Llanelli started celebrating the community back on the 13th August 2015, when CETMA launched the town’s first ever LGBT Day.
At that time, the project was called the West Wales Lesbian, Gay, Bi & Transsexual (LGBT) Group.
The event was held in Llanelli Town Centre and was open to the public and organisations were encouraged to join together to promote diversity and equality.
At the time, Jonathan Williams, Managing Director of CETMA said:
“Our aim for this very special event is to raise awareness for the need of equality in our society and we hope it will help further the cause of LGBT’s everywhere.
“We hope the Llanelli public will support this event.”
Organisations and Projects that attended included Carmarthenshire Wildlife Walks, Communities First, Age Concern Sir Gar, St Paul’s Family Centre & Groundwork Wales, Time to Change Wales, Mid and West Wales Fire Service.
Nia Griffith Llanelli MP and Cllr Emlyn Dole both spoke at the event and there was also local folk singer Gareth Cornfield, a face painter and a visit from 2 minions for the children.
At the time West Wales LGBT Group coordinator Keith Evans said:
“We’re proud to be making history as this is the first public event in Llanelli. We’re hoping that this will become a permanent fixture on the Llanelli calendar.”
The first Saturday of August became Llanelli LGBT Day!
2016 Putting a Spring into LGBT Day!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=LlanelliLGBTQ&set=a.1729246350659535
Due to the success of the event in 2015, it was decided to move it to Spring Gardens, Llanelli and hold it on Saturday 6th August. The event opened with a speech by Nia Griffith, Llanelli’s MP
The project was now called Llanelli LGBT support, and its aim was about engaging with the LGBT community, increasing volunteers and training people in new skills.
At the time, Project Manager Keith Evans said:
“This year, thanks to Owen’s Transport we have a stage and will have live music from Oblong, and The Big Fat Blues Band will be doing an extra show.”
“We’ve also got lots of organisations attending to show their support, Communities First are putting on workshops for children and RED Fitness will be doing a Zumba demonstration .”
“The day is about everyone coming together to Carmarthenshire and Wales has come and how far it has to go in regard to raising awareness about equality and to celebrate achievements in the areas of LGBT.”
2017 Great day for Equality!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1402250293163645/?active_tab=discussion
The theme of 2017 was about joining together to fight discrimination and champion equality.
The event was sponsored by Carmarthenshire County Council, local businesses West Wales Trade Sales and Castell Howell and the Big Lottery Fund.
Speeches started with Lyn Davies, ASDA and LGBT day chair, then Nia Griffiths AM, Jeremy Miles AM, Sean Rees from Plaid Cymru and Vice Chair of Council, Cllr. Sian M. Caiach.
Once again Owens provided the stage and there were information stalls by local organisations, and live music. The Minions returned and there was also a dance funk demo.
Jonathan Williams, CETMA Manager Director said:
“It was a great day for LGBT Equality in Llanelli. It was nice to see so many people and organisations coming together to promote the same message.”
“It was such a success that we’ll do it again next year!”
2018
On the 4th August, the last LGBTQ+ Day was organised. The event was even bigger and moved to Festival Fields in Llanelli’s Millennium Coastal Park. This was the largest LGBTQ+ or Pride event in West Wales and saw people commenting on how successful it was and wanting an even larger event.
Live music, entertainment and information stalls were there, and hundreds of people were entertained throughout the day. There were also speeches by regular supporter Nia Griffith MP, and Llanelli Town Mayor Cllr David Darkin
As the events were becoming larger each year and more work needed to be done, and the decision was taken to hand over responsibility for organising the events to a new committee and constitute the Llanelli LGBTQ+ Project.
2019 Pride’s Turn
2020 No outdoor event but everyone was Loud and Proud!
Pride season was very different in 2020. The advent of Coronavirus and the social lockdown meant that many pride festivals and celebrations had to unfortunately cancel.
However, Llanelli LGBTQ+ Support Group recognised the importance of Pride to the LGBTQ+ community. We recognised that prides are, for some, the only opportunity for them to be their authentic selves. We also recognised that at times like this, where all social opportunities and support groups have had to disband due to the lockdown, it is especially important for the LGBTQ+ community to have opportunities to affirm our identity, not just as a community but as individuals too.
That’s why the group decided to create our own celebration of all thing’s LGBTQ+, but online.
Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund and Community Foundation Wales, a virtual day dedicated to promoting support services, campaigns, education, equality, diversity and identity was created.
The day consisted of speeches, workshops and a plethora of entertainment delivered by members of the community, with plenty of opportunity for community engagement and interaction.
The event was watched by
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZpioCS4Wcc