This year we made it into the Canal Bar which was very welcome given how bad the weather was compared to last year. We had a good turnout of people including the deputy mayors of both Newbury and Thatcham and Father Gary Collins from St Johns and a useful discussion was had by all there. A speech and several poems were also read out, the speech and one of the poems feature in the video produced by Reading Pride's MyUmbrella project which was released later in the evening and is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf4Lr8axqew. These discussions were held against a backdrop of the list of names and pictures (where available) of those who have died, this can be seen on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/lDqKh5xfwD8 and a speech from the Thatcham mayor Mark Lillycrop was also played which can be seen here: https://youtu.be/Fa89qyPJP98.
We are born unique, we live our lives uniquely, so why should we hide our uniqueness
We are people, no one should die for being who they are
Everyone should be free to live their lives without fear
So many lives taken so tragically young
Everyone should be able to be their true self without prejudice and without living in fear
Equality means more than passing laws. The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts
love matters, hate and prejudice are easy, love and acceptance are difficult. Let’s challenge ourselves to accept others with love and understanding and make this world a better place to live peacefully with ourselves and with each other