Party at London's Annual Soho Pride
By Benjamin Cohen

Thousands of party goers ignored the poor weather to enjoy Soho's annual and free gay pride event.

However, many revelers were annoyed by the seemingly ill thought out organization of the event's focus point in Soho Square. The park land in the heart of London's gay village is a popular destination for tourists and the local gay community but it was actually less busy than an average Sunday as a result of restrictions on entry imposed by the organizers.

Queues of up to an hour were in operation to gain access to the square and within the area, those needing the toilet were faced with queues of over two hours.

Dave, a law student from Hither Green said, “it's ridiculous the organizers have closed the entrance to the gardens because they say they can only accommodate eight thousand people, but there are only about four hundred people here, most of them in a queue to go to the toilet. What's the point of having twenty toilets outside the gardens that you can't get access to and just four inside the most popular area?”

The event that was supported by Gaydar Radio and the Mayor of London also contained stalls from organizations keen to associate themselves with the gay community including British Transport Police who handed out rainbow flag style souvenirs with their recruitment details on.

However, the key to the event was not the pursuit of gay rights but rather an opportunity for the local business to club together and provide a free party for their loyal customers. As Adam, an office executive in the civil service said, “in London what rights would we be fighting for? Thanks to the work of the past two governments we enjoy virtually the same rights as any other group of people. I guess, it may be better for us to be fighting for gay rights in countries that do not allow events like this.”

© PinkNews.co.uk 2005, All Rights Reserved. Article provided by GayLinkContent.com.