Manchester Pride 2024

This August Bank Holiday weekend just gone the Greeting Card Association took part in their third Pride event. The association, founded in 1919, supports and promotes the industry and wants everyone to feel connected by the sending and receiving of greeting cards.

As a gay own business Dean Morris Cards have published LGBTQ+ cards since we started back in 1999 (yes this year is our own Golden 25^th Anniversary). In that time, we have been so excited and proud to see new companies join the industry and the ranges and diversity of cards offered grow.

As publishers we are passionate about the power of sending a greeting card and the effect it has on relationships and connections between family, friends and even strangers. Last year at the first “Send a Card with Pride” event in London we didn’t just want to march in the parade, we wanted to actively show how a greeting card can make you feel. 10,000 LGBTQ+ themed and related greeting cards were printed to be handed out on the march.

We didn’t know how they would be received, would we have enough, would we have too many. We of course hoped for the best!

And we were blown away with the response, the joy, the smiles, the appreciation we received and were able to see was nothing short of magical. And of course, we ran out of cards by the time we got halfway through the route!

So, this year, we more then doubled the print run – 25,000 cards for London and 25,000 for Manchester.

And again, the response was overwhelming, we had publishers and retailers join us in Manchester for the first time. Not just their first time with the GCA at Pride, their first time at any Pride event!

We always wonder how the cards are used after people receive them, and this year there was a rather special moment that was shared on Twitter.

Dan Ellis was watching the parade go past with some friends, when he was given a greeting card by a young girl who had been standing by them. Inside she has written “You look beautiful. Happy pride. Love from Summer” with a small drawn heart.

Dan later tweeted an image of the card he received along with “Yesterday watching the #ManchesterPride parade was gorgeous as ever. We had a family in front of us who seemed to be really loving it all… and then the daughter, Summer gave me this card. When I say I was nearly crying…”

You can read more about the reaction to the card in a recent Manchester Evening News article, or on Dan's own Twitter post.

Our own hearts were bursting with pride and joy when we read about this, so happy and pleased that one of our cards was able to become part of a random act of kindness spreading a little joy and love in the world.

You can find the card Sounds Gay I'm In here on our site, or you can read more about the