Related Articles
A colourful collection of stamps have been unveiled by the Royal Mail to mark Pride Month.
The set will be issued exactly 50 years since the UK’s first Pride rally on July 1, 1972.
They celebrate ‘the story of Pride over time’ over the course of eight stamps.
Each one is inspired the history-making rally in 1972, which was organised by the Gay Liberation Front.
People marched from Trafalgar Square to Hyde Park, inspired by the first Pride events in New York.
They chanted slogans such as ‘Gay is fun! Gay is proud! Gay is beautiful!’
One of the stamps in the Royal Mail’s new set depicts a banner reading ‘love always wins’.
David Gold, the company’s director of external affairs and policy, said: ‘The vibrant, colourful Pride events that take place in towns and cities across the UK today trace their origins to a small number of people who marched through central London half a century ago to raise awareness of discrimination and inequality.
‘There have been huge changes in laws and social attitudes, but Pride events continue to play a key role in raising awareness of discrimination, as well as celebrating diversity and individualism.’
The stamps, specially commissioned by Royal Mail, were illustrated by award-winning artist Sofie Birkin, whose illustrations have featured in campaigns for brands such as Nike and Apple.
The designers of the stamps, NB Studio, have, in collaboration with animation studio, Animade, created a film using the illustrations featured in the stamp issue.
‘It was a real honour to be asked to design this iconic series for The Royal Mail, as they represent such an important part of British LGBTQ+ history,’ said Alan Dye, owner of NB Studio.
He added: ‘It was an absolute joy to work with Sofie Birkin who’s work we’ve admired for some time.
‘Watching these beautiful illustrations come to life you could easily imagine yourself as part of the ‘March Through Time…’
Jennifer Judd, co-founder and managing director at Animade, added that the entire experience had been an honour to be part of.
She said: ‘This was a joyous project for Animade to be part of and gave us an opportunity as part of our creative industry to do something beautiful to celebrate Pride and the diverse LGBTQ+ community.
‘Animation adds an extra narrative dimension, which helped to bring this important project for Royal Mail to life.’
The stamps are available to pre-order from 23 June and go on general sale on 1 July.
The Royal Mail have designed a series of new stamps to commemorate anniversaries and significant achievements such as the legalisation of same sex marriage.
As part of the company’s initiative, the stamp album of Queen singer Freddie Mercury’s childhood is to be displayed at London’s Postal Museum.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Metro.co.uk celebrates 50 years of Pride
This year marks 50 years of Pride, so it seems only fitting that Metro.co.uk goes above and beyond in our ongoing LGBTQ+ support, through a wealth of content that not only celebrates all things Pride, but also share stories, take time to reflect and raises awareness for the community this Pride Month.
MORE: Find all of Metro.co.uk’s Pride coverage right here
And we’ve got some great names on board to help us, too. From a list of famous guest editors taking over the site for a week that includes Rob Rinder, Nicola Adams, Peter Tatchell, Kimberly Hart-Simpson, John Whaite, Anna Richardson and Dr Ranj, we’ll also have the likes Sir Ian McKellen and Drag Race stars The Vivienne, Lawrence Chaney and Tia Kofi offering their insights.
During Pride Month, which runs from 1 – 30 June, Metro.co.uk will also be supporting Kyiv Pride, a Ukrainian charity forced to work harder than ever to protect the rights of the LGBTQ+ community during times of conflict, and youth homelessness charity AKT. To find out more about their work, and what you can do to support them, click here.
