Liverpool's Pride celebrations see the LGBTQIA+ community and its allies come together to celebrate in style every year.
While the day is the perfect opportunity to dance, laugh and make memories, it is important to remember why Pride in Liverpool came about and how, at its essence, Pride is a protest against hatred and bigotry. But it was a tragedy that shocked the city from which these celebrations were born.
In August 2008, 18-year-old Michael Causer was beaten to death at a house party. Prosecutors claimed homophobic insults were hurled at Michael during the attack. One man, James O’Connor, of The Brow, Runcorn who was then 20, was handed a life sentence for Michael's killing in 2009. The next month, saw trainee policeman, James Parkes, then 22, set upon by up to 20 teenage boys in an anti-LGBT attack in the city’s Pride Quarter. At the time, he was hospitalised with a fractured skull.
