United by Pride: Theo Ieronymides on Queer Solidarity Across the Divide
A conversation on activism, visibility, and the power of community-led Pride in Cyprus
Now in its fourth year, United by Pride has become a living act of resistance, visibility, and cross-community solidarity. What began in 2022 as a grassroots response to years of hesitation has grown into Cyprus’ intercommunal Pride, organised entirely by volunteers and held in the symbolic setting of the UN buffer zone. In this interview, Theo Ieronymides, co-founder and Director of Queer Collective Cyprus, activist, and organiser of United by Pride, reflects on the evolution of the movement, the urgency of this year’s march, and the legacy it hopes to leave for future generations.
When we proposed United by Pride in 2022 it was an idea that was already dismissed for years. A joint Pride organised by and for people across the island bringing together communities from across the divide was something that seemed a far reality. Now it is in its fourth year and its mission and values haven’t changed: United by Pride remains self-funded, self-organised and run by community volunteers. What has evolved is scale and clarity of purpose, more people join each year, more communities take part, and the event’s role as a platform for reunification, peace and cross-community solidarity has become sharper. This year feels different because the threats facing queer communities are growing and the reunification of our island seems farther away so the choice to show up together is more urgent and more necessary.
Pride in Cyprus should be community-led because our politics and demands come from lived experience not from brands, grant cycles, or PR calendars. United by Pride was built by volunteers who refused to wait for institutions to act; it is self-funded, self-organised and deliberately rooted in local practice. While some mainstream Pride events can drift into sponsorship-first shows or risk being co-opted, United by Pride is a working platform: it centres grassroots voices, showcases local and Cypriot-diaspora talent, and keeps decision-making inside the community. When we proposed a joint, intercommunal Pride, established actors did not join, we went ahead anyway and built something that is visible by the community, for the community.
Marching from both sides and meeting in the buffer zone does what words alone cannot, it physically brings people together across the divide. For LGBTQIA+ people it’s visibility and mutual support, a practical rehearsal of what reunification and everyday cooperation could look like. United by Pride is the only Pride in the world held within a UN-controlled territory and ceasefire zone; that location transforms a site of separation into one of solidarity and shows, quite literally, that coming together is possible.
Locally we still face discrimination, shaky protections, and rising hostility toward LGBTQIA+ people and other marginalised groups. Locally violent attacks against migrants and queer people are increasing, and globally we’re watching coordinated rollbacks, from attacks on trans rights to organised censorship. In Cyprus, the legal framework has barely moved since the civil partnership law; the hate speech provisions remain unenforced, and the ban on conversion practices sits idle on paper.
United by Pride responds by refusing invisibility. We counter fear and demonization with presence, joy, and solidarity that cannot be ignored. Each year, United by Pride grows in numbers, in reach, and in the sense of belonging it creates. The march and cultural programme are living acts of resistance and resilience, but they are also tools for building community. By gathering in the Buffer Zone, we create a space where barriers come down: not only between Greek speaking Cypriots and Turkish speaking Cypriots, but also within our own LGBTQIA+ communities, where many often feel isolated and disconnected.
What started as a small collective effort has become a moment where people come together, showing a Cyprus where queerness is visible, joyful, and unashamed. That visibility enacts change. It builds connections, strengthens solidarity, and opens space for younger generations to imagine a future where they don’t have to hide. United by Pride makes clear that LGBTQIA+ people are part of Cyprus’ present and future, that we exist across the island and the diaspora, and that our voices, creativity, and struggles are shaping a more inclusive society.
We don’t see protest and celebration as two opposing things that need to be balanced, they’re inseparable and this is one of many things that historically Pride teaches us. Our programme mixes marches, political demands and speeches with performances and music, the joy and the politics feed each other. That combination is how communities survive and how political pressure grows.
For us, Pride cannot be stripped of its politics. Attempts to depoliticise LGBTQIA+ rights, to present our needs as private or separate from broader struggles erases the reality that our lives are shaped by power, by law, by social division. United by Pride insists on that connection, the personal is political, and our struggles are intertwined. Intersectionality is not an abstract idea for us, but the lived truth that queerness, migration, gender, class, and peace on this island are all bound together. That’s what gives United by Pride its strength.
We want United by Pride to leave behind more than an annual event, to embed the practice of cross-community organising as something normal and expected in Cyprus. That means stronger networks, shared tools, and an archive of our work that future generations can build on. It means showing, year after year, that solidarity across divides is not only possible but powerful.
In the long term, we hope the movement grows into one that is multilingual, intersectional, community-led and resilient, where knowledge is passed forward, where organising does not start from scratch every time, and where LGBTQIA+ people are never again made to feel isolated or divided by fear, politics, or borders. If United by Pride can help nurture that kind of continuity, then it will have done its work.
