This is a section of the speech made at the Golden Handbag Awards in the Hilton Metropole Brighton, Sunday 20 June 2010, by James Ledward of Gscene magazine, and is reproduced here for information purposes for those people who were unable to make the event. The full speech can be viewed here

"Finally it is not possible to let this evening go without a mention of the escalating fiasco surrounding Pride in Brighton and Hove.

Last year Pride won the community organisation award and I stood on this stage and said they were the best Pride in the country.

I honestly believed that at the time.

Events this year have changed my mind and forced me to reassess that view and any position I take on Pride with the magazine.

It takes years to build an event such as Pride.

Each year more and more is learnt about how to do things better the following year. Experience is gained and the following years event benefits from what has been learnt from the previous year.

Brighton Pride is what it is today because they were helped by people and companies who loved the event. They worked hard, building loyalties and often underwriting the event for the community, to make sure it happened.

What has happened this year has happened and it is too late to change anything.

My position and that of the magazine on Pride has been consistent over the years. If Pride does not bring LGBT people together we should not be doing it.

This years Pride has been divisive and deeply deeply damaging to the development of the LGBT community in Brighton. The present Pride board have isolated themselves. It is a tragedy.

The story peddled by the trustees of Brighton Pride that all their problems are down to just a few disenfranchised people who are not making money out of the event anymore is just not true, it is quite frankly offensive and says more about the qualities of the present board of Trustees who are not only out of touch with the community but lack the qualities and judgement to be guardians of this event for all the LGBT people in Brighton and Hove.

Everyday either publicly or privately another organisations or individual distances themselves from this years event. It has to stop but the only people that can make it stop are the Pride trustees.

I want to acknowledge the people who made Pride in Brighton and Hove the event it was.

Volunteer chairs and workers such as David Harvey, PJ Aldred, Andy Dunton, Josh Mills and Jamie Jones.

Over the years I have had professional disagreements with some of these people about their vision of Pride, but I never doubted the integrity of any one of them in their desire to act as guardians of the event for the community at large.

Their contribution should be recognised and celebrated.

However, without the support of loyal contractors such as Wilde Ones, Wild Fruit and Arena Entertainments, Brighton Pride would never have become the fabulous international event it did.

My father always told me never to bite the hand that feeds you.

Hands have been bitten off in the last year and I have no doubt history will reflect negatively on the people responsible for this.

To those who have sat on the fence and said nothing, you let yourselves down first and the community second.

To the wanabees that Pride provides the oxygen of celebrity to. We have been here before. The legacy of 2010 will be about yours egos rather than the community you should be serving.

To those businesses who have dipped their snouts into the Pride trough this year for the first time hoping to benefit from the years or hard work that a few decent, honest people put into this event, please remember the eyes of the community will remain focused on you and your actions not only this year but for the duration of your contracts.

To the Pride Trustees you are merely the guardians of the event for the LGBT community at large. The model you are working to puts the needs of the charity commission before community and that cannot be right.

The GScene award for 15 years of Long Term Service to the LGBT people of Brighton and Hove, helping us to create what was the best Pride in the Country, a Pride with respect, a Pride with dignity a Pride with Passion, everything that is lacking this year goes to the company that saved the event twice in the past and produced it for the last ten years, Wilde Ones."

Copyright remains with gscene.com and is published here by courtesy and with permission of gscene.com