Celebrating Pride Month 2023

As Pride month 2023 comes to a close, we want to take time to honour and commemorate lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, questioning, asexual, non-binary and pansexual people. Pride began after the Stonewall riots with a series of gay liberation protests in 1969 and it’s now become a worldwide movement. Events and marches take place across the globe which celebrate the LGBTIQA+ rights movement and drive more changes.

D2 are proud to celebrate Pride month, we have decorated our head office with Pride flag bunting and donned our screens as part of the celebration. As a business and an ally for the LGBTIQA+ community, we want to support and continue to build an environment where people feel safe, secure, and celebrated for being their authentic self.

Today we would like to celebrate some of the LGBTIQA+ people that have changed the world through their courage and strength, paving the way for others to live their authentic lives and be celebrated for who they are.

Alan Turing Alan Turing was not a well-known figure during his lifetime, but today he is famous and celebrated for the crucial part he played in the victory over Nazi Germany in WW2. Alan was a mathematician who cracked something called the Enigma code, which is thought to have shortened the war by several years. Alan was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts. He was faced with an impossibly cruel choice of imprisonment, or probation on the condition he underwent chemical castration. Alan died from suicide two years later. Thanks to the efforts of activists, historians and politicians, Turing’s legacy has not been forgotten. In 2013, HM Queen Elizabeth II signed a pardon for Turing’s conviction with immediate effect. Since then, the Alan Turing Law has gone on to secure pardons for 75,000 other men and women convicted of similar crimes.

Edith Windsor
Edie – was a leading woman in the fight for LGBTQ rights in America. Her case against the American justice system was the first time same-sex marriage was recognised as legal in America. Edie married her wife Thea Syper in Canada in 2007, Thea died in 2009.

Phyll Opoku-Gyimah
Better known as Lady Phyll, is a British LGBTIQA+ rights activist and anti-racism campaigner. She is the co-founder of UK Black Pride, which began in 2005 as a day trip to Southend-on-Sea in England. It now attracts nearly 8,000 people every year.

Chris Smith
In 1984 Chris Smith became the UK’s first male openly gay MP and later, the first gay cabinet minister. After announcing that he was gay, he received a five-minute standing ovation. His actions and the positive reaction he received has undoubtedly helped pave the way for many other MPs to be open about their sexuality as well. There have since been lots of other gay cabinet members.

The last 50 years have seen such growth, acceptance, and love, all thanks to the leaders that fight for the LGBTIQA+ rights, their community and their allies that support and educate people around the world.

50 years of legislation