The first Pride march for two years has taken place in Glasgow.
On Saturday, Pride Mardi Gla participants marched from Festival Park in the city’s south side to George Square.
It marked the first full march since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
Newly appointed Scottish Government minister and Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie was among the speakers at the event.
He told STV News: “When I first came out, a nervous wee teenager, coming along and not knowing exactly what the future had in store for me, coming out was a pretty nerve-wracking time.
“Events like this, when the whole community comes together, and is out and proud in public, it’s really, really important to reinforce the fact that this is our society too, we have a right to be here, to express who we are.
“And it’s fantastic to see that happening again after this horrible year and a half that we’ve all had.”
Harvie outlined the importance of celebrating the event safely.
He said: “We want to encourage people to make it as safe as possible, keep distance if possible, certainly take lateral flow tests before we come to events like this to make it as safe as we can.
“But, it is a really important moment to celebrate and to assert the progress that we still have to make on issues from trans rights to banning conversion therapy and much more.”
The Glasgow MSP explained that the pride is both a celebration and a protest.
“Pride has always been a celebration and a protest, it’s both,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot to celebrate, especially the resilience people have shown after the last year and a half.
“And we want to make sure that people can do that as safely as possible.”
He added: “We’ve got a lot to protest as well. Issues like trans rights have been put off for far, far too long and we’ve seen a really nasty, hostile transphobic movement grow up during that time.
“We need to make progress and we are going to on that, on banning conversion therapy which is a form of torture used against our community, and on much more besides.”
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