Wherever you are in the world, you’re never going to be too far from a Pride celebration.

While the US focuses most of its activity around June, here in the UK the Pride season begins around April and continues right through until September.

Here’s our guide to some of the Pride events that we’re keeping an eye on.

United Kingdom

• 29 April: Bury
• 27 May: Birmingham
• 24 June: Stoke-on-Trent
• 1 July: London
• 8 July: Bristol
• 15 July: Glasgow
• 22 July: Newcastle
• 5 August: Brighton
• 26 August: Manchester

Pride celebrations around the world

Canada

Toronto

• Toronto generally holds its Pride celebrations at the end of June. Dates for 2023 have not yet been confirmed.

United States

Miami Beach Pride

• Dates for 2023 have been announced as 15-16 April.

Long Beach Pride

• This even is normally held in early July. Dates for 20223 have not yet been announced.

Los Angeles

• Los Angeles generally holds its Pride celebrations in mid-June. Dates for 2023 have not yet been announced.

Key West

• Key West generally hold their Pride celebrations in early June. Dates for 2023 have not yet been announced.

Houston

• Houston generally holds its Pride celebrations at the end of June. Dates for 2023 have not yet been confirmed.

New York City

• New York generally holds its Pride celebrations at the end of June. Dates for 2023 have not yet been confirmed.

San Francisco

• San Francisco generally holds its Pride celebrations at the end of June. Dates for 2023 have not yet been confirmed.

Chicago

• Chicago generally holds its Pride celebrations at the end of June. Dates for 2023 have not yet been confirmed.

San Diego

• This event is normally held in mid-July. Dates for 2023 have not yet been announced.

South America

Sao Paulo

• Their 2022 parade was held in mid-June. Dates for 2023 have not yet been announced.

Europe

Brussels

• This event is held in May each year. Dates for 2023 have not yet been announced.

Lisbon

• Lisbon generally holds its Pride celebrations at the end of June. Dates for 2023 have not yet been confirmed.

Sitges

• Sitges generally holds its Pride celebrations in early June. Dates for 2023 have not yet been confirmed.

Athens

• Athens generally holds its Pride celebrations in mid-June. Dates for 2023 have not yet been confirmed.

Disneyland Paris Pride

• Disneyland Paris generally holds its Pride celebrations in early June. Dates for 2023 have not yet been confirmed.

Tel Aviv

• Tel Aviv generally holds its Pride celebrations in early June. Dates for 2023 have not yet been confirmed.

Paris

• Paris generally holds its Pride celebrations at the end of June. Dates for 2023 have not yet been confirmed.

Madrid

• This event is normally held in early July. Dates for 2023 have not yet been announced.

Cologne

• This event is normally held in early July. Dates for 2023 have not yet been announced.

Berlin

• This event is normally held at the end of July. Dates for 2023 have not yet been announced.

Amsterdam

• Their 2022 event was held in early August. Dates for 2023 have not yet been confirmed.

Copenhagen

• Their 2022 event was held in mid August. Dates for 2023 have not yet been confirmed.

Benidorm

• This event is normally held in early September. Dates for 2023 have not yet been confirmed.

Maspalomas

• There’s a summer Pride that is held each year in May.
• There’s also a Winter Pride

Asia

Tokyo Rainbow Pride

• 22-23 April is when the 2023 event will be held.

Taipei

• This is normally held at the end of October each year.

Africa

Cape Town

• February is when Pride events are held in Cape Town.

Australia

Sydney

• Usually held across February and March, the 2023 event combined with World Pride – the main march was has on 5 March.

Melbourne

• Melbourne’s Midsumma Pride Festival is held in January and February as a major festival.

Brisbane

• This is normally held at the end of September.

Why is June recognised as Pride Month in the United States?

Across the United States – and in many other parts of the world – the month of June is officially recognised as a time to celebrate LGBTQ Pride.

The month of June is significant because the Stonewall riots took place at the end of June in 1969.

Brenda Howard is credited with being one of the main driving forces in coordinating the first LGBTQ Pride march. Howard is also credited with the idea for a week-long series of events around Pride Day. Additionally, Howard – along with fellow activists Robert Martin and Craig Schoonmaker – is credited with popularising the word Pride to describe these events.

Throughout the month of June, towns and cities across the US and around the world hold LGBTQ Pride celebrations.

Why were the Stonewall riots a big deal?

The Stonewall riots of 28 June 1969 weren’t the first protests or confrontations between police and the LGBTQ community, but they’ve become symbolic of the growing consciousness and confidence that paved the way for the fight for equality and freedom from discrimination.

What triggered the Stonewall riots was a police raid on the Stonewall Inn. In the heart of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, the Stonewall Inn was a mafia-run bar that was a hub for the neighbourhood’s marginalised queer community.

In the late 60s, police raids on bars like the Stonewall Inn were commonplace – part of the continuing harassment and victimisation that LGBTQ people were experiencing at that time. The raid on the Stonewall Inn on 28 June 1969 sparked that sense of frustration into violent protests – protests that lasted six days and involved thousands of people. Perhaps most importantly, the riots received widespread media coverage.

Prior to the Stonewall riots, the push for LGBTQ equality was led by ‘homophile’ advocates – organisations such as the Mattachine Society. The Mattachine Society sought to organise and speak for gay men, and they favoured assimilation. Their objective was to demonstrate that gay men were ‘normal’ and just like everybody else.

Following the Stonewall riots, and in line with the counter-culture movements of the late-60s, representatives of the LGBTQ community became increasingly emboldened and more confrontational. New organisations were established, community-focused newspapers were published, and there was more of a willingness to be open, to be visible, to be different.

It was on the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots, 28 June 1970, that the first Gay Pride marches were held . The LGBTQ communities of New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago held events to commemorate the raid on the Stonewall Inn and the violent confrontation that followed. The following year, Gay Pride marches were also held in Boston, Dallas, Milwaukee, London, Paris, West Berlin, and Stockholm . In subsequent years, the number of cities participating continued to grow.

Today, Pride events and celebrations are a big moment. They’re an important and symbolic opportunity for our community to come together, to celebrate our diversity and our visibility as well as our strength and resilience.

If you’re growing up in today’s world, starting to navigate your sexuality, starting to understand how you connect with the LGBTQ community that you see around you, it’s important to understand how LGBTQ identity has evolved over time, and the role that events such as the Stonewall riots have played in that.

History is important because it helps us learn from those that have gone before us – the battles that have been fought, the struggles that have been won, the mistakes that have been made.

You might not feel that you’ve got much connection with the people who lived in New York City in 1969, but it’s because of those people  –  because of their lifetimes of harassment and discrimination that culminated in six nights of violence  –  that we can proudly identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer, or however you want to define yourself within the broad LGBTQ umbrella. It’s because of those people that we can live openly as ourselves, that we can get married if we want, that we can have families if we want, that we have the freedom to lead the lives that we want. It’s because of those people that we continue to hold Pride marches around the world.

We honour the marginalised people of Greenwich Village  –  people who had nothing left to lose, people who were pushed so far that they had no alternative but to stand up to harassment and stand up to discrimination .

When is World Pride?

World Pride is an international Pride celebration that happens every two years. A different city hosts World Pride each time.

Since it began in 2000, World Pride has been held in the following cities:

• 2000: Rome
• 2006: Jerusalem
• 2012: London
• 2014: Toronto
• 2017: Madrid
• 2019: New York City
• 2021: Copenhagen
• 2023: Sydney

In 2025, World Pride will be held in Washington, DC in the US.

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