In the late 80s I didn’t tell anyone at work I went to Pride because I simply wasn’t brave enough. Attending was an intensely political act. The march was the main event and the speeches at Kennington Park contained an anger that threatened to disrupt the political and social order.
Then the world moved on, and in the late 90s I still didn’t tell anyone at work that I’d been to Pride, because it seemed to be mainly men on loats being lamboyant in leather shorts and had a main stage that substituted Steps and 5ive for speeches.