Operation Fundraiser’s joyous celebration of ‘gaiety’ – Manchester Pride 2006

Bad news folks, the £10 tickets are now £15. Still it’ll be little or no surprise if the amount raised for charity and other causes is round about £120k or so. Most of the £1m+ raised will be frittered away on security, policing, extra street cleaning etc etc.

Originally conceived as a means of raising funds to be distributed to those affected by HIV, the pissed-up, drug-fuelled, shag-fest that is ‘Manchester Pride 2006’ occurs again over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

Hopefully we won’t have the disgusting spectacle of a stage sponsored by Gaydar, as we had last year – a company-owned web-site probably responsible in no small part for significant levels of HIV transmission amongst gay men. Still, with plenty of alcohol, illegal drugs and, hopefully, good weather there should be many opportunities to compromise the drug regimens of the HIV+.

Shame that the few tens of thousands of pounds that actually go directly to genuine HIV causes (rather than spent on condoms [which are or should be available via the NHS], homosexual sporting & social groups, funding English as a foreign language lessons etc etc) could realistically be raised, or exceeded, if some of the ‘Gay Village’s’ businesses were to organise serious fundraising activities a few times a year.

Not that we probably won’t enjoy it – but, perleeze, acknowledge it for the self-indulgent orgy that it is.

Oh yeah, the Candlelight Vigil – a genuinely moving opportunity to remember those we have lost. Let’s try to avoid politicians grandstanding, too much organisational self-congratulation and some screaming queen shouting the odds at us. A brief, emotionally charged hour or two of remembrance at the end of a weekend when all that money’s been made by straight-dominated corporations and ‘gay entrepreneurs’ should perhaps last a little longer.

Mmmm, have a real good pat on the back Operation Fundraiser – there again, we’re sure you’ll be doing that for yourselves ad nauseum. We are just so, so grateful.

A final thought on “all that money that Operation Fundraiser makes for HIV-causes”. With combination therapy - the use of two, three or even more anti-retroviral drugs together - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2188237.stm states that “it costs up to $12,000 (= c.£6,500) per person per year. With the cost of counselling, social support and medical care, the figure is a lot higher"; and, http://www.avert.org/aidsfaqs.htm reckons the overall annual cost at around £16k per case in the UK. So if the bringing together of all those people at the various Manchester 'Pride' weekends over the years have ‘generated’ any more than 8 cases of HIV infection (surely not unlikely with the million plus who will have attended over the late August Bank Holiday weekend for 10 years +), it would suggest that the total c. £120,000 raised wouldn’t pay for their current and future treatment costs. This ignores the lesser costs of treatment of other sexually transmitted infections, visits of the alcoholically inebriated to A&E departments, days lost subsequently at work through hangover (er, we mean sickness) etc. At least the taxes due on the additional profits made by Village Business Association members and others will go some way to reimbursing these..

..As we mention above, enjoy Manchester Pride for the self-indulgent orgy that it is. At least the bars and clubs should make a few £s.