The terror attack in Berlin reminds us why Pride events matter

The Berlin Pride terrorist attack was a wake-up call. Although the LGBT+ community has made great progress in overturning homophobic laws in many countries, this attack shows that our safety is precarious. There are still people who want to kill us, even in Europe. We cannot take our wellbeing for granted. What happened in Berlin is a reminder that the price of LGBT+ freedom is eternal vigilance.

In the shadow of this attack and with heightened security, World Pride takes place this week in Amsterdam. As well as remembering the Berlin victims, the participants will be mindful that 66 countries still criminalise members of the LGBT community, six Commonwealth nations have life imprisonment, 12 states stipulate the death penalty and over 40 territories penalise trans and gender non-conforming people. In about 30 countries, LGBT people are suffering escalating repression.

The terror attack in Berlin reminds us why Pride events matter: they are acts of joy and defiance against those who want to banish us from public visibility – and worse. Violence reinforces the need for Pride to be more than just a celebration and a party. Fifty-four years ago, in London in 1972, I helped organise the UK’s first Pride. About 700 brave souls marched from Trafalgar Square to Hyde Park. Today, there are more than 180 Pride events across the UK with a combined attendance of over a million people.

In less than six decades, what began in a handful of western cities has become an unprecedented international phenomenon, of which World Pride is the symbol. That is why it is so exciting that London’s World Pride 2032 bid will be launching on 6 August in Amsterdam.

Today, the Pride movement is the most ubiquitous and universal worldwide movement of all time – and the most successful. It exists in more than 160 countries, sometimes covertly, with a common goal of LGBT+ liberation; uniting the global LGBT+ family across all borders, classes, ideologies, cultures and ethnicities. It is a movement of love, passion and hope. Why can’t the whole world be more like the Pride spirit?

But Pride has its enemies. Our community is also menaced by the rise of far-right movements in the US, Europe and the UK. They mostly do not espouse physical violence, but they seek to undermine our human rights and public presence.

Even in many Western nations, there is homophobic and transphobic backlash, mostly spearheaded by Christian fundamentalists and right-wing political parties. They are joined by some anti-trans activists who have now expanded their campaigns to undermine the whole LGBT+ community because we refuse to abandon support for our trans siblings.

The Berlin terrorist represents a different threat. The 21-year-old suspect, Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Islamist connections, was shot dead in a confrontation with police the following day. Hardly any LGBT+ organisations at World Pride – or anywhere else – mentioned that the killer was inspired to murder by an anti-LGBT+ Islamist ideology, a political-religious ideology that seeks to impose a form of clerical fascism. It must be confronted wherever it appears, while at the same time rejecting prejudice, discrimination and violence against Muslim people.

The main victims of Islamist repression are, in fact, not white Westerners but Muslims, including LGBT+ Muslims. In large parts of the Muslim world LGBTs live in fear of imprisonment, torture, execution and so-called honour killing by families, mobs and Islamic authorities. Yet we rarely hear any LGBT+ organisation condemn or campaign against Islamism. My Peter Tatchell Foundation is almost a lone voice.

The answer to the Berlin attack is not scapegoating, division and repression. Democracies must defend the rights of all minorities, including the right of LGBTs to hold Pride parades, without fear or violence. Simultaneously, our society must ensure that the tiny minority who seek to destroy our freedoms, whether Islamist or far right, are prosecuted with the full force of law.

Local councils run by Reform UK have banned Pride flags from their buildings, defunded Pride festivals and ordered the removal of LGBT+ exhibitions from libraries.

Nigel Farage has pledged to repeal the Equality Act and the Human Rights Act, as well as withdrawing the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights. This would remove protections against discrimination for LGBTs – and everyone else. It would leave us all with fewer safeguards and redresses against the abuse of state power by institutions such as the government, police and the security services.

Reform UK has also vowed to deport at least 600,000 people. Statistically, about 30,000 to 60,000 of them are likely to be LGBT, probably including many LGBTs who have fled persecution on the grounds of their sexuality or gender identity in Africa, Russia, South Asia and the Middle East.

Reform UK is a serious threat to the LGBT+ community, which is why when I mentioned Reform during my speech from the main stage at Brighton Pride last Saturday, the 20,000-strong crowd broke into a spontaneous and prolonged chant of “Block Reform!” We see you, Nigel!

Despite the threat from Islamists and the far-right, and anti-LGBT+ backlash, I’m optimistic. Overall, LGBTs are still making progress worldwide. The message from World Pride is: Queer freedom is an unstoppable global trend!

The Independent’s Pride List 2026 was published last month and celebrates the work and achievements of British individuals within the LGBTQ+ community . Read it in full here