in happier pride news i actually found this deeply heartwarming
that's solidarity baybeeee
Further context: Durham city council (Reform UK) cut funding and support for Pride. The Durham Miner's Association and other trade unions raised enough money for Durham Pride 2026 to go ahead - a direct call back to when Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) raised money for mining communities when Margaret Thatcher seized union funding during the miner strikes of 1984-85.
At the 1985 Labour party meet, the motion to support LGBT rights as a party was passed due to a block vote from mining unions.
Stephen Guy, the chair of the Durham Miners’ Association, said that when it became apparent Durham Pride was under threat, he took it upon himself to “encourage the trade union movement to step up and do the right thing, and stand shoulder to shoulder with the LGBT+ community […] They not only raised funds for us, but came to our communities, uplifted our spirits when they were down, and showed their solidarity.”
if you've never seen the film Pride (2014), which tells the story of LGSM, you really really need to. Set aside time to watch it this month. Extremely important part of leftist and queer history, and a lesson on what "solidarity forever" means in practice that everyone desperately needs to learn right now.
Here's the r/piracy megathread if you need it. & you can pair that viewing with this article on the real-life history of Lesbians & Gays Support the Miners; they don't make it explicit in the film, but every founding member was a socialist / communist, and that article goes more in depth about the movement.
Notably: LGSM did not wait for the mining communities to be openly supportive of queers and anti-homophobia before showing solidarity. They saw the connection between oppression of Welsh miners and the oppression of queers, and chose solidarity first. It was this choice to materially support other oppressed people, and see the queer community and mining communities are inherently connected through their experiences of oppression and resistance, that allowed the relationship seen above to exist at all.
None of this could have happened if LGSM's solidarity was dependent on the mining communities being queer allies at the time of Thatcher's attacks on them. This solidarity was born out of queer communists seeing things from a broader perspective than just "getting gay rights." They saw how the labor struggle and the queer struggle are connected, and organized to provide material assistance through food and funding. We should all internalize this and seek to apply these lessons to our own communities.
