Preston Pride set to take over the city centre as thanks are paid to equality champions from the past

The city’s Flag Market is playing host to the annual Preston Pride, now in its seventh year, and organisers are head of heels at how the celebratory plans have played out.

Treasurer of the organising committee, Lorraine Lenoir, said: “We’re quite a small committee which started back in 2011.

“We have a very trans-positive message too. It’s about having a strong message of remembering all the hard work done before us for equality.”

Preston-native Lorraine, who along with Debs Bradshaw has helped mastermind this Saturday's event, take enormous pride in their event being entrenched in the community and free for all.

“One of the things we are proud of is being a community event,” 39-year-old Lorraine explained.

“A lot of Pride events are becoming commercial which is fine, but we are very community focused.

“There will be some stalls selling commercial goods but a lot are community based from the likes of mental health and disability support groups.

“There’s a real broad spectrum of services at our pride and we never want to lose that as we become bigger and better every year.”

“We make sure it’s not just about sex or gender but also ability and access. And it goes without saying we welcome all our straight allies too,” she explained.

“It’s an LGBTQ+event but we’re so pleased to see our straight allies contribute and take part.”

Among the stalls at the event will be one from Lancashire Teaching Hospitals (LTH) NHS Foundation Trust.

To mark the day, the Trust has raised Pride flags – a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride – at Preston Royal Hospital and Chorley and South Ribble Hospital.

This year’s lifetime achievement award is also set to be awarded to PC Stuart Rutledge from Lancashire Police for his work in championing the LGBTQ+ community within the police force as well as for fighting hate crime across Lancashire.