Pride is often talked about in terms of visibility. But visibility isn’t just being seen, it’s whose stories are allowed to be told, whose experiences are acknowledged, & who feels they belong in public spaces.

At a time when Pride events are losing funding, LGBTQ+ books are being challenged, and hostility towards LGBTQ+ communities is rising, hard-won progress cannot be taken for granted.

Public space is never neutral. It communicates who belongs, whose stories matter and who is welcome.

Visibility matters. Not as a campaign or symbolic gesture, but because seeing ourselves reflected in public life helps shape who feels safe, welcome and able to belong.

In 2023, I collaborated on United Together with LGBTQ communities, a large-scale artwork spanning a pedestrian crossing connecting the Centre for Life with Newcastle’s Pink Triangle. At its heart was a simple idea: queer people should be able to exist openly, visibly and proudly within the places they live, work and socialise.

Recently, I’ve been revisiting the artwork from a completely different perspective after being invited by VocalEyes to create and record an audio description for inclusion in an art archive.

Learning how to describe visual art for blind and partially sighted audiences has challenged me to think differently about accessibility, memory, identity and belonging. It has raised important questions about who gets access to culture, whose experiences are centred, and how we create work that can be experienced in multiple ways.

It’s a reminder that inclusion is never finished. There is always more to learn, more perspectives to consider and more barriers to remove.

For me, Pride has always been about more than celebration. It’s about visibility, solidarity, belonging and the ongoing work of creating communities where we can all see ourselves reflected.