The team said they “will not let this happen again”
Sahir’s Kellie Welch, Shereen Cowley, Kat Taylor and Ant Hopkinson.(Image: Colin Lane)
A city charity said the idea of not having a Pride in Liverpool “just didn’t feel right” as they stepped in to save it. LCR Pride, the organisers behind the annual celebrations, announced earlier this year that the city’s 2025 pride festival would no longer be going ahead.
At the time, the board said it was due to “significant financial and organisational changes,” including cutting ties with head sponsor Barclays after a dispute over the bank’s policy on transgender bathroom access following a recent Supreme Court ruling.
It was a real blow to the city as people were ready to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community in all its glory. People took to social media to express their concerns and disappointment that the city-wide march and event would not be going ahead as planned.
After the news was shared by the ECHO, a small team found on the fifth floor of Dale Street’s LCVS building were distraught. That team was Sahir, Liverpool’s oldest LGBTQ+ charity that specialises in HIV work. The charity later announced on July 1 that it had managed to “turn things around”.
The charity’s CEO, Ant Hopkinson, who lives in Rainhill, spoke to the ECHO about how they managed to save one of the calendar’s most colourful days.
Team members Kellie, Shereen, Kat and Ant, from Sahir, the city’s oldest LGBTQ+ charity(Image: Colin Lane)
The activist said: “We received the email notification like everyone else. That’s how we learnt about the news. We were just as shocked as the rest of Liverpool. Here at Sahir, we are community members ourselves so we were gutted. As long as there has been a Pride in Liverpool Sahir has been involved.
“There was this sense that the idea of not having a Pride in Liverpool just didn’t feel right at all. We need that moment of solidarity where we can shout out about how we feel, the erosion of our rights.
“We are in a divided world right now and we see it first, so that has been a massive driving force for us stepping in, especially with the trans community and asylum seekers. It’s the one day in the year for some people where they can feel seen and heard.”
What has come of Sahir’s staging, as of yet, is an inclusive line-up and programme – both designed to highlight the city’s strong connection to queer culture and community power.
Sahir’s Kellie, Shereen, Kat and Ant. There are 10 others who make up the team.(Image: Colin Lane)
In a change from the past few years, the event will return to the waterfront – and for the first time it take over the M&S Bank Arena with a host of performances and entertainment.
However, once the dust has settled and crowds disperse, there is still a bigger picture to consider. Sahir stepped in to help facilitate and coordinate the community-led Pride when time was against them.
With only a few weeks’ notice, the charity created a GoFundMe to help with the costs. The target hoped for to deliver Pride 2025 is £60,000, with any surplus of the funds raised being used to protect the life-changing work Sahir does all year round.
The charity has been offering HIV support, prevention, information, and training across Merseyside since 1985 and hopes to continue doing so for many years to come. But taking on the massive task of delivering a Pride has come, not just at a physical and mental cost, but a financial one.
This year’s staging of Pride is thanks to Sahir(Image: Colin Lane)
Ant said: “Sahir is a frontline support charity, and we tend to work with those who are the most vulnerable and marginalised in communities. Practical, emotional, mental-health, group, and sexual-health support; all of that still needs to continue from our team of 14, while responding to the need to save Pride.
“We’ve had to step back from our daily roles to focus on this, but it’s so important that we thought it was necessary. We are watching how things progress for next year, but we won’t let this happen again, especially with not seven weeks’ notice.
“It’s been a challenging time. I’m easily working double the hours as normal. It’s worth it, no doubt, but only in the short term. I wouldn’t be telling the truth if I said it was easy.
“As an individual and a community member, I want to deliver something that people want, believe in and feel is authentic. I’m an activist in my own right, and so you do have doubts that you are doing the wrong thing. But I will keep going with this regardless, we are stronger together.”
The ECHO will be bringing you updates for Liverpool Pride 2025 as and when they are available over the next few weeks. Until then, you can support Sahir’s staging of the celebrations here.