London LGBT+ Community Pride, the organisation appointed to deliver Pride in London over the next five years, is looking for volunteers and parade participants for this year's festival.

The parade will take place on Saturday 29th June 2013 and this year's theme is "Love (and Marriage)".

London LGBT+ Community Pride has already recruited 800 volunteers but needs another 400 to help steward and keep London moving safely on the day.  It is also looking for community groups and charities from across the capital to participate in the parade.  

If you would like to volunteer or register as a participant, you can find further details at http://londoncommunitypride.org/.

London Pride is a fantastic event, not only for the LGBT+ community but also for London as a whole.  I am pleased to offer my support to London LGBT+ Community Pride and wish them every success with organising this year's festival.

On Friday 8th March I joined Doreen Lawrence and Shami Chakrabarti in celebrating International Women's Day and the Stephen Lawrence Women’s Awards 2013.

In the year that marks the 20th anniversary of Stephen's tragic death, the Stephen Lawrence Trust wanted to take the opportunity to recognise inspirational women from the local community.  Awards were presented to honour the achievements of women from Lewisham, Southwark and Greenwich.

I gave a short speech outlining my experiences as a woman in politics and took part in a discussion on how individuals can make a difference.  You can reach my speech in full here.

As you may know, today (8th March) is International Women's Day.  To mark the occasion, on Wednesday 6th March the Speaker's Advisory Committee on Works of Art held a lecture on Margot Asquith, wife of Herbert Henry Asquith who was Prime Minister from 1908-1916.

I was asked to introduce the speaker, Professor Krista Cowman from the University of Lincoln.  Professor Cowman is a historian and has published widely on the women’s suffrage movement.  Her current research project is on Feminism and Historical Memory in Europe.    She is a founder member of the Women’s History Network and the former editor of the Labour History Review.

You can read my introduction and speech - which draws on my experiences as a woman in politics - here.

Parliamentary copyright image reproduced with the permission of Parliament.

Today I welcomed the opportunity to be part of the One Billion Rising Campaign and make a stand to end violence against women and girls.

As thousands of campaigners across Britain come together at 150 different events, MPs debated a motion calling on the Government to make relationship education a requirement in schools.  Activists in the UK will be joining a worldwide movement in almost 200 other countries to call for renewed efforts to end violence against women.

I have campaigned to end violence against women all my political life.  I cannot believe that the death toll remains so high.  Last year 109 women died as a result of domestic violence.  With one in three girls aged 13-17 in relationships saying they have experienced physical or sexual violence, the future looks grim.

That is why I am backing the One Billion Rising campaign by supporting the call to make a zero tolerance approach to violence in relationships part of the school curriculum.