Managing Director – Bridge Classic Cars
Aston Martin has partnered with Racing Pride for Pride month 2021 to raise awareness of LGBTQ+ awareness, diversity and inclusion in motorsport. The Racing Pride logo will feature on Aston Martin’s car at the French GP later this month.
Racing Pride is an initiative set up in 2019 with Stonewall to positively promote LGBTQ+ inclusivity within the motorsport industry and its partners. Pride month runs through the entirety of June and often includes events, festivals, campaigns and encourages conversations.
The campaign will highlight the strength of the LGBTQ+ community within motorsport and the automotive industry. As well as showing support by wearing the Racing Pride logos on their cars, the partnership will also provide inclusivity and awareness workshops for Aston Martin staff.
Racing Pride’s co-founder, Richard Morris said: “This landmark partnership between Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team and Racing Pride will have a widely felt positive impact for the LGBTQ+ community.
“We look forward to continuing to work closely with the team as it constantly strives to create an inclusive culture in which all team members are respected, empowered, and valued.
It marks a hugely significant step in Racing Pride’s journey to positively promote LGBTQ+ inclusion through motorsport.”
Much like International Women’s Day, Black History Month and BLM, Mental Health Awareness Month and the other important social activist-led celebrations, we understand that the set month shouldn’t be the only time we celebrate, discuss and advocate for equality and in particular for June, gay rights. We advocate for equality both in the workplace and in the industry and understand the barriers that are still in place for those in the LGBTQ+ community.
Every year Pride Month falls in the month of June to celebrate the anniversary of the Stonewall Riot which happened on June 28th 1969 when police raided a gay club called Stonewall Inn in New York. Although the police gave the excuse that the bar was operating with an incorrect licence, it was later revealed that the raid was about nothing more than harrassing and arresting LGBTQ+ people in one of the few safe places in New York in 1969. A diverse crowd of lesbians, gay men and transgender women, many of whom were people of colour, lashed back at the police. Six days of protests and demonstrations then ensued which became known as the Stonewall Riot. The next year, New York held an event to commemorate the first anniversary of the riots and soon grew into what we now know as Pride Month.
The flag not only stands for the LGBTQ+ community and gay rights but also incorporates several other flags such as transgender rights and has recently had a black and brown stripe added to celebrate gay people of colour for whose stories haven’t been told and for whom experience added boundaries due to their skin colour as well. The flag was created by gay artist and drag queen, Gilbert Baker in 1978 who was then commissioned for his design by Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected US official to create the flag as a symbol for the LGBTQ+ community.
