I've attended Pride around the world, these are the best LGBTQ+ locations
I’ve been going to Pride since… when did putting safety pins through your noses first start? Well, then.
Mostly in London, but not only. Manchester, Brighton, Birmingham, New York, Los Angeles, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Toronto, Sydney, you name it… Well, I am a travel journalist – a gay one – so I do get around.
From a gaggle of protesters running a gauntlet of abuse in the early days (we didn’t care: we thought it was funny), to huge city-wide celebrations with all the public buildings lit up in rainbow colours as your backdrop and more glitter than a body can take, I’ve been there.
Some people complain that Pride has got very corporate but is that a bad thing? If you work at a supermarket or a bank or… I don’t know, car dealership, isn’t it nice to know that your employers value you for you (even in that outfit!) and have put money aside so you can have a nice time?
In the early days, it wasn’t unusual for people to duck if they saw press cameras, knowing that if they were pictured at a Pride march, they could – legally! – be thrown out of employment come Monday morning if it made the papers. Not any more. Now visibility is everything!
And it’s a great way to travel as an LGBTQ+ – or as an ally who likes a party – your trip coinciding with Pride.
Yeah, you might find it trickier to snag a hotel room and those prices will go up but think of the parties, think of the crowds in their very sexiest outfits, think of the fun. And you get to see a city at its most welcoming moment of the year!
Pride Month 2023
Pride Month is here, with members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies celebrating their identities, accomplishments, and reflecting on the struggle for equality throughout June.
This year, Metro.co.uk is exploring the theme of family, and what it means to the LGBTQ+ community.
Find our daily highlights below, and for our latest LGBTQ+coverage, visit our dedicated Pride page.
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New York City, June 25
The original, and some say the best, New York Pride started in 1970 to mark a year since the 1969 Stonewall Riots that started the gay rights movement (the Stonewall Inn was a bar for the LGBTQ+ community that the police raided just once too often…) and has been going ever since.
Stay
Budget: Freehand
There is no such thing as cheap in New York City but this might be a good bet, a cute boho-styled number quite near the Flatiron on the way downtown.
Book a room: Here
Blowout: The Standard High Line
You probably couldn’t invent a more perfect hotel for the sort of high jinks you want to get up to during NYC Pride. Cool, busy, buzzy, fun with special Pride events.
Book a room: Here
Sydney, March 3, 2024
The stars aligned this year and Sydney, already famous for one of the world’s best Prides (called Mardi Gras… but what’s in a name?) also hosted World Pride, a moveable feast of a mega-Pride where the global LGBTQ+ community and its allies are welcomed, this year to the southern hemisphere for the first time.
It may have been a full-on ten-plus-day extravaganza with Kylie and Dannii reuniting on stage, the first ever Pride parade across the famous Harbour Bridge, the whole of Sydney, including the Opera House, lit up in rainbow colours, and a huge swimwear-heavy beach party on Bondi (our livers sent an official note of complaint to our doctors), but even your regular Mardi Gras is exceptional.
Expect a full cultural programme, kaftan pool cocktails, drag queens coming out of every doorway and parties, parties, parties.
Stay
Budget: The Porter House
Brand new, fairly luxurious and walkable to the gay high-life on Oxford Street.
Book a room: Here
Blowout: The Ace
It’s the last word in cool. Edgy! Urban! Fresh! And handily located in leafy Surry Hills.
Book a room: Here
mardigras.org.au
Manchester, August 25-28
Yes, London is bigger and Brighton attracts the superstars but there’s no beating Manchester Pride, the unofficial Pride of the North, where the whole of the Gay Village is locked down for unparalleled partying (our straight girlfriend fell off her sky-high wedges and broke a ankle last year, so it’s not without its perils).
With the MCR undergoing a renaissance, the eyes of the world are upon it and, being the big show-off that it is, Manchester is revelling in the attention. The parade is magical (look out for the annual Coronation Street float loaded with soap stars), the Big Weekend around Canal Street a total mash-up and the entertainment 96 per cent queer with big names this year an eclectic mix along the lines of Jake Shears, Pabllo Vittar, Bimini, Danny Beard and, of course, Ginny Lemon’s Dog Show, which is legendary. Just promise us you won’t wear sky-high wedges.
Stay
Budget: Whitworth Locke
Right by the Gay Village, you get a mini-apartment, so you can cook your own food and save a fortune.
Book a room: Here
Blowout: Gotham
Set in a beautiful art deco building, it’s classic and camp with amazing staff.
Book a room: Here
manchesterpride.com
Tel Aviv – June 7, 2024
You might not think of the Middle East as somewhere you want to go to celebrate Pride but Tel Aviv, Israel’s most modern city, is an oasis of tolerance in the middle of a region not known for welcoming the LGBTQ+s.
An amazing city at any time of the year – the food, the architecture, the beach, the history, and it’s just 45 minutes from Jerusalem – during Pride it comes alive.
The locals call the actual day of the parade – from a park through the city to the beach – Love Day, just to be even more inclusive, and everyone from grannies taking their grandchildren out in prams to scantily clad dancers and drag queens take part.
The heat is stifling and the al fresco party of people in swimwear after the parade is euphoric.
Stay
Budget: The Vera
Cool and funky with – we seem to remember – wine-dispensing machines in the lobby and a cute little rooftop bar, this is a find. theverahotel.com
Blowout: The Jaffa
This is John Pawson minimalist loveliness in a classic building.
Book a room: Here
telavivpride.com
Amsterdam – August 5,
With a massive 92 per cent of the public strongly in favour of LGBTQ+ equality – as against 14 per cent in Russia – Amsterdam has long been Europe’s most tolerant city.
Its Pride may not be the biggest but it’s among the most magical mainly because the bulk of the action happens on the canals.
We’ve always been lucky to wangle a spot on the deck of the Pulitzer hotel, from where you get the best view of the barges floating by loaded with drag queens, go-go dancers, DJs on podiums and regular folk representing their groups or their industries.
And if you’re wondering what happens when the barges meet the bridges… everything, even the palm trees, collapses to get underneath, then bounces right up again when the bridge has been navigated. Talk about making a splash.
Stay
Budget: Conscious Hotels
This is a mini chain in Amsterdam, basic but big on style and sustainability, with a cool choice of locations. conscioushotels.com
Blowout: The Pulitzer
Crafted out of 25 squeezed-together 18th-century canalside buildings, this gorgeous five-star hotel has the added attraction of its Pride Deck for a ringside view.
Book a room: Here
pride.amsterdam
Nashville, June 24-25,
You should always have a ‘next Pride’ on your list and right at the top of mine is Nashville, and not just because there are probably going to be gay cowboys.
The drag scene (our contacts on the ground tell us) is second to none – well, they have the inspiration of the queens of country like Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette – and the line-up of acts is always impressive, with this year’s headliner lesbian icon – or ‘dykon’ – Fletcher, which has the ladies in a tizz.
The city itself is big on live music with bars and cafes and restaurants and, well, everywhere banging out the tunes.
So come Pride, that is apparently one of the big draws – although we hear they like a Lady Gaga and a Beyoncé number as much as any other self-respecting LGBTQ+, so don’t be expecting wall-to-wall C&W.
Stay
Budget: The Russell
Set in hipsterish East Nashville, this quirky boutique number is a riot of colour and fun in a 115-year-old church.
Book a room: Here
Blowout: 1 Hotel Nashville
Cool sustainability, effortless chic in a limited palette and a super-cool rooftop bar with firepits overlooking the skyscrapers of downtown.
Book a room: Here
nashvillepride.org
See: pridelifeglobal.com
No Prides, just predjudice
It’s not all rainbows and body glitter. The very idea of Pride has become a battlefield in many countries, especially in eastern Europe, with protesters against Pride parades turning violent and revellers being beaten up, while politicians in Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria egg on the homophobes.
Even in sunny Florida, presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has implemented a ‘Don’t Say Gay’ policy in schools and has gone to war against Disney – the largest employer in the state – whose company ethos is supportive to its LGBTQ+ staff and customers. And yet towns like South Beach Miami and Fort Lauderdale do cracking Pride.
In Uganda, a law has just been passed making homosexual activity punishable by death with Kenya expected to follow suit.
Mind you, same-sex behaviour is actually illegal in 32 out of 56 Commonwealth countries with punishments for ‘homosexual activity’ ranging from 14 years in prison in Jamaica to 20 years and a flogging in Malaysia.
But it’s not all bad news: even with Uganda and Kenya – and we all saw the anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes during the World Cup in Qatar, attitudes replicated across many Arab states – many African countries, such as Angola, Botswana and Mozambique have repealed laws that criminalised same-sex acts.
And in Japan, there’s increasing pressure on the government to get rid of its law banning same-sex marriage, with 70 per cent of the public in favour.
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