Pride Scotia is Scotland's national LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) pride festival. Run entirely by volunteers, we organise both a pride march and a community based festival to celebrate diversity and personal identity. The traditional pride march and rally provides a platform for politicians, community activists, celebrities and most importantly individuals turn out to march through the city centre to celebrate pride. The festival encompasses live music, DJs and a health and community fair. Pride Scotia is held in Edinburgh every two years
History
In 1994, Laura Norris and Doogie Hothersall, both members of BLOGS (Edinburgh University's LGBT student group) decided to organise a Pride march and community festival in Edinburgh. The march and festival have become an annual event, alternating between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
In December 2002 Pride Scotland went bankrupt with debts of around £60 000. "Pride Scotland Declares Itself Bankrupt", gay.com, 2003 January 3.
A new organisation, Pride Scotia, was founded in 2003 to continue the tradition of the annual march and festival. This organisation changed its name to Pride Scotia (Edinburgh) in 2004 and a separate organisation Pride Scotia (Glasgow) was created with the two organisations organising Pride Scotia in their respective cities in alternate years thereafter. Both organisations are Companies Limited by Guarantee but are not Scottish Charities.
In 2008 Pride Scotia (Glasgow) decided to redefine their identity to Pride Glasgow thus separating themselves from Pride Scotia. Pride Scotia (Edinburgh) will continue to operate as normal.
