"Poofters on Parade"

There, that got your attention didn't it?

I realised this afternoon when covering the Cardiff Mardi Gras, that it was 17 years ago as a callow youth that I first covered my first Gay march.

The event was EuroPride 1992 with a parade through central London followed by a party in South London. I dispatched the late Desmond Lapsley (a former BBC documentary producer) to cover events in the park and covered the march myself having found a pitch on Hungerford Bridge earlier that morning.

I'd arranged to meet up with Desmond later that day at the park and was particularly gratified on my journey down to watch some Metropolitan Police officers turning a blind eye to a group of gay men "kicking sh*t" out of a group of youths who had chanted "Batty Boys" at them in Brixton.

How times have changed - Back in those days it was Pride not Mardi Gras.

Chris Smith was the only openly gay MP - these day's even the Tories have Alan Duncan. There were no such thing as Civil Partnerships. And, if you were straight, you probably thought that AIDs was something to do with an iceberg, and if you were gay them some of your friends were probably very ill.

Congratulations to the organisers at today's Cardiff Mardi Gras for making it a safe, fun and family friendly event.

To view more photographs of Cardiff Mardi Gras 2009, please click here.