More than 35,000 people marched through central London on Saturday for the annual LGBT+ Pride parade, according to The Guardian.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan joined the procession, which included roughly 600 groups traveling from Hyde Park Corner to Whitehall via Piccadilly.
Demands for Healthcare and Legal Protections
The demonstration took place amid ongoing debates in the UK over transgender healthcare wait times and conversion therapy legislation.
Activist Julian Hows, 70, marched at the front of the procession, emphasizing the protest element of Pride.
"Pride is important because it needs to have an underlying level of protest, and you can see the freedoms that we have can so easily be taken away," Hows said.
He stressed the need for continued global advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights.
"We also always need to push further because there's always somewhere where our rights are being taken away," he added.
Before the march, a Pride spokesperson highlighted specific issues facing the community.
"The urgency is clear: NHS gender-affirming care waiting lists now exceed four years in some regions while a comprehensive trans-inclusive ban on conversion therapy remains uncodified into law despite a 2018 government pledge," the spokesperson said.
The representative also noted a decline in community spaces and rising hate crimes.
"Since 2006, 58% of London's LGBTQ+ venues have closed," the spokesperson said, adding that Home Office figures show more than 18,000 hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation were reported in 2025.
The first official UK Pride march took place in July 1972, following the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York.
Rebecca Paisis, interim chief executive for the event, spoke about the power of collective action.
"Our movement has always been built on many voices becoming one united front – from the people who marched in 1972 to those joining us for the first time this year.
That's where our power lies," she said.
Paisis added that coming together is key to overcoming adversity.
"As LGBTQ+ people, we've never been strangers to adversity, but neither are we strangers to collective action," she said.
The London event has faced criticism from some activists over corporate sponsorship ties to the arms trade and the war in Gaza since 2024.
