The latest Pride parade and festival has taken place in London, 37 years after 2,000 people joined the UK's first Gay Pride Rally as the gay liberation movement began. Picture: Hall-Carpenter Archives.
In 1977 the Gay Pride Committee urged lesbians and gay men to march to Hyde Park for a giant picnic "to give our movement renewed strength and impetus for another year of positive growth and action".
In 1977 march organisers said: "We are facing increased hostility. The number of people who have come out as gay and kept their jobs is offset by sackings, increased police harassment and organised queer-bashing."
During the 1980s a women-only Lesbian Strength March took place days before the "mixed carnival parade". Organised "by women for women" the lesbian march was "guaranteed not to be swamped by men".
In 1987 Pride organisers called Pride "a day of celebration, with a wide range of social and commercial interests involved, but also a political occasion". That mix of personal, social and political remains evident today.
In 1988 coalition group Blacklesbian and Blackgay Pride urged members to "come out, and come out strong". Pride's Black and Asian Minority Ethnic group will host a performance stage at this year's festival.
For many years the Pride parade ended in a huge open-air festival. In 1993 revellers in Brockwell Park were promised mud wrestling, Dannii Minogue and "the most fun you can have with 50,000 people you've never met".
Dozens of support groups and charities get their messages across at Pride. In 1995 the charity Gay Men Fighting Aids handed out sexual health information from a pink tank.
Drag queens in lavish, colourful and often outrageous costumes have become a familiar feature of Pride. In 1997 five marchers paid an eye-catching tribute to the Spice Girls.
As gay visibility grew, pop acts became eager to perform at Pride. In 1997 the Pet Shop Boys headlined the festival at Clapham Common in south London.
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell helped organise London's original 1972 march and continues to protest and gather support at Pride.
Between 1999 and 2003 Pride was re-named London Mardi Gras, encouraging a party atmosphere to celebrate advances in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.
The charity Pride London has organised the event since 2004, gaining support from figures including actor and gay rights campaigner Sir Ian McKellen.
More than half a million people - including many in drag - turned out for the 2009 Pride festival, which had the theme "Come Out and Play".
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