The Bar Council was among the thousands who took part in the 45th annual Pride 2017 march in London.

This year’s event marked 50 years since Parliament first voted to legalise homosexuality and had the theme Love Happens Here.

Celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) diversity, around 100 members of the legal profession, including the Bar Chair, Andrew Langdon QC, Law Society Vice Chair, Christina Blacklaws and Millicent Grant, Vice-President of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives, marched together under the banner ‘All are equal under the law’.

The march began at Portland Place and passed through Oxford Circus and Regent Street, before ending at Whitehall. For the first time in celebration of the event, a rainbow flag was projected on to the Palace of Westminster.

Langdon said: ‘The Bar’s engagement with Pride is not just about tolerance, nor just about promoting diversity in the profession. It is a public acknowledgment of the strength that LGBT legal practitioners bring to the profession and those we serve. It is, as one of the barristers who marched memorably put it, about “the muscle behind the glitter”.’

The newly ensconced Law Society President, Joe Egan said: ‘Just 50 years agoParliament voted for the first time to legalise homosexuality in the UK. Since then legal developments have shaped and advanced the freedoms we enjoy today.

‘We march in celebration of the significant progress that has been achieved towards a truly diverse and inclusive society and of our progress as a sector.’