Oldham Pride comes together to commemorate World AIDS Day

The event was hosted by deputy mayor Cllr Eddie Moores as mayor Cllr Zahid Chauhan was busy caring for his wife, following a diagnosis of serious illness.

Borough residents and LGBT+ leaders came together alongside members of the community sexual health team to share their memories, stories, and hopes for the future.

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Reverend Canon Jean Hurlston, the borough dean for Oldham, read prayers at the event for those affected by HIV and AIDS.

Council leader Arooj Shah came to pay her respects prior to the event, but could not stay as she was busy with budget meetings.

One attendee, Oldham Pride treasurer Jean Friend, spoke of her memories living through the HIV pandemic as a teacher.

The 71-year-old from Chadderton said: “I was a teacher in the 80s. My experience was Section 28, which was an awful time to be a teacher.”

Jean Friend (Image: Jack Fifield, Newsquest)

Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 prohibited local authorities from ‘intentionally promoting homosexuality’ or to “promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”.

Jean continued: “You couldn’t be out then. We had AIDS training, what to do if a child cuts herself. All the stuff on television, with the gravestone slapping into the ground – it was just absolute fear. Then Freddie Mercury died and that just brought it all home to us.”

Jean also spoke of her memories of policing at the time.

Then-chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, Sir James Anderton, had said that gay men with AIDS were “swirling about in a human cesspit of their own making” in 1986.

Jean said she thinks LGBT+ support in GMP is now going backwards.

She said: “[James Anderton] was a very controlling person really, and over the last few years we’ve had police marching within Manchester Pride, particularly, with rainbow laces and epaulettes, and then Stephen Watson’s come along and he doesn’t agree with it.

“I think it’s such a significant thing to have the police walking in pride.”

Earlier this year, ahead of Manchester Pride, GMP said it ‘fully supports’ members of its staff network marching in pride, and that communities could ‘be assured that GMP will continue to work closely with Pride organisers’.

Candles were lit in the chamber (Image: Jack Fifield, Newsquest)

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Marking the day, Oldham Pride chair Cllr Louie Hamblett said: “It’s been quite a mark today, the fact that we’ve had so many years of the red ribbon.

“It’s important to never forget those who we’ve lost, and to never forget the fight and the struggles of what’s gone before.

“There’s still a lot to be done, there’s still a lot of prejudice. It’s really important about how far we’ve come. There’s still a lot more to be done, particularly today with things like monkeypox. Now we’ve got something quite fantastic like Prep, which can prevent the spread of HIV.

“Medication can also make people undetectable and no longer pass it on, so hopefully we’re getting towards the end – one day we might be able to have an HIV-free world, and hopefully an HIV-free nation by 2030.”

Deputy Mayor Cllr Eddie Moores (Image: Jack Fifield, Newsquest)

Deputy mayor Cllr Eddie Moores said: “I’m very pleased to have been at this event this afternoon. It’s a poignant event.

"AIDS is a terrible disease and there are lots of myths out there about it.

"We need to conquer those myths, and most of all we need to conquer the disease.”

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