As an early member and chairperson of Sussex Gay Liberation Front I am sad to see how Gay Pride celebrations have become more and more an excuse for making money.

The original idea for the march and outdoor picnic was a celebration of sexual diversity and tolerance and the term ‘out of the closet’ was coined to symbolise the act of honest confrontation with bigotry.

I remember when the march consisted of a few hundred people and even fewer stalls on a plot behind St Peter’s Church.

We brought our own food and drink and enjoyed an inexpensive day. Now the powers that be have dropped the word Gay from this event and we are left with Pride.

Pride in what I wonder? How much we are forced to spend in a weekend? Having done that the organisers have sought to corral the (by now) thousands of revellers in a huge pen in the beautiful Preston Park in order to charge us £20+ a head to pay for their captivity and ban all personal food and drink being brought in to make even more money.

Now the ‘men in black’ have decided to penalise those people who prefer to celebrate Gay Pride in the gay village area surrounding St James Street by making them pay £5 for a wristband to get into the area and the pubs.

This is yet another infringement on the freedom to congregate and celebrate. If the idea was to reduce the number of visitors flocking to a relatively small area on safety grounds they haven’t said so.

I suspect the real reason is to make money. We should ask who gets this money.

If it is for charity then we should all have the right to pay it voluntarily or decline not be forced to ‘donate’. I will never pay it.

If we accept to pay for the wristband tax, this year next year they will find some other pretext for another shakedown.

Doug Coupe, Cissbury, Crescent Saltdean