Reflecting on Pride 2023

Our Equality and Diversity Manager, Elaine MacGlone, looks back on this year's packed Pride schedule.

This year saw more law firms and legal employers take part in Pride than ever before. We were pleased to support a number of excellent events marking LGBTQ+ Pride month, including hosting a Pride brunch with Addleshaw Goddard and the Glass Network.

First up was an event at Burges Salmon, our neighbours at Atria One in Edinburgh on 1 June – the very first day of Pride month. It was great to kick off the month with people from across the profession. There was a good attendance from staff from their other offices and one of the organisers of Edinburgh Pride shared some of their upcoming logistical challenges for Pride month.

On 22 June, in the run up to Edinburgh Pride march, a number of Society colleagues attended Morton Fraser’s “This is Me” event. Held in person, this event allowed a number of people from across the legal sector and other professional services to share their experiences of being LGBTQ+, and we also heard from a straight ally.

Chaired by Alix Meekison, director at FWB Park Brown, with an aim to bring clarity to the issues facing the LGBTQ+ community today and to promote understanding, tolerance and acceptance, the speakers spoke frankly about their experiences, both positive and negative, of being LGBTQ+ including experiences of homophobia.

A recurring theme was feeling unable to be out at work, fearing an impact on careers. However, it was heartening to hear that participants were able to find welcoming and open employers that helped them to be their whole selves in their workplace.

Our joint event with Addleshaw Goddard on 25 June was a joyful celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride and what it means.

Hosted in the Addleshaw Goddard office and attended by our President Sheila Webster, Vice President Susan Murray and former President Amanda Millar, we enjoyed spectacular views across Edinburgh along with a generous brunch.

Families were more than welcome to attend and some of the younger attendees had fun applying glitter to the other guests, kitting us all out for the march itself.

The procession through Edinburgh continued the family friendly theme, with many different Pride flags on display highlighting the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community.

Edinburgh Pride 2023

For information about what all the flags represent, and the development of the rainbow flag symbol, check out our blog from earlier this year.

There were other legal pride events being hosted too and it was great to see some other firms at the march, including CMS and DLA Piper.

Our own Pride event at the Society took place on 27 June, with colleagues getting together for a lunch. It was lovely to see so many of us together.

For Glasgow Pride on 15 July, MacRoberts LLP hosted a pre-march brunch and invited us along. While the march made slow progess due to the huge number of people taking part, it had a great festival atmosphere with many organisations providing floats, music and singing, as we wound our way through Glasgow - very appropriate for its full name of Glasgow’s Pride Mardi GLA. There was even a rainbow decorated digger provided by Balfour Beatty.

Glasgow Pride 2023

I was particularly struck by the large number of people who stopped to watch the march and who demonstrated their own support for the LGBTQ+ community. Again, we saw more law firms and other organisations with in-house solicitors taking part.

In 2023, Scotland was host to and continues to host numerous Pride events across the country, with big events in the cities, including Aberdeen and Dundee, and smaller scale events such as Fife Pride in Kirkcaldy, Porty Pride in Portobello, Edinburgh, and Grampian Pride in Huntly, Aberdeenshire.

If this blog has inspired you to attend a Pride event, there are still more Pride events to come. For a full list and to see if there are Pride events in your local area, do look at this 'ultimate guide to Pride UK'.