Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pay tribute to Princess Diana in powerful LGBTQ post celebrating the community
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry paid tribute to Princess Diana in an Instagram post which celebrates the LGBTQ community. The powerful post has already garnered more than 400,000 likes. Many events have been planned across the UK for Pride Month. London's annual parade will take place on July 6.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex shared a picture collage to honor Princess Diana who through all her charity work had changed attitudes towards stigmas like HIV and AIDS. The royal pair used their Instagram account to "proudly shine a light on PRIDE." The photo collage features nine pictures from British and American groups that they support.
These include Stonewall, the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the Trevor Project and the Matthew Shepard Foundation. One of the photographs is from a San Francisco artist Ruben Guadalupe Marquez whose work often shows queer pop icons. Another picture shows the Princess of Wales sitting next to patient Gerard McGrath at the London Lighthouse in October 1996, less than a year before her untimely death.
McGrath reflected on the visit and in a 2017 interview shared, "When she came in, she was shining. That smile, it just beamed when she smiled. She beamed. I sound like a sycophant but that’s how it was.I’m not a royal person really, I’m a republican, but she was an exception."
Their Instagram post drew a lot of praise from people all over the world including the likes of Olympic diver Tom Daley who took to commenting, "This is just AWESOME." One of their fans wrote, "Thank you for supporting LGBTQ youth! Happy Pride month." Another fan added, "Thank you for taking on the important work that Princess Diana did. She raised so much awareness and turned frightened people into accepting ones and made those that felt shunned and unloved like they were the most special people in the world. We in the LGBTQ will never forget her and are thankful we have you both in our corner!"
The Royal couple's caption read, "Continuing with our tradition to rotate the accounts we follow based on causes and social issues that matter to us. For the month of June we 'proudly' shine a light on PRIDE. This month we pay tribute to the accounts supporting the LGBTQ+ community - those young and old, their families and friends, accounts that reflect on the past and are hopeful for a deservedly more inclusive future. Because it’s very simple: love is love."
Harry and Meghan's post and the beginning of Pride month coincides with President Donald Trump's state visit to the UK. Like last year, many protesters are planning on taking to the streets to show their disapproval to Trump and his policies.
If you have a news scoop or an interesting story for us, please reach out to us at (323) 421-7514