Bristol Pride 2023 has officially begun with two weeks of events taking place from today (Saturday, June 24). To mark the start of the award-winning festival celebrating LGBTQIA+ communities we at Bristol Live want to recognise people who have contributed to LGBTQ+ life in the city over the past 12 months and who have encouraged and supported inclusivity.
We have aimed to showcase the community's diversity and the list was put together thanks to social media suggestions, nominations from main organisations in the city as well as suggestions from other people featured.
In the true spirit of pride, Bristol Pride offers something for everyone centring its jam-packed programme around theatre, music, boat tours, circus, comedy, talks, cinema, workshops and dance - to name a few. This year sees the return of the Pride Dog Show on Sunday, July 2 in Castle Park as well as a special Pride Comedy Night at Bristol Old Vic hosted by Strictly star Jayde Adams, tickets are just £15.
READ MORE: Bristol Pride 2023 releases full programme of events and Pride Day timings
This year's festival concludes with Pride Day Weekend, which takes place on Saturday, July 8. It is one of the largest Pride events in the UK and saw 40,000 people attending in 2022.
This year's list of names for the Pink List has been suggested from organisations or through social media platforms and are in no particular order.
Daryn Carter
Daryn is Bristol Pride's programming and partnership director as well as sitting on the ITV West diversity panel and the diversity advisory panel for University of Bristol. He was one of the founders of Bristol Pride's return in 2009 and has been responsible for delivering the festival, which is one of the largest Pride events in the UK, for the last 14 years.
Daryn has been campaigning for LGBT+ equality and working in diversity and inclusion for nearly 20 years as well as setting up a city-wide campaign to highlight incidents of hate crime, among others. He was awarded an MBE and Freedom of the City of Bristol in 2020 in recognition of his long standing work in equality and diversity.
Peta Shillingford
Peta is a core organiser of Kiki which is a space for (QTIPOC) (queer, transgender, intersex, people of colour) to meet and connect.
Following the pandemic she said her focus would be on Black and queer people of colour and their artistic expression, as well as showcasing different voices through an artistic lens.
Paula Coonerty
Paula Coonerty is the senior champion for LGBTQ+ at the University of Bristol and seeks to be a strong voice for staff and students who identify as LGBTQ+ to make sure they can be their best selves in their work or studies. As the senior director with responsibility for education and student support, she works to ensure that university activities and services are inclusive of all, particularly LGBTQ+ members of the university community, and she is committed to ensuring that colleagues and fellow students are supported to understand and undertake acts of allyship.
Tim Borrett
Tim is Bristol City Council’s director of policy, strategy and digital. He works closely with the Mayor and other city leaders to improve inclusion across the city.
The 39-year-old is responsible for producing the council’s overall corporate strategy and is its director lead for the One City Approach.
He oversees several council departments and is a senior management sponsor of the council’s LGBT+ staff led group, also volunteering as a mentor for its Young Professionals Network.
Dr Myles-Jay Linton
A chartered psychologist and Vice-Chancellor's Fellow from Bristol University, Dr Myles-Jay Linton leads research into young people’s mental health. He is one of the core members of Kiki Bristol which has created a safe social space for queer, trans, intersex, black people and people of colour across the south west region.
He is also a visual artist and illustrator which reflects his work in psychology and the connection between bodies and emotion.
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Rónán de Búrca
Rónán was music director of Sing Out Bristol, the south-west’s largest LGBT+ community choir, from 2009-2022, overseeing the development of the choir from a small group of friends singing for fun into a huge, talented group with 130 members at its peak
In January 2020, Rónán also helped to establish a new male voice choir in Bristol, the Bristol Gay Men’s Chorus.
In 2022, he stepped down as MD of Sing Out Bristol to concentrate on the BGMC, and recently took the new choir to Bologna to participate in Various Voices, a festival of LGBT+ choirs across Europe.
Rónán is looking forward to continuing to grow and develop the Bristol Gay Men’s Chorus, and to participating in the Hand in Hand LGBT+ choir festival which will take place in Bristol in August 2024.
Charlotte Fay-Fineran
Charlotte is the chair of the LGBT+ staff network at Avon and Somerset Police. The 32-year-old, who didn't declare her sexuality on her application form in case it worked against her, found the force to be inclusive and caring.
Charlotte influences positive change including championing the right for people to be given the freedom of gender expression. She has implemented changes to forms so that people are no longer restricted to describing themselves as ‘male’, ‘female’ or ‘prefer not to say
Professor Steve Hams
Steve is Chief Nursing Officer and one of the most senior nurses in Bristol, responsible for leading over 3,000 nurses, midwives and healthcare professionals at North Bristol NHS Trust. He received an MBE for services to nursing in the 2022 New Year Honours, and is the LGBTQIA+ Board champion.
Steve has particular interests in leadership and coaching, LGBTQIA+ equality and diversity and mental health.
Shrouk El-Attar
Recognised as one of the top young engineers in the UK as well as being a belly dancer, Shrouk is also an LGBT+ rights and refugee activist and has campaigned to give asylum seekers equal access to higher education.
She was named as BBC 100 most influential women in the world 2018, United Nations Young Woman of the Year 2018, and top six young women engineers in the UK 2019 & 2020.
Read next: Bristol Pride 2023 reveals chart-topping Scissor Sisters frontman as headliner
Ben Mosley
Ben is the head of the Bristol City Council’s executive office and works closely with the Mayor as well as the council’s chief executive and corporate leadership team. He oversees decision-making processes and works with the council’s leadership to identify solutions to key challenges.
Passionate about promoting equality and inclusion in leadership, the 36-year-old is one of the council’s equalities champions and supports the council’s diverse voices programme – supporting aspiring leaders from diverse backgrounds to become senior leaders.
Rosie Nelson
Rosie Nelson is a Lecturer in Gender at the University of Bristol. Their sociological work focuses on LGBTQ+ everyday lives and experiences, with a particular focus on bisexuality. Alongside their LGBTQ+ focus, Rosie also explores research methods, ethics, and queer theory. Their upcoming book about bisexualities and everyday life is due for release in July 2023.
Their work argues for more justice, recognition and acceptance related to all LGBTQ+ identities. Alongside their academic research, Rosie is part of the leadership team of Queer Frontiers, the recently formed academic network for those who research LGBTQ+ identities. Rosie is passionate about creating inclusive and welcoming classrooms for all students, and does so through class activities, assessments, and readings.
Stephen McGlynn
Stephen McGlynn is a regional Deputy Chief Operating Officer for the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). Based at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW), his work sees him supporting a diverse range of health and care organisations to offer and deliver research across the West of England.
In his role, Stephen leads on all things ‘people’: developing and supporting health and care professionals. As an organisational psychologist, Stephen is a passionate advocate for inclusion in the workplace, and is proud to have marched with the British Psychological Society as part of their first ever Pride presence in 2022.
Most recently, Stephen has led the development of research inclusion training that will be rolled-out nationally and has spear-headed the launch of a new national LGBTQ+ staff network.
Malaika Kegode
Malaika is an award-winning, writer, performer and creative producer based in Bristol. Winner of the Kevin Elyot Award (2022), she has also been included in the BME Power List celebrating Bristol's black and minority ethnic people. She is passionate about helping people tell their stories.
Her show Outlier has earned critical success and is scheduled to tour theatres, rural venues and colleges this year.
Read next: Bristol Pride founder’s ‘emotional’ response to biggest ever Pride Day
Mark Hubbard
Mark is the festival director for Hand in Hand Festival – a celebration of LGBTQ+ choirs and choral groups. Next August, 50+ choirs and 1,500 singers from Ireland and the UK will showcase the diversity of queer singing and bring the enchanting harmonies of LGBTQ+ choirs to Bristol.
A new scratch choir will be created in the run up and will launch the festival at a welcome event.
Gwyneth Brain
Gwyneth is an associate practitioner at Bristol’s Regional Virology Laboratory, where she has worked for over a decade and is now based at Southmead Hospital. She is part of UKHSA’s LGBT+ Network and was active in the creation of a Pride Flag trail at Southmead Hospital to mark Pride Month 2023. Gwyneth identifies as a cis asexual woman and describes herself as a general nerd.
She was one of the key figures in the creation process and community-wide election of the asexual flag, and has found herself as the asexual flag’s historian for the Southmead Pride Flag Trail and a Gilbert Baker instillation at the Stonewall Inn in New York.
Gwyneth is passionate about visibility for the smaller LGBT+ groups that are often ignored, such as the asexual and intersex communities, and using her privilege as a cis woman to speak against transphobia.
Michael Pearson
Michael is a writer, psychotherapist and mental health consultant. He writes a mental health column focusing on inclusive perspectives for a national psychotherapy journal and created the podcast Your Amazing Mind, featured on the BBC, to help represent the diverse views of young adults.
He continues to support the set-up of county wide mental health services, and fights for inclusive approaches to support and the distribution of professional knowledge to help people for free. He currently works at the University of Bristol as the Head of Student Counselling and is in the middle of writing a collection of LGBTQ+ fictional short stories for release later this year.
Shon Faye
Bristol born, trans activist and author, Shon Faye is probably best known for her non-fiction book The Transgender Issue which was published in 2021 and her podcast Call Me Mother.
She is also outspoken on trans rights and LGBTQ+ issues and recently gave a powerful speech on trans liberation at the Mighty Hoopla Festival. She has written for publications such as Vogue, The Independent and The Guardian.
Read next: Bristol Pride 2023: Girls Aloud's Nadine Coyle and Alison Limerick confirmed to play festival
Andy Hole
Andy is Deputy Trust Health Records Manager at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW) and Chair of the Trust’s LGBTQIA+ Network for staff. In his role as Chair, he is able to provide a voice for LGBTQIA+ staff at all levels of the organisation.
Andy, who has worked at UHBW for 19 years, is also involved in ShoutOut, the LGBT+ radio show on BCfm, and was previously involved with OutStories Bristol as a male co-chair.
Carla Denyer
Carla Denyer is the Green Party MP Candidate for the new Bristol Central constituency, Co-Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales and councillor for Clifton Down. Carla's election as Co-Leader in 2021 made her the first openly bisexual leader of a major political party in England.
She is a proud trans ally, using her platform to campaign for reform to the Gender Recognition Act. Just last week she spoke at the Pink News Westminster Pride Reception laying out the Green Party policies to improve LGBTQIA+ rights.
Bristol Green Party councillors
Ani Stafford-Townsend
Central councillor, Ani is queer and trans. They co-authored the recent trans inclusion motion passed by the city council and is the Green Group's shadow cabinet member and spokesperson for culture, community, public health and equalities. They also work nationally to ensure equity of access to health care for trans and non-binary people.
Jenny Bartle
Councillor for Easton, previously worked with the LGBT humanists, and more recently was a key advocate for the trans inclusion motion and a speaker at trans pride.
Emma Edwards
Councillor for Bishopston and Ashley Down, and leader of the Green Group, previously worked training therapists in diversity and practising therapy and instructing yoga for the LGBTQ+ community.
Jude English
Ashley Councillor, she is a lesbian and a feminist who has represented women's concerns through the Bristol Women's Commission, among other organisations.
Tom Hathway Councillor for Clifton Down and Lisa Stone, Councillor for Windmill Hill & Totterdown
Both councillors also identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community and Lisa as a proud lesbian.
Matthew Areskog
Matthew is Head of Experience of Care and Inclusion at University Hospitals Bristol & Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW) and also part of the LGBTQIA+ staff network at the Trust. Matthew's role at the Trust focusses on working with people and communities to ensure services are accessible, equitable and inclusive for the diverse patients and carers served by UHBW hospitals. Matthew has a passion for understanding and improving the experience of communities who have poorer health outcomes and working towards fairer health services for all.
Outside of the NHS, Matthew is a Trustee at Brigstowe, the leading HIV support charity in Bristol and believes in a future where HIV-related stigma can be a thing of the past.
Travis Alabanza
Born in Bristol, Travis Alabanza is a performance artist, writer and theatre maker and is known for their internationally acclaimed show Burgerz which details the experiences of being trans in the UK. Their book None of the Above : My LIfe Beyond the Binary was listed as one of Waterstones Best Book of 2022 and won the 2023 Jhalak Prize.
In 2023, Alabanza and Debbie Hannan co-created Sound of the Underground at the Royal Court Theatre featuring drag performers from London’s nightlife scene.
Zoranna Gray
Zoranna is the Trust-wide Deputy Outpatient Services Manager for UHBW, vice-chair of the Women's Network and a union rep. Currently, she is working on a project to reduce health inequalities in the Trust as well as implementing a digital portal for patients, so that they can access their letters, amend their appointments and get reminders digitally.
She is passionate about equity and allyship for all and in her spare time works with Babbasa, an organisation that inspires and supports under-represented young people in Bristol to pursue their ambitions. Outside of work, Zoranna loves being outdoors, climbing in particular (classically Bristol) and takes part in the Bristol queer climb group. Any other time is taken up by her and her partner's foster cats and kittens - in between online gaming, whenever the cats allow
Stephen Williams
Stephen Williams was the MP for Bristol West from 2005 and 2015 and was the Liberal Democrats party's first elected openly gay MP. He has taken on key issues such as same sex marriage and religious freedoms, as well as homophobic bullying in school. Today tackling such bullying is a mainstream activity in schools and thousands of same sex marriages have taken place.
Bristol Liberal Democrat councillors
Andrew Varney
Andrew Varney was elected in Brislington West in 2021 and was Deputy Lord Mayor 2021/22
Andrew Brown
Andrew Brown was elected for Hengrove and Whitchurch in 2021.
Sharifa Whitney James
A founder at Kiki Bristol, Sharifa is a black queer activist and freelance community organiser. She is also a footballer, as well as being founder of 'Our Land', a project for black queer youth from rural areas working with schools to develop safe spaces.
Julian Ellacott
Julian is a director of National Friendly, the Bristol based mutual insurer. He is also Board Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. (DEI) champion, overseeing National Friendly's first DEI strategy. He is also chairman of the Conservative Party in the South West, supporting the party’s organisation and volunteers across the region.
Before moving to Bristol he was a councillor in Surrey, where he championed the first Pride in Surrey even
Spencer Blackwell
Spencer is the Chair of Trans Pride South West, an annual trans pride festival that takes place in Bristol. Last year, 1,000 trans and non-binary people attended the events, including a sold out comedy gig and afterparty with a headline set by Chelsea Manning. Trans Pride South West won 'Best Free Event' at the ShoutOut Radio Listeners Awards 2023.
Aled Osborne
Aled is the coordinator of the Cabaret Stage for Bristol Pride and has been doing so since 2013.
He also works full time as the community engagement manager for local HIV support charity Brigstowe, leading the work on changing discriminatory practices and campaigns to raise awareness and reduce the level of stigma people living with HIV face.
Aled also performs at local venues as his alter ego Miss Beaver.
