Swindon and Wiltshire Pride has shared its thoughts on the progress of LGBTQIA rights in the county after protesters gathered at a recent event.

The organisation is gearing up to celebrate its 15th anniversary and has been preparing for this all year with fundraising events to pay for its planned week of activities leading up to the Pride festival on 12th August.

Phoenix Stewart, the Community Engagement and Inclusion Manager for the charity, says these events could not happen without volunteers.

“Pride is run by a committee of volunteers who give up their spare time to support the charity, so as well as having full-time jobs they also help run all of the activities we do.”

One of these events was a Drag Queen Story Hour at the Wyvern Theatre, which was disrupted by protestors.

Swindon Advertiser: Aida-H-Dee with families at the Drag Queen Story Hour event held on Sunday

“We were really surprised to hear that people wanted to protest a book reading to children,” says Stewart.

“Unfortunately the protestors are victims of misinformation.

"The drag queen read a story to children and their parents and everyone had a fabulous time.”

The protestors from far-right group Patriotic Alternative were disrupted themselves by a wave of counter-protestors, with police keeping the two groups separated.

“The counter-protestors did a great job of blocking out the noise from the protestors and made it feel like a mini Pride, helping the families attending to feel safe.”

Protests like this one are why Stewart feels education is so important to the progress of LGBTQIA residents in places like Wiltshire.

“We feel like we have come a long way and moved in the right direction on a lot of things, but on the other hand we seem to be moving backward on trans rights and we feel there needs to be more education on LGTBQIA people in schools. Education is key.”

This month marks five years since the Conservative government promised to ban conversion therapy, but there has been very little progress with this promise, to the letdown of people like Stewart.

“It’s really disappointing to not see any progress with this, other countries have moved much quicker to ban conversion therapy and it’s shocking to see the UK fall massively behind,” they said.

“Pride is a place to celebrate our differences, bring the community and allies together as well as to remember those who have come before us.”

Swindon and Wiltshire Pride is on Saturday, August 12 at Queen’s Park.