Warwickshire Pride organisers call for focus on tackling hate following vandalism

For the third year in a row, Warwickshire Pride festival was the target of hate-fuelled vandalism in 2025. Luckily, the community came together quickly to help rectify the damage before the festival commenced. Now though, organisers are calling for a focus on tackling the hate at its roots to create real change.

"We need to be talking about the rise in hate towards LGBTQ+ people, the transphobia being peddled by the government, the anti-LGBTQ+ agenda of the new Warwickshire County Council administration, and what is at the root of it all. The focus has to be on the hate and what needs to happen to challenge it.

Warwickshire Pride took place on August 16th 2025

Daniel Browne, Chair of Warwickshire Pride said: “Unfortunately, the vandalism was expected, due to it happening in the previous two years.

"There have been a lot of conversations and comments online asking why the security failed and why the police haven't done anything to help. From our perspective, the security were professional, did the best they could in a challenging situation, and were simply overwhelmed. The vandalism could have been much worse if it wasn't for the security on site doing their best.

"The police are aware of what happened and are investigating. We definitely call on them to do more to protect LGBTQ+ people and the local LGBTQ+ charity.

“We will need to think about how we do this next year. Protecting the site will take considerable funds and resources, both of which are challenging for a small LGBTQ+ charity to come by. Conversations will take place over the coming months before we start to plan next year's event.

“However, what needs to be spoken about in the meantime is why this happened and why it keeps happening, not just to us, but to other Prides around the country too.

"We need to be talking about the rise in hate towards LGBTQ+ people, the transphobia being peddled by the government, the anti-LGBTQ+ agenda of the new Warwickshire County Council administration, and what is at the root of it all. The focus has to be on the hate and what needs to happen to challenge it.”

Daniel describes countless occurrences of hate, both online in the comments of Facebook articles promoting the festival, and in person, including a trans person who was targeted with fireworks and slurs at Newbold Comyn. He also experiences much of that hate personally, online in the run-up to the event, and on three occasions he was attacked during the festival. For this reason, he carries a panic button in case anything escalates.

“These are the things we need to be talking about, and these are the things that show why we still need Pride and why it needs to be a protest. The hate only shows why Warwickshire Pride exists.

"However, it also needs to be a wake-up call to all the authorities because it's getting worse and I am really worried that serious harm is going to come to someone unless there is a much stronger effort to protect and support LGBTQ+ people locally.

Daniel still remains hopeful though, adding: “Despite all the hate, there is a huge positive at the heart of it.

"That is the way the community rallied round to help clean up and put the site back together before the festival opened. Such a strong show of community power shows that amongst all the hate and attempts to derail what we do, hate will never win.

"We'll just get stronger, louder, and prouder.”