Pride in Surrey: "Prides across the whole country are struggling"
Today (September 6th) is Surrey Pride, it's the first pride after Surrey County Council pulled funding from the event.
A spokesperson for Pride in Surrey has said that prides across the whole country are struggling.
Today (September 6th) is Surrey Pride, it's the first pride after Surrey County Council pulled funding from the event.
Surrey county council withdraw funding, citing that they did not believe Pride in Surrey to be truly representative of the whole LGBTQ+ community.
Sam, who is the volunteer manager at Pride in Surrey says that this is not a problem exclusive to Surrey however.
"It's not just a problem for pride in Surrey, it's a problem with prides across the country where we're seeing kind of withdrawing of Support from whether that's from sponsors or from local councils."
So prides across the whole country are struggling. And you know, it's a shame that Surrey County Council didn't want to get involved this year and hopefully next year they'll be keen to."
Sam also described the support Surrey Pride previously received as 'vital'.
"It's the little things really. It's it's getting a a flag raised on a on a street lamp, just without the council wanting to be involved and wanting to keep hands off, it just becomes difficult. having that support is really vital I think."
Sam says that at the end of the day, they will have to find a way to move on and survive if they are to remain without council support.
"You know this year we make it work regardless. We think it's an important event and we'll do it whether we have support or not from kind of local councils
But it'll be good to have support of local councils across the country really. That's a constant, constant conversation we're having with them and it's hopefully something we can build on going forward."