Darragh's Soapbox: What Pride means?
Pictured during the Pride of the Déise march last year. All Photos: Joe Evans
Pride of the Déise has unveiled its exciting lineup for this year’s festival.
This year's theme revolves around 'existence as resistance'.
The organisers explained this further, "that simply being as members of the LGBTQIA+ is seen as political, and in a time where those who want to see less of us, we refuse to make ourselves small. So we're having almost two full weeks of Pride of the Déise from Sunday, June 1, to Friday, June 13."
Committee members spoke this week on what Pride means to them.
said: “There's been a rise in harassment and hate speech and hate crimes against the community, notably over the last year.
"Over the last few months because of certain global things that have happened and rises in systemic homophobia and transphobia have really emboldened people here, so we are very much seeing the effects of that on the community, which is why Pride is so important to us and the wider community."
added: "In Ireland we have Pride as staggered events throughout the country, and Pride in Ireland really did start nationally as a protest, with protest marches to stand up for the community during really hard times."
said: "80% of the hate and the bigotry is coming from a very small number of people, and it's people being very loud about it and a lot of it is being imported as well, from places like the US and the UK. So when we get to come together in person to host these events, not only are we getting together, not only are we meeting our local community, but we’re seeing that the wider community of Waterford is supporting us.
"It's really nice to see and it's refreshing."
added: "Being part of this community is really amazing. The acceptance, the happiness, the sharing of trauma and joy is an amazing bonding experience."
