Liverpool Young Greens, in collaboration with CAAT and Liverpool Amnesty International, will be marching together at Liverpool Pride on Saturday 1st August 2015. James Crawley explains why he’ll be taking to the streets to join the Pride march with an anti-arms trade message.
The theme for this year’s Liverpool Pride is #LoveIsNoCrime. Yet Saudi Arabia, the UK’s biggest arms export market, criminalises love in the most brutal fashion, imprisoning, lashing and executing LGBTIQ peoples, often by way of stoning and beheading.
Our campaign #STOParmstoSaudi aims to raise awareness of the treatment LGBTIQ people suffer within Saudi Arabia, and the UK’s military, economic and political endorsement of the repressive State regime. 
We’re excited to be joined by Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party England and Wales, who will be present at the march to endorse the campaign and show her solidarity with LGBTIQ communities both within the UK and internationally.
Our coalition will arrive at 9:30am, and are meeting on the steps of Liverpool Lime Street. If you’d like to join us, look out for the #STOParmstoSaudi placards on the march!
If you can’t make it to the march, you can still take action in solidarity. Our hashtag #STOParmstoSaudi is set to flood social media both before and during the Pride march. We actively encourage as many people to join in the discussion on social media as possible, and inspire a period of introspection about the insidious nature of our military trade agreements with authoritarian regimes around the globe.
If you’d like to find out more information about the UK arms trade with Saudi Arabia, check the CAAT Country Information pages on Saudi.
