The annual Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage Celebration and Awards evening, held at Nottingham Council House, was well attended and pictures of the awardees (Singing Proud, Base 51, Tina Nock and Queer Arts Collective) can be seen in the Awards section of this website.

Several organisations set up stalls for the first part of the evening. Shown here are Nottinghamshire Hurricanes Rugby Team, the NASUWT teachers' union, Five Leaves Bookshop and Notts Police.  Thanks should go to Councillors Roberts and Webster for arranging the event in conjunction with Rainbow Heritage.

Brianna Ghey was a young trans woman from Warrington who was murdered on the 11th of February. Two teenagers have been charged and it is suspected that her murder was a transphobic hate crime.

Vigils for Brianna took place in many locations across the UK. Notts LGBT+ Network helped organise a vigil in Nottingham on February 17th.

It is estimated that nearly 500 people gathered near the Brian Clough statue just off the Market Square. Flowers were placed and candles were lit as several speakers paid their individual tributes. The photograph below gives some idea of the size of the crowd.

In 2023 Uganda became the third country in Africa which has instituted the death penalty for same sex activities. Uganda still remains a member of the Commonwealth.

Museveni maintains that homosexuality is a "Western practice". He should be reminded that King Mwanga II of Uganda was bisexual, that current attitudes in Uganda are the result of British colonialism and that King Mwanga reacted very strongly to British missionaries trying to impose their ideas about sexualiy.

In June  2023 a rainbow wall appeared at the entrance to John Lewis. It was made up of 1,000 paper cranes made by the students from Fernwood School in Wollaton.

Why paper cranes? The crane is a mystical or holy creature in Japanese culture. They are symbols of peace and are also created by groups as a collective effort when wanting to offer good fortune to others.

The students are members of the schools LGBTQ+ group.

Nottingham's Pride was fortunate in occupying one of the few fine days during this period. The numbers on the march were greater than ever - nearly 10,000. 

Worksop and Netherfield Prides returned and were joined by new Prides in Retford, Harworth & Bircotes and Sherwood.

New social groups are always welcome and four started up over the Summer and Autumn

Front Runners is (no surprise) a group for runners who will complete a 5km run each week ... ending up at the Lord Roberts. Three member are shown on the left.

The other groups were a board game group aimed at local lesbians, a queer craft club, which has been initiated by Notts LGBT+ Network and a ten-pin bowling group with the unforgettable name of Gay City Bowlers

On November 14th (at 8.30 am) the news arrived that Notts LGBT+ Network had been awarded the King's Award for Voluntary Service.

This is the equivalent of an MBE for a voluntary group and is in recognition for (at the time) 48 years of service. The actual awarding ceremony will take place in 2024.

2024

At the end of January 2024, Nottingham Panthers  ice Hockey team put on what now seems to be an annual Pride Night.

There were Pride mascots, Pride jumpers and a fundraiser for Notts LGBT+ Network which raised over £2000

It is still fairly rare for schools to celebrate LGBT+ History Month, but some Nottingham Schools do.

The High School set up a fundraising day powered by the opportunity to lose that uniform.

Notts LGBT+ Network was informed in November that it had received the King’s Award for Voluntary service - the equivalent of an MBE.

The award was actually presented on February 24th by Sir John Peace, the Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire.

The award, in tangible form, consists of a certificate and a glass crystal. Holding these are two of the Network’s trustees, Charlie and Tony.  This was a milestone on the journey to another  milestone - in 2025 the Network will have been operating for 50 years.

This year's Celebration included an illustrated presentation by C.J.DeBarra who gave a fascinating insight into their two books which will appear (along with an exhibition at Broadway) in July.

The first book will deal with LGBT+ Nottingham from 1960 to 1990 and the second book will cover the period from 1990 to 2020.

This year's event was a joint effort. Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage joined with Notts Pride and each presented their awards. For Rainbow Heritage, the awards went to Nadia Whittome MP (top centre) for her support for LGBT+ people both locally and nationally. She is seen here with Shuguftah Quddoos, the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Next to Nadia are two members from the Health Shop, who received recognition for the Shop’s longstanding support for LGBT+ People - always present at Pride, frequently setting up specific health events, providing a base for Silver Pride and, of course, distributing their "shag packs".

Bottom right is a member of Badminton Social. That group has been running for nearly 20 years and which allows people to enjoy socialising in an inclusive atmosphere over a game of badminton.

Bottom left are two members of the Pride Hosts, who help the running of Pride each year. They received the first of Pride's awards. The second award went to members of Tiger Community.

The evening ended with rousing performance from Nottingham's LGBT+ choir, Singing Proud.