Proud to be different, Alternative Pride follows the path of continued resistance

In the before-Covid times, across the Western world, there were widespread assumptions or even movements towards a ‘post-gay’ world. That is, a world where sexual identity ceased to exist as relevant to a person’s sense of self, their lived experiences and their social position. There were presumptions that being LGB or queer-identified was just a thing you were, and not something which affected your life in any way, largely due to recent rights and political gains made for LGBTI+ individuals and communities.

However, the post-gay world was a myth then and remains a myth now. The reality is – and has always been – that queer and trans-identified people, particularly those from racial, ethnic or class minority backgrounds, largely do not benefit from ‘welcomed’ gains like marriage equality or EDI policies. Researchers have underscored that legislative change is highly limited, and much policy is unevenly applied.

While desiring marriage, media representation, and other socio-political or legal changes is not wrong, their role in limiting the imagining of a life outside of cis-heteropatriarchy causes problems. Rather than support one another, community ties are weakened in favour of personal and private matters where some would rather, as Lisa Duggan writes, “get marriage and the military, then [...] go home and cook dinner, forever”.

The move by lesbian and gay activists to seek out legal protections and media representation in lieu of liberation is seen by Duggan as a “political sedative” that has lessened our connections to one another in queer, trans and wider LGBTI+ communities across the world. This was further impacted during the pandemic with its restrictions on socialising while heteroactivism, anti-trans lobbies and far-right groups proliferated.

The resulting impacts in an Irish context are being felt across the country. A recent report by Belong To found that LGBTI+, queer and trans people have worse mental health and wellbeing than in 2016 – just after the marriage equality referendum. In my own PhD research, a significant minority of the bisexual+ participants I interviewed felt that marriage equality did not have any positive impact on their lives, and they continued to feel outside of belonging in their communities.

There was also a significant minority of participants who openly commented on how capitalist many LGBTI+ venues and events had gotten over the years, favouring international drag and music acts and corporations over supporting homegrown talent and celebrating the ‘true’ values of Pride: resistance, community and solidarity. These three interconnected values are increasingly under threat in the contemporary movement, alongside the growing danger that queer and trans communities are in.

Particularly in the last three decades since homosexuality was decriminalised and marriage equality was introduced, Ireland’s more radical Pride events have been replaced by large-scale events sponsored by multinational corporations (some of which will have ties to the Israeli military, or the deforestation of the Amazon) or pharmaceutical firms that that make life-saving medication for HIV patients impossible to access.

So what can we do in the face of a hostile world where waving sweatshop-produced rainbow flags no longer serves us, our wider communities and those who are marginalised across the world? Indeed, many queer and trans communities across the world have been pushing against mainstream Pride programming for years, including Dyke Marches, Trans Pride and Black Pride events.

Inspired by such work, here in Limerick, we have also sought to create critical and community-focused alternatives to capital-centric celebrations.

Since 2022, we have been hosting arts and nightlife events aimed at centring those in our communities that are so often marginalised: older people, people with disabilities, trans people, migrants and ethnic minorities, and so on. We also host many sober events during Pride week to hold space for those in our communities who suffer with addiction. Most of our events are free or have a low price point, thanks to grants from local and national arts and LGBTI+ funds.

None of us involved in starting Limerick Alternative Pride had any real experience of running events, putting on a festival, or even writing funding applications. We came together, as a community and a team, to do one thing: to be together in a safe, inclusive and accessible environment, and hold space for each other.

What has resulted is our ability to show that Pride is not just a protest and a party, but a space for lasting love and learning to flourish and grow. We need not change our narrative, compromise our ethics and politics, or even reinvent the wheel. We just need to make sure that our wheel keeps turning, with all we’ve got.

For updates on this year’s Limerick Alternative Pride programme, follow @mothermarx and @dyke_nite on Instagram.