This Pride season has provided many examples of incidents which show us why it is still so necessary.
In this week’s homophobic news, a group calling itself “Men of Bridlington” has admitted to cutting down a Pride flag that was flying outside a Bridlington Police Station in East Yorkshire.
The rainbow flag had been flying to celebrate this month’s Pride in Hull festivities, but was cut down on Sunday 29 July.
In an email sent to a number of leading local figures, including Cllr Stphen Parnaby, Bridlington's MP Sir Greg Knight and police and crime commissioner Keith Hutner, the group claimed responsibility for the vandalism and made shockingly homophobic and factually inaccurate statements.
According to the Hull Daily Mail, the email read:
The police should not be involving themselves in politics and should not be appearing to show bias towards fringe groups in society.
We especially object to the endorsement of the LGBT movement. Homosexuality is abnormal, perverted, anti-social, unnatural and dangerous.
That is the view of normal people and within living memory, the practice of homosexuality was illegal in this country – for good reason.
Homosexual relationships preclude, or are destructive of, normal families. Homosexuals engage in disgusting practices and spread disease. Homosexuality is not natural – nobody is ‘born’ a homosexual, it is a choice – and it has been found that homosexuals have often suffered abuse during childhood.
The police, of all bodies, should not be endorsing this, and it is completely unacceptable that they would. To any normal person, that flag could not be more offensive.
It adds:
We do NOT support the LGBT community. Our message to them is: We think you are perverts and freaks, and you need to keep it in the closet.
Andy Train, chair of the Hull and East Riding LGBT+ Forum, told the BBC:
It’s as if you had some bigot from the 1950s and planted them in Bridlington.
It’s a hate crime, I’ve been told that by Humberside Police, it is just evil and sad and bigoted.
We had been on such a wave of euphoria after Hull Pride attracted 50,000 people but this shows there’s still a lot of work to be done to create a safe environment to live in.
Humberside Police told the BBC it was investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Det Ch Insp Matthew Peach told the broadcaster that flag had been taken down. He continued:
We are treating these malicious emails as a hate crime.
Everyone has the right to be safe and secure and to live free from fear or harassment. Hate incidents or crimes are based on ignorance, prejudice, discrimination and hate and have no place in our society.
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