One of the shortest Pride marches in the world takes place on a mansion | British News

A housing development prepares for one of the shortest pride marches in the world, measuring just 80 meters.

Residents of Batt Close in Rugby will have a drag competition, high heel race and DJ before marching 40 meters up the road and back again.

Benjamin Goodwin, the organizer of Batt Close Pride, said: “Me and my partner are probably the only people who would identify as LGBTQ+ on the street… it shows how accepted the community is and that they want to do so.”

“I love Pride, but I think Pride often gets lost in this kind of commercialization.”

“That showed us that Pride starts at home.”

The 38-year-old said neighbors have been holding “proper planning meetings” as the day of the event, June 10, approaches.

He said: “Each house has been assigned a role, so one has to buy the pennants, one house has to buy the paint for the street, because we’re going to make a rainbow stripe out of chalk.”

Mr Goodwin said the development’s Pride has been going on for a number of years, adding: “It has become something of a cornerstone on our calendar.”

The march will be led by drag queen Rubella Vaxine, also known as Miss Ruby V, who will give an encouraging speech beforehand.

Mr Goodwin said: “We will also be putting on a dog show.” There are probably around six dogs on the road.

“We’re going to make it so that every dog ​​wins an award because no one wants to be a loser.”

Speaking of the planned children’s lucky diver, Mr Goodwin said: “For whatever reason, in first year we made the lucky diver out of a paper bin and the guy who owned the dustbin was called Ed, so it’s called ‘Ed’s lucky diver’ and There is.” Plenty of Pride-themed pens and pencils for the kids.”

Last year, residents held a waxing event to raise money for the Terrence Higgins Trust, a sexual health charity that Goodwin says is “very passionate about HIV.”

He said: “This year I think we’re going to have a makeover challenge, so it’s going to be couples on the street and they’re going to have five minutes to quickly charm their respective partner.”

The Pride march began during the Covid-19 pandemic when restrictions forced residents of the housing development to stay at home to meet their neighbors.

Mr Goodwin said: “We didn’t know our neighbors and then of course during lockdown everyone was out and clapping at the NHS and we were helping each other.”

“We baked for each other when everyone was baking banana bread and so on, and then when restrictions eased and we could get together, we got a little more ambitious.”

Mr Goodwin said the neighbors had “done a lot of really community-related things” under the lockdown rules, including watching a film being shown outside one of the houses and eating outside together before one of the residents suggested a Pride event be held .

The residents keep their plans for their costumes secret from each other, as everyone wants to have “the wow effect” on the day.

“We have a Facebook Messenger group on the street and people write things like, ‘Packages are arriving today. I have something, but I won’t tell you,” he said.

‘The week before is just crazy on the streets.’ It’s like the week before Christmas.’

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