Hackney Gay Pride march to go ahead despite Home Secretary’s ban

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Hackney’s gay pride parade is to go ahead later this month despite the Home Secretary’s 30-day ban on marches in six London boroughs after police deemed it a ‘customary’ event.

A loophole in the Public Disorder Act, under which the ban was imposed, allows for ‘commonly held’ or ‘customary processions’ to take place without giving advance notice to the police.

The borough’s second gay pride event, which has been renamed East London Pride, was postponed for three weeks to prevent it from clashing with the English Defence League’s demonstration in Tower Hamlets on Saturday.

Terry Stewart, who organises the event, said: “We thought we should keep it separate. It’s taken months to organise and we’ve put a lot of work into it.”

East London Pride is not to be confused with the controversial East End Gay Pride parade that was aborted earlier this year after a row with the local LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] community ending with one of its organisers being accused of previous links to the EDL.

The march was organised in response to a highly provocative sticker campaign in Tower Hamlets, where the march was to be held, proclaiming the borough to be a gay-free zone.

But Stewart said there had been no prior consultation by EEGP organisers with the local gay or Muslim community before announcing the march.

He said: “We think it was a smokescreen to invite the EDL into the borough and we certainly weren’t having it in our [LGBT] name. In the end we said no we’re not happy you walking into our borough causing problems around an issue they were making out is much worse than it actually is. We feel as local people we are dealing with it. We certainly don’t need someone to come in from the outside and start creating problems.”

So this year, Hackney Gay Pride has become East London Pride to open it up to the wider community; gay, straight, Muslim or Christian, with the aim of celebrating the area’s diversity.

It kicks off from Hackney Town Hall at 12 noon on Saturday 24 September.

Related:

East End Gay Pride cancelled

Gay groups divided over East End Pride march