It’s almost spring and some Pink shoots are showing through. We hope you’re filling your diary with

Issue No. 34 - March 2023

London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival 2023 includes the Irish film ‘How to tell a Secret’ which examines HIV in culturally conservative Irish society
12-26 March, London

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2023’s pink shoots

It’s almost spring and some Pink shoots are showing through. 

We hope you’re filling your diary with things that interest you, whether it’s relationships, socialising, enjoying cultural or sports activities or just hanging out in private time on or off line. Basically, March kick-starts the LGBTQ+ communities’ scenes in the UK and in many places around the world. 

For fans of LGBTQ+ films, up-coming in London Town is the long-established and internationally renowned LGBTQ+ FLARE Festival delivered by the British Film Institute. Founded in 1988, it’s one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ film festivals; this year it’s running a mix of onsite and digital screening; it promises a wealth of films covering all things pink and rainbow with a theme of ‘Heart, Body and Mind’. Read more on our site and access the UK-available films, as some are copyright restricted as to where you live. For visitors outside the UK, you can see Five Films for Freedom, showcasing some top talent in Queer and LGBT+ related films.

Wednesday 8 March launches International Women’s Day. A host of events is taking place around the world – one is the fab FemFest a must-do if you are near or in Brighton, which we alerted you to it last month. It goes without saying that March has a Celtic flavour with Welsh and Irish festivities in the UK and around the world: first mark Wales’ St David’s Day so check out the Cardiff scene on 1 March and Ireland’s St Patrick’s Day on 17 March with some fun scene spin offs into the LGBTQ+ scenes for example Dublin Bear festival.

On a political note, the global rights group ILGA have published their annual narrative on LGBTQ+ rights in countries in Europe. Their report makes for some chastening reading, just in case you were one of those people who think everything’s now pretty cool for LGBTQ+ rights in Western countries. Actually, it’s not that great, even in the West. 

For example, the UK gets a shellacking for its policy on Trans and LGBTQ+ asylum seeker rights. ILGA publishes an ‘LGBTQ+ friendliness’ country index in May, so we’ll aim to update you on the rankings for each European country then. Equally, sombre thoughts go to the LGBTQ+ communities of Ukraine on the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February last year. You can help them here.  

Finally, as we paint the world Pink, we’re appealing for volunteers who might be interested in gaining or offering experience in online publishing. If you’d like to find out more, check out this page. Wishing you a fantastic spring of pink fun and new adventures.

Finally, check out our latest features and opinions. 

Have a great, love-filled month and pinkest love from our team xx
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Appealing for volunteers

Calling creative volunteers with a passion to make PinkUk even more fun and, yes, even Pinker... Interested in learning more and offering/gaining experience in listings online publishing such as writing, photography, video, design? Here at PinkUk Towers we have a few volunteer openings for people who would like to gain more experience or offer their experience in online content support for our listings site which serves the LGBTQ+ communities in the UK around the world. Find out more

PinkUk dating

We are making our dating section a password protected part of the site, with a minimum age of 18. As well as providing increased security for all, it also ensures that the main site can be safely accessed by young people who may need our information.   Our first step is to make the dating only accessible to member who have signed in. Members need to be aged 18 or over to create a member's account.

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Featured venue: The Royal Vauxhall Tavern

We’re privileged to feature one of London’s most famous LGBTQ+ and queenly cabaret venues this month, the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. As such, we’re naming the venue emphatically a ‘she’ as she is so illustrious and majestic.

The crew who manage her are a vibrant independent company who, so the word on the pink street goes, offer consistently brilliant cabaret and performances with national artists and the best local artists showcasing their work. The ‘RVT’, as regular customers call her, is situated just south of the Thames in the namesake area of Vauxhall and is recognised as one of London’s most diverse venues for cabaret performances and other arts. There’s history, too. Originally a Victorian-era music hall, it’s also famous for Paul O’Grady performing in drag as Lily Savage in the late 1990s along-side artists such as Gabrielle, Bucks Fizz (The Fizz), Liberty X, Three Degrees and Toyah. If you’re in London Town, stroll down and enjoy the vibe.

More info about The Royal Vauxhall Tavern

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Featured event/pride: ParaPride 2023, London, UK

Stonehaven Pride takes place on Saturday the 15th April 2023.

At the village site, we will have:
Main stage, “secret” headlining at 3pm, and various local artists entertaining you continuously from 1 – 5pm
Charity engagement, with over 30 charities providing freebies, advice, information and engagement
Bouncy Castle, children’s play area, story time, and much more for the whole family

We hope this outline gives a better idea of what the Grampian pride event will be like. 

More info about Stonehaven Pride 2023

Prides/LGBTQ+ events

So far, for this new year, we have 160 pride festivals listed in the UK and 540 LGBTQ+ prides events in 43 countries worldwide for 2023. For 2024 we have 3 prides in the UK and 10 in 8 other countries. Keep us posted if you have a pride festival or event that needs promoting.

See all the prides/LGBTQ+ events we have in March, Add an LGBTQ event to PinkUK

We have 3,329 LGBTQ+ venues listed in 76 countries. Add a venue to PinkUk

Scene, recently relaunched with its fabulous new print copy. We are proud to support them.  See their latest edition. 
Scene is the top UK, free to read, online, LGBTQ+ magazine.