Could Leicester's First Pride Swim Provide A New Alcohol-Free Queer Community?

Proposed or working headline *

Could Leicester’s First Pride Swim Provide A New Alcohol-Free Queer Community?

Set up the story – What’s the context? Why is it important?*

Every summer, Pride celebrations and protests uplift the queer community across the world, from large-scale street parades to runs and cycles. However, there hasn’t been a Pride Swim — until now. Community organisers hope this new concept can help address some of the most common frustrations with queer spaces: that they’re almost always entangled with alcohol, lack family-friendly environments, leave women and non-binary often feel excluded, and focus on capital cities such as London. These events are categorically not a race — everyone chooses their own distance, swims their own swim, and receives a celebratory cap and medal. Afterwards, things are washed down with alcohol-free cocktails at a social event or family-focused swims put on activities for all. The focus, say organisers, is to build communities across the UK and increase access to the water by LGBTQI+ people. Could this be a blueprint for bringing queer communities together in a new way?

Newsy hook – what makes the story timely?*

Following on from a successful pilot event at the London Royal Docks in 2023, this year there will be more than 20 Pride Swims taking place across the UK — including at Enderby Leisure and Golf Centre in Leicester on August 3, so I’d love to put together a piece in the lead up to the event. This is also a timely story due to the increased ‘debate’ about trans rights. As a community which often finds the pool alienating, I’d love to take a positive look at how initiatives like this can help bring the queer community closer together and increase equitable access to the pool.

What is your angle? Who are your interviewees? What else do you plan to research?*

I’ve got access to speak with the event’s founder Polly Schute, also the founder of Out and Wild Festival, who’s happy to speak to me about the reasons behind the event, why she’s focused on setting up regional events, their ethos of inclusion, and the importance of family-friendly and alcohol-free spaces. I’ll also draw on the expertise of event partners Swim England and Out To Swim to explore the benefits of swimming and the barriers faced by the LGBQT+ community. I will also speak to members of the queer community — both those who are based in Leicester and those who took part in the pilot event last year to talk about its impact. Taking a solutions journalism approach, I’ll also look at what more needs to be done and who needs to do it.

Why are you well-placed to write the story? *

As a part of the queer community myself and a keen swimmer, I’m well-versed in both communities. I can’t even begin to count the amount of times I’ve been asked at Pride if I’m just there with my ‘male gay friend’ so I’m particularly keen to delve into the gendered and alcohol impacts of these spaces and how we can make them more inclusive. As a swimmer, I’ve worked extensively with Future Lidos on the production of their 2024 toolkit, so I can draw on a vast range of research to explore the benefits and barriers to swimming — and what needs to be done. Finally, as a freelance journalist with more than a decade of experience, I’ve written pieces for the i Paper, Positive News, Metro.co.uk, PinkNews, and more. I’m also well versed in solutions journalism, having been named one of the inaugural LEDE Fellows by the Solutions Journalism Network, so would bring a rigorous solutions approach to this story.