Pride Week presses on
Organisers of this year’s Pride Week have dismissed concerns about a poor community turnout, despite some Pride members proposing the organisation be disbanded because of low activity in recent months.
Pride Week is officially launched this Friday and culminates with the traditional Pride Week awards at Paddington RSL on 25 June.
The umbrella festival also includes events like the BGF Bake-Off, a Pride Fun Run and the Aurora dinner at Sydney Town Hall.
Pride president Sean Addison told Sydney Star Observer the fact we’ve got groups from all over Sydney was a highlight of Pride Week this year.
The Cronulla Gay Group also will host an event, as will western Sydney nightspot the Parramatta Club.
Addison played down concerns about low community involvement in Pride Week.
I think there will be a strong community response. It’s not very often that you get a program like this put together, he said.
But at a meeting last weekend several Pride members called for the organisation to be shut down.
It was tabled that Pride should be disbanded and the funds distributed amongst community groups or a community group, based on what the members decide, Addison said.
They don’t believe that there’s a place in the community [for it], there’s not much being done by Pride at the moment.
Pride had said the gathering last weekend would be its annual general meeting.
But this week Addison said Pride had not sent members a notice on time so the meeting did not qualify as an AGM. And Addison did not step down as president as expected.
The organisation now plans to hold its long-delayed AGM in September or October, when it will decide on Pride’s future.
We’re using the Pride Week as a community forum, Addison said.
We’re going to be asking people at the events and also by way of email what Pride means to them and see if there is a place in the community for it.
But Pride would definitely not hold a New Year’s Eve party this year, Addison said.
For the full Pride Week calendar visit the Sydney Pride Centre website.
