The 1980s in Britain was a decade of government under British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, yuppies, chunky mobile phones and BMX bikes. It was also a tumultuous time for two distinctly separate communities that would unexpectedly find common ground. The miners of Wales and the gay community of London formed an alliance in their common struggle against government, police and public pressure.

The miners would go on strike after the Thatcher government, through the National Coal Board, announced it would close 20 pits and essentially cut 20,000 jobs. In solidarity, the coal miners began a bitter and hard fought strike called for by Arthur Scargill, on behalf of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). The strike would last the best part of a year and see local townships suffer much hardship as the mining industry was the financial and social lifeblood of many towns and had been for generations. Police were called to break the picket lines, that is, the lines of striking workers protesting and blocking non-union members (scabs) from entering the pit to work. As the miners went without pay and work, any support they had would come from the sympathetic public. First, support came from their own families and communities, especially the women who formed support groups to raise money and distribute food and clothing to struggling households. Unpredictably, support also come from a small group in London, which positively impacted both groups and the wider community.

The London group was a handful of gay and lesbian activists who formed Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM). Seeing similarities between the heavy-handed nature of the government and police response to the miners and that which faced the gay community, LGSM reached out to a small mining community in the Dulais Valley of Wales and offered financial and moral support. The British gay community had initiated activist groups after seeing the riots in New York in 1969 and, in 1972, held its first Pride march which would become an annual event. The gay community of Britain faced struggles on many sides; government legislation reflected inequalities in laws regarding homosexual relationships, community attitudes were still essentially homophobic and added to the ongoing violence and hostility the gay community faced, a health crisis known as HIV/AIDS emerged with first cases being understood medically in the first two years of the 1980s. Not fully understood at the time, the disease was spreading through gay communities in the USA and Europe and claimed many lives.

Out of the struggles emerged an activist, Mark Ashton, secretary of the Young Communist League, who in 1984 founded Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM). LGSM would get together for meetings at the Gay’s the Word bookshop in London, where Ashton would rally community support for the mining communities in South Wales who were dealing with pit closures and were consequently living in near-poverty. Along with the members of LGSM, Ashton carried out bucket collections in London’s gay and lesbian bars and clubs, raising around £20,000 for Welsh mining communities. He passed away only three years later of AIDS-related complications at the age of 26.

While the events of Pride focus on the alliance between the miners and LGSM, the film manages to highlight the governmental attitude at the time, led by Margaret Thatcher, who was known as the ‘iron lady’, a tough and unrelenting head of state. The film depicts the abuse of police powers regarding the two groups and the public’s response to efforts by the groups in seeking rights and equality. Based on true events, the groups have met since the 1980s and all of the characters’ lives may be followed online, except for Joe who is an amalgam of people.