Mardi Gla to be first major Pride event with bisexuality theme

Scottish Government minister Patrick Harvie, who is openly bisexual, will address the thousands of people expected to gather at Glasgow Green ahead of the march through the streets of Glasgow.

He will be joined by the leader of North Lanarkshire Council, Councillor Jordan Linden, who will become the first gay council leader to speak at a pride march in Glasgow, and also a representative of President Joe Biden from Democrats Abroad who will talk about the recent decisions of American courts and the impact this has worldwide for equality.

The streets of Glasgow will be turned into a sea of rainbow flags as the march departs with a number of colourful, vibrant floats playing party tunes to get the city into a celebration of LGBT+ equality.

Queen of Pride, Dame Barbra La Bush Said: "This weekend will be the largest gathering of people who are LGBT+ and allies that our city has ever seen and I just cant wait to declare that pride is open. With the rising attacks against people who are LGBT+ it is more important than ever that people who support equality turn out and support the march and our communities.”

A special Pride Hub will be hosted on the Saturday and Sunday at Strathclyde University, and, in another first, will hold a life-long learning and employability zone to help people decide on career options during the cost of living crisis.

There will be a youth and family zone, a health and wellbeing zone, a sport and activities zone as well as a debates zone in association with Scullion Law where Police Scotland and the Crown office will gather together to speak about the growing number of hate crimes in Scotland.

Entertainment will play a major part of the weekend with the Cheeky Girls, The Voice winner Craig Eddie and boyband Just the Brave headlining the main stage at the brand new Strathclyde Students’ Union, 51 Richmond Street, in a free event for those that support LGBT+ rights.

On the Sunday, entertainment moves to Clyde Island at the King St car park where the new host of the BBC Radio 1 drivetime show Dean McCullough will wow crowds on a specially constructed beach complete with fairground rides, rainbow candyfloss and loads of fun as Glasgow celebrates Pride on the Beach.

Dan Syme, chair of the organising committee, added: "On Saturday Glasgow will see a loud display of love and respect as we come together to make clear that Bi is Beautiful and we would love Glaswegians who support equality to join us and march with us as allies at Glasgow Green.

“We are also delighted that every LGBT+ venue is coming together as one to provide amazing entertainment, our partnership with Clyde Island to bring Pride to the Beach and our Pride Hub which will be an amazing space for our communities and people that support us to visit over the weekend.”