Article by Ms Mackay
On Saturday 29th June, students and teachers from Corelli College joined Stonewall for their 5th annual Youth Pride Event for young people at London Pride Parade.The aim of the trip was for students and staff to participate as school champions at a national event and contribute to the whole school anti-homophobia work. We all enjoyed the opportunity to gain confidence in, and value, our own identity and that of others.
Before hitting the streets we were welcomed by members of staff from Stonewall (which is a charity that works with Corelli College to achieve equality and help tackle homophobia and homophobic bullying in schools). We were also greeted by actor Layton Williams (Billy Elliot the Musical, Beautiful People, Bad Education) who asked us to consider what ‘normal’ was and exclaimed, ‘Who wants to be normal anyway?’, which was very well received.
A few free sandwiches later, we were ready to hit the sunny streets; students donned their complimentary ‘Some people are gay – get over it!’ red t-shirts.
More teachers from Corelli joined us as we prepared to hit Oxford Street alongside hundreds of people from a range of organisations including many from the Armed and Public Services, Human Rights charities and businesses in the Private Sector. The parade was a celebration of love and equality and included many colourfully queer outfits and floats. We proceeded down Regent Street to Haymarket where the streets were lined with thousands of people watching and cheering us all as we proudly followed the Stonewall banner.
Nearer Trafalgar Square the crowds along the pavements were five people deep and continually took photographs, smiled enthusiastically and demanded high fives from us as we walked past. As we reached Whitehall, there was a real sense of pride amongst us and the hoards of people who had turned out to celebrate equality.
The two and a half hours of walking in the heat was fairly exhausting, yet Ms Cuthbertson reminded us that, ‘being political is hard work’. Stonewall staff thanked us for all our hard work at Corelli College and praised the school’s commitment to tackling homophobia and inequality.
This year Corelli College was the only school group (in the whole of the UK) to join Stonewall and the many youth groups that sign up to take part. Of this, we can be extremely proud - but it is a substantial indication that there are still some significant struggles ahead in order to achieve complete equality in education and all schools.