I want to say thank you. Thank you to the queer darlings, the trans women of colour, the bisexual beauts, the lesbian heroines, the non-binary diamonds. The kitten heeled, DM booted, frock frilling, denim donning wonders of Stonewall Inn who stood up and said no more. No more. No fucking more. Thanks to your bravery this 14-year-old baby dyke back in 1983 had a story she was part of, a history she could claim as her own and a light shining way across the decades that told her one day everything would be alright. A light that ensured she would forever remember the Stonewall campaigners, the rioting veterans who unleashed the rainbow of the Pride movement and who six-inch heel by six-inch heel, rubber sole by rubber sole, marched on and started a revolution that changed the world.

50 years on from those Stonewall Riots in 1969 and thanks to the courage of the likes of trans women of colour Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Riveria we can march with Pride today. The L with the T, the G and the B and Q and I with me. All marching to a queer beat that has run through my soul since I first came out, a queer beat glittering with disco and Pride, a queer beat that has liberated so many of our LGBTQI community around the globe but still has so far to go. So today I celebrate and today I say thank you. Thank you to every single rioting soul in Stonewall who lead the way. Thank you for putting a fire in our queer bellies as we continue the long fight for equality at home and across the globe. Thanks to you dear Stonewall stars every day is Pride, because every day we’re here, we’re queer and we’re never, never, never stopping.