Pride month is about acceptance, equality, celebrating the work of LGBTQ+ people, education in LGBTQ+ history and raising awareness of issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community. It also calls for people to remember how damaging homophobia was and still can be. Pride is all about being proud of who you are no matter who you love.

*During Pride month there are usually colourful parades, concerts and marches. With same-sex marriage now legal in all parts of the UK, it can sometime be easy to forget how different attitudes to homosexuality were in the past, and how much change has taken place over the past 50 years. * *For hundreds of years gay people have struggled to be accepted and treated the same as people who are not gay. In fact it wasn't until 1967, that two men were able to be in a relationship together without the fear of being arrested. LGBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. Sometimes it appears with Q, meaning queer and +, which is an inclusive symbol to mean 'and others' to include people of all identities.

Who is 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. Turing was a mathematician who cracked something called the Enigma code, which is thought to have shortened the war by several years. He was also a victim of mid-20th Century attitudes to homosexuality and in 1952 was arrested because being homosexual was illegal in Britain at this time. * In 2013 he was pardoned for this 'crime', and in 2017 the government agreed to officially pardon men accused of 'crimes' like this, meaning they will no longer have a criminal record. This pardoning has come to be known as the Alan Turing law. In 2019 Turing was named the most "iconic" figure of the 20th Century and his face now appears on the £50 note.

***Oscar Wilde ***

*Oscar Wilde is one of the famous playwrights of all time, in fact, you might even have studied 'The Importance of Being Earnest' - one of his most famous plays - at school. He was married to a woman and had two sons, but was later accused of being homosexual. After details of his private life were revealed during a court case had started, he was arrested and tried for gross indecency. * He was sentenced to two years of hard labour, and his wife took their children to Switzerland. His time in prison severely affected his health and once he was released he spent the rest of his life in Europe.

Here at Rothwell Commercial Services [RCS] we welcome anyone and everyone from around the world from any part of life, we like to treat everyone who joins our family with the most respect and we strive ourselves in making our home more and more welcoming to everybody, no matter the differences