Pride Edinburgh fell on Saturday 20 June this year, and Care Support Scotland was there in force. Ray, Dianne and the Caltongate service took the lead on hosting, and the invitation went out to every one of our services.
The celebrations kicked off at our central office. The Caltongate team had the place decorated beautifully; Dianne and colleagues got cooking, and by the time people started arriving, there was hot food, refreshments and music going. People we support came along with their friends and families. Staff came. People from other services came. It turned into exactly the kind of pre-march party you’d hope for.
Then we headed down to the Scottish Parliament and joined the march.
If you’ve never been, it’s hard to describe what it feels like to step onto the Royal Mile with thousands of other people who are all there for the same reason. Scotland’s biggest Pride, and the Care Support Scotland party in the middle of it in every bright colour going. There were sparkles and there were, of course, Dianne’s wings, which turned out to be photogenic enough to make the online papers.
Pride is a celebration, and it’s still a protest, and both of those things matter. What stayed with us most, though, was the community of it. Not only the wider LGBTQ+ community we were marching alongside but also ours: services that don’t often get a whole day together, people cheering each other on through a long walk in the sunshine, everybody looking out for everybody else.
That’s the part we’ll remember.
Thank you to everyone who made it along. Special thanks to the Caltongate team for the lovely decorations, to Ali Maher for all her hard work, and to Dianne for the cooking (and the wings). Thanks as well to Lukasz Kulec, who was behind the camera again this year and captured the day brilliantly.
Same time next June?