Pride Month profile with Ste Richardsson, Deptford Pride

Around the time of lockdown Deptford Pride, co-produced by myself and my partner Peter, had confirmed the date for the event. We had just agreed some funding with Metro Charity but when it appeared that the pandemic and lockdown could be for many months we had to cancel the Pride event instead.

Shortly after this I had COVID-19 from which I am now recovering. It has provided challenges and even now I often find myself feeling extremely tired. As a result of this and wanting to show our solidarity with the Black Lives Matters protests we haven’t yet made any specific plans for this year.

How has Pride evolved in Deptford?

The first Deptford Pride was held in 2017 and was started by Georgia and Jess. It was held as a one-off community event without funding. The following year Pete and I decided to offer our support to them to organise another one. We heard back that they had moved away from the area. We decided we would give it a go. So with six weeks planning and some funding from Metro and with much support from local organisations, businesses and volunteers we produced the 2018 Deptford Pride event in Deptford Market Yard. We hosted on in 2019 too. We have had stalls, talks on self-care, self-defence workshops, speakers on LGBTQI refugees and a queer tour of Deptford.

What hopes do you have for Pride in 10 years’ time?

I hope that nationally there will be many more small, community focused Pride events that like us are designed to be accessible on both a physical as well as emotional level. Larger prides can leave many people overwhelmed.

Deptford Pride are proud of our engagement with the wider community, local businesses and the LGBT community. Our clothes swap events have created a safe space for local trans people. We do tours for both Black and LGBT History Months. Before lockdown we were also working on a film night at the Matchstick Piehouse as part of the New Cross and Deptford Free Film Festival. We hope to develop our community engagement work in the years ahead.

This year, the pride campaign slogan is ‘You! Me! Us! We!’ What does that mean to you?

For me this year’s slogan is timely and we feel chimes with the sense of a community coming together in Lewisham during the pandemic. I think the intersectional nature of the theme recognising the multiple identities that people have within the LGBTQI+ community. It shows solidarity and being there for each other is so important and powerful. At Deptford Pride we show this through our work with local refugee charities on how to effectively support trans individuals.

How can people get involved with Deptford Pride?

We welcome people from across Lewisham to get involved with planning and putting on activities and would also love local organisations to get in touch with us. They do so by emailing ste@deptfordpride.uk.