Yesterday, today, tomorrow: OB proud

To mark Pride Month, members of the LGBTQ+ community at OB have been sharing their ‘queer anchors’ - the songs, places, memories, art and people that make them feel connected to who they are and to the wider queer community. These anchors are personal, powerful, and proudly shared to celebrate identity, connection, and joy.

My anchor is definitely queer music, even though my daughter Emilia only loves Taylor Swift! I always want to make sure she is proud of her awesome family with two moms. Emilia had a playdate with her four-year-old friend and he said, ‘So you have two mums? How did that happen?’ And she just said, ‘Well, some kids have one mum and some have two!’ And that was it - it was so sweet and innocent but made me so proud of how she is already a little advocate for human rights and how empowered she was by just stating facts and knowing where she stands. I have so much hope for the next generation.

For Pride 2025, we’re donating to akt to support them in ensuring that every young LGBTQ+ person facing homelessness or a hostile living environment has a safe place to live.

For Pride 2024, we showed our support across the UK with window installations. From the bright lights of Brighton to the music-filled streets of Liverpool (and many other stops along the way), we celebrated throughout the summer.

Check out the Pride 2024 window display at our Liverpool One store, designed by illustrator and artist Rosa Kusabbi. Rosa’s work is centred around queer joy, female empowerment, and social issues, creating work to uplift and empower underrepresented communities.

We caught up with her to find out more about her design process and final artwork.

I usually start by creating my characters - sometimes they’ll be modelled after myself, my partner, my friends or even just queer people I’ve met on nights out. I think this makes my characters authentic and joyful. Next, I’ll build up the background around them, adding nods to queer culture and creating a vibrant utopia!

To me, Pride is a protest. It’s about having the defiance to be yourself in a time or a place that doesn’t see you and standing up for others in your community that aren’t able to do so. It’s also a time of reflection, to remember the people who have come and fought before us.

My characters are me - who I am now, who I have been and who I want to be. They are my community, my friends, my partner, my family and, if you’re perceptive, you might have noticed that my toy poodle Frida takes centre stage in most of my works, too!

I want to say what my late best friend once told me, which was allow yourself to be vulnerable and be authentically yourself. Don’t be scared of letting people see all sides of you. I think as queer people, this is something that can be so terrifying, but honestly, it’s scary for everyone to be vulnerable. I think when you allow yourself to be honest in this way, the connections you form with other people are so much stronger and your community becomes closer.

I want to shout out Lavender Nights. Lavender Nights is dedicated to creating vibrant, inclusive events around Liverpool that celebrate and empower the queer community. They host unique themed events that go beyond traditional club nights, offering alternatives like gay sports days, film nights and queer markets. Their mission is to ensure these events are loud, proud, and prominently visible, fostering a safe and joyful space where queer people can connect, celebrate and thrive, without the centrality of drinking culture.

You can find Rosa on Instagram @‌rosa_illustration_