Cairngorms Pride officially launches as eco-pride aims to bring together LGBTQ+ community and environmentally friendly messaging
A new organisation has been launched to bring together LGBTQ+ Pride and an environmental mission in the Cairngorms National Park.
Cairngorms Pride is a community-led eco-Pride, operating all year in and around the strath and wider region.
Founded to increase visibility and connection between the LGBTQ+ community and their allies locally, the organisation will champion queerness in people and the planet.
The official launch yesterday at the Highland Wildlife Park by Kincraig followed a wide-ranging consultation carried out between October 2023 and March, last year.
This involved 400 participants and 11 public-facing events across eight locations including schools, and two online surveys for individuals and businesses.
Feedback received indicated that 81 per cent of respondents were in favour of a Pride in the Park, and thanks to ongoing support from the Cairngorms Trust the new Pride group has secured funding to start its first projects and partnerships.
Using the tagline ‘here for the planet, queer for the planet’, Cairngorms Pride is a unique proposition combining LGBTQ+ well-being along with an environmental mission.
Pride is intrinsically linked with nature, with the green stripe on the original rainbow Pride flag originally meant to represent nature.
The community interest company’s work will revolve around five key elements: LGBTQ+ well-being and Pride; nature restoration; climate action; environmental education; and research and learning.
This will be achieved through delivering at least three new strategic partnerships alongside the establishing of a new Cairngorms Pride Social Spaces Network across the national park.
In partnership with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), Cairngorms Pride will aim to champion queerness in the natural world too.
This is aimed at allowing LGBTQ+ and ally communities to connect with queerness in the nature and explore the myriad of species and systems who rely on queerness to survive and thrive - and in turn understand themselves better and further support diversity in their own communities.
Cairngorms Pride will also partner with the RZSS, and media partner Somewhere: For Us, to create the Cairngorms Pride Art Prize.
This has now launched, with the inaugural prize focusing on the theme of queerness and nature.
Creatives of all ages from across the park are invited to take part, with an entry deadline of August 31 ahead of an exhibition of shortlisted entries and a prizegiving on October 11.
A new Cairngorms Pride Village is also planned for the park, as is their new LGBTQ+ primetime Instagram drama, following the lives of the inhabitants of a newly designed street of residences, located in the Tomintoul area.
Developed in partnership with Crown Estate Scotland, Pollination Street will see the creation and installation of a series of bee and bug residences as part of Cairngorms Pride’s nature restoration project work.
Lastly and most importantly of all, the team are creating the Cairngorms Pride Social Spaces Network within the park.
The Pride consultation highlighted the importance of visible LGBTQ+ events, as many of the queer community in the local area are still unknown to each other.
By reaching out to venues, spaces, businesses, organisations and community halls to take the Social Spaces pledge, Cairngorms Pride is looking to create a calendar of regular and varied LGBTQ+ and ally activities year-round.
Cairngorms Pride co-founder and co-director Kath Pierce commented: “Co-creating a new Pride in the Cairngorms National Park is one brilliant rainbow adventure!
“From the seed of an idea, through the Pride Consultation project, we’re now forging our first steps as the park’s new queer climate force for good.
“It feels entirely natural to be advocating for queerness in people and planet, given the kind of Pride the community has told us it wants and our unique place in the world.”
Fellow co-founder and co-director Dan Cottam remarked: “Central to everything we are doing is the fact that marginalised LGBTQ+ people in rural areas struggle to find each other and to be seen and supported.
“All our work is focused on building a better, more visible queer community with events and projects we hope will become part of everyday life in the Cairngorms.
“We want to expand the potential for what a proud queer collective can achieve and re-frame what a Pride can mean in a time of climate emergency”.
• Visit www.cairngormspride.scot for more information on any of the social enterprise’s work or projects
