP) led a campaign to have a Pride memorial set into the pavement by the Old Steine war memorial. In those days Brighton & Hove Council were not the gay friendly pink £ chasing politicos we know today, and the proposal was roundly rejected. A few of us gathered with Arthur one day to see his design for the memorial which he’d painstakingly picked out using flowers. My memory is not what it was, so if you were there too and remember the date, please get in touch.

Brighton Lesbian and Gay Pride, 15-25 May 1992, was organised by a small group of people under the name of Pink Parasol. In the run up to the event they produced a leaflet about their plans for Pride, which included the unveiling of a Lesbian & Gay Pride Memorial in the Old Steine. The leaflet announced the unveiling on Sunday 17 May 1992, and made it sound very much like it was a done deal with the council. "Brighton Council has pledged a central site on the Old Steine and has agreed to install and maintain the memorial. The granite slabs from which it is to be made are ready for work to begin. The design and wording has been consulted on and approved. "The memorial is a celebration of our Pride over the last quarter of a century. It is dedicated to the lives of ordinary lesbians and gay men who preceded us, to ourselves, and to the future equality of those who will follow us in this life". When a group of us gathered to attend the unveiling, we were surprised so see there was only a chalk outline of the memorial drawn on the ground, with the design beautifully brought to life with flowers. I’ve been told a number of tales about why it never came to be, from outrage caused by the council donating £5,000 to Pride '92 (partly to enable disabled access in Preston Park), to objections about the Pride memorial being too close to the existing war memorial. Whatever the reason, the Pride Memorial was sadly never realised in anything more than flowers.

World AIDS Day 1996 – Brighton You can still see a World AIDS Day memorial in Brighthelm Gardens. It’s positioned at the base of a silver birch tree adjacent to the entrance doors on the North Road side. The plaque was unveiled on the 01 December 1996, in the presence of people with and affected by HIV, and representatives from local community groups and charities.