Pride and Trust

I’ve been looking at some footage of the new Mayor of London (see below), who’s had something of a mixed reception by gays, but mainly good, I think. I still can’t get out of my mind images of the blond floppy mop responding blondly and floppily to questions from whoever was “in the chair” on Have I Got News For You, the excellent satirical quiz. He was always value for money.

Oddly enough, as my fellow blogger Roy Saich (pictured, in Pride of place) said a couple of days ago, “Gays of a certain age may be amazed to have lived to see a Conservative leader of the government of London leading a march of gays wearing a pink hat.”

Well, you might respond that it’s not just a Conservative leader: it’s Boris. Either way, you would never in a million years have conceived of its happening in the Thatcher years, or even early in the Blair years.

Anyway, the PTT were well represented at last Saturday’s Pride in London, where they set up a stall staffed by Roy, who’s a trustee, along with fellow trustee and partner George Broadhead. They were handing out the Trust's leaflets on Humanism, people in the Humanist tradition such as Epicurus, Robert Ingersoll and Thomas Paine, and the pagan origins of Christmas and Easter. Also displayed were copies of Gay & Lesbian Humanist, published by the PTT, brochures on its “Humanist Ceremony of Love and Commitment”, and International Humanist News.

“A great deal of interest was shown by the many Pride participants,” George tells me, “and, despite noises off from the very loud music, some lively discussions were held.”

George and Roy also represented the Trust at the Mayor's Pride London Reception held at City Hall, when floppily blond Boris was the main speaker. "I thought Boris did very well,” says George, “and was a refreshing change from Ken Livingstone, who badly blotted his copy book by warmly welcoming that frightful homophobic Islamic cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi." (See this GALHA briefing on that.)

And you can see Boris Johnson in action in the video below.