Lesbian activist awarded MBE

A lesbian campaigner from Brighton has been awarded an MBE at Buckingham Palace.

Clare Dimyon, 45, was honoured for “services to promoting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in central and eastern Europe”.

Ms Dimyon first joined a Pride festival 25 years ago. In the last five years, she has visited countries around Europe to support and encourage LGBT events.

Last year, she began a campaign called Pride Solidarity Tour, in which she visited countries with poor gay rights records, such as Poland, Latvia and Moldova.

She said: “Slovak LGBT are kind enough to call me the ‘Mother of Slovak Pride’ but I think it might be more accurate to call me the ‘delinquent aunt’ of Pride in central and eastern Europe.

“They do all the work and take all the risks, I just show up to waves flags and try to be a supportive presence.”

Ms Dimyon has also encouraged the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to support Pride events around the world.

She was accompanied to Buckingham Palace last Friday by three friends from Britain, Poland and Hungary.