Pride London - an estimated 1 million celebrate!

I didn't see a segment about today's Pride London event in the BBC1 News at 5.35pm, but they do have an article up about it now, with embedded video-clip. I'm glad to see that some of the players of the Kings Cross Steelers Rugby Football Club (of which I have been a supporting member for many years) were well in evidence near the beginning of the clip.

Pride in the British military

Yes, there's a double-meaning there! Firstly because of the prominent role played by members of different parts of our military forces in London Pride last Saturday and because the presence of lesbian and gay personnel is now widely-accepted and uncontroversial in most quarters. It is specially pleasing to see the latest issue of Soldier (*) (which is published by the Ministry of Defence) and various of the articles it contains (for example - "Equal Partners: Gay Soldiers Hail Army's Strides In Diversity." ).

(*) - You can download the complete .PDF version of the July issue via the link at the foot of the linked page.

The other aspect of pride in our military forces relates to their bravery and courage, or more precisely the profound respect they have earned and which is if possible heightened by the recent surge in fatalities they have suffered in Afghanistan.

I salute them all.