Well it’s certainly been a summer for flags, has it not?
Turning swiftly side from the recent jingoistic Union Jack
display that accompanied the birth of an heir to the heir to the heir to the
throne, and I pause here for a yawn, we saw the controversy as Scotland’s First
Minister Alex Salmond unfurled the Saltire from his wife’s handbag and, some
would say unceremoniously, brandished it to celebrate Andy Murray winning at
Wimbledon.
“Gaun yersel Eck!” I would say, but others begged to differ
and the Unionist press attempted to have a field day, with all sorts of
accusations of improper conduct being hurled in the poor man’s direction. He
only did what any one of us would have done in the situation, and the fact that
David Cameron was right in front of him was surely mere coincidence!
But the flag controversy has now moved on to closer at home:
Glasgow Pride to be precise.
Apparently last year Glasgow City Council claimed that they
couldn’t raise the Rainbow flag over the City Chambers due to the presence of
nesting seagulls. Sounds a bit fishy to me but that’s their story and they are
sticking to it. The year before the flag certainly flew loud and proud as they
say in the LGBT community and I do remember my own personal pride when we
entered George Square and there it was. And much commented on it was too!
However this week saw the appearance of a statement from the
organisers of Glasgow Pride in which they asked Glasgow City Council NOT to
display the Rainbow flag, due to their accusation of lack of financial support
for the event itself. Now I am not party to the inner goings on of the
organisation of such events. I support them through donation when the buckets
come round, but as to the machinations of how the money is raised and indeed
spent, well I leave that to those involved.
And not being involved, directly at least, is my personal
choice. I have quite enough on my hands with a busy job and active social life,
and volunteering has never been my “thing”. I have lots of admiration for those
who do however, and one of my friends, who is involved with such events, has
certainly opened my eyes to the amount of hard work that is needed behind the
scenes to make such events a success, though I have to say we still have a long
way to go to even make the same league as the likes of Manchester, Brighton or
London.
A lot of that has to do with population of course, and
although Glasgow acts as a Mecca to the Scottish LGBT community, many of whom,
like myself, have moved into the big city from outside, the numbers don’t even
remotely compare to those down south.
But back to the flag itself – and what does it represent? As
ever Wikipedia comes to the rescue and if you don’t know then this article on the rainbow flag
will help you out! Worth a read!
Who does it belong to? Glasgow Pride? Glasgow City Council?
Me? You?
The truth is of course that it belongs to none of the above
and all at the same time. On the day of the Pride march in Glasgow you will see
it everywhere – from face paint (which reminds me to get some ordered in after
the spectacular success of last year’s venture with this!) to costumes, on
flagpoles above the LGBT pubs and clubs, but NOT if the organisers of Glasgow
Pride were to have their way, adorning the flagpole of the City Chambers.
It is a symbol which binds us all together and reminds us of
where we have come from to get to the point where marching through the centre
of Glasgow is actually safe! As ever Wikipedia to the rescue and a quick read
of story about the Stonewall riots
will perhaps give you an idea of exactly why we are marching at all.
Anyway as ever I digress and so back to the controversy
around the flag in Glasgow, which stepped up a gear when a larger than life
celebrity from the gay scene got involved and had the temerity to say that we
should all lobby Glasgow City Council to fly the flag after all!
For those of you on Facebook here’s where to read what was
said: Letter to the Council
After the (sad but expected) personal insults and name
calling (all going in one direction I have to say) had died down it became
apparent that this point of view, that it was OUR flag and had a symbolic value
which over-shone any monetary one, was really quite popular and had great merit.
So for once I put pen to paper (well ok I typed it on a pc)
and wrote an almost identical letter myself. I’m not often moved to such acts
of rabid community action but on this occasion I did so, adding a short
sentence expressing my concern about the accusations of the financial playing
field not being level, and asked for comments about this aspect.
No sooner was the ink from my printer dry, and the letter in
the post, though bearing in mind the seagull controversy I didn’t use any
pigeons, than the proverbial (bird) shit hit the fan – and the council pointed
out that Glasgow Pride would in fact be receiving a large discount for various
parts of the event, including such as the use of Glasgow Green. In a statement
they added, “The council will be flying the Pride flag in support of Glasgow’s
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents, and the Pride movement as a
whole.”
And with that statement I have to agree – the flag belongs
to no-one but has symbolic value to us all!
More questions have perhaps been asked than answered during
this whole sorry episode, and personally I do feel that the attempt at gesture
politics did the organisers of Glasgow Pride no favours at all. There is more
than one way to skin a cat as they say, though perhaps with those pesky
seagulls in mind the alternative saying – there is more than one way to fry a
fish – might have been more appropriate! All very fishy to me anyway!
So there you have it – it’s now time though to get this
controversy behind us and as the slogan says: “Let’s get back together oot on
the Green!”
