This month we hear from CRCW; Kirsty Mabbott who is based at Ansty Road & St Columba’s URCs in Coventry. This is an important month because June is a time where LGBT Pride is celebrated around the world. Mainly, this year, gatherings will not be an option due to the pandemic, but many will continue to celebrate from home and on-line.

"In Singapore, the Pink Dot celebrations are going on-line, and people are being encouraged to hang pink lights in their windows on June 27th to show solidarity with those who feel alone, are struggling with not being accepted by their families and friends or are scared to ‘come out of the closet’."

Kirsty encourages us to remember the struggles many in the LGBTIQA+ have faced in the past and: "the hard-fought battles for equality and justice." Kirsty says that Pride month this year in the UK has also been affected by the appropriation of its pride flag: "Our flag represents to us the hard fight for human rights that others take for granted and some just want to wipe that away."

Read Kirsty's full reflection here:

It’s June, which means its LGBT Pride Month all around the world. Now this year, due to Covid19, we will not see the gatherings around the world to celebrate Pride, but in some places, there have been calls to continue to mark the month from home. It won’t be the same as coming together as a community, but hopefully will enable people to know they are valued and seen.

In Singapore, the Pink Dot celebrations are going online, and people are being encouraged to hang pink lights in their windows on June 27th to show solidarity with those who feel alone, are struggling with not being accepted by their families and friends or are scared to ‘come out of the closet’. All the Pride festivals in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Eire have been cancelled or postponed except for Dublin Pride, which like Singapore, has moved online. Now some might wonder why this matters, especially amidst a global pandemic? In some ways, they are right, but, Pride matters. Pride matters because for many people, it is their first way of accessing the wider LGBTIQA+ community, it is sometimes the way some folk see the embodiment of what they are feeling inside but didn’t know how to express it.

It is also a time of remembering. We remember the hard-fought battles for equality and justice. We remember that it all started at a little bar called the Stonewall Inn in New York when a beautiful Drag Queen called Marsha P Johnson stood up against the police brutality that was taking place and led the Queers to fight back sparking the Stonewall Riots. We remember those who have been killed because they are LGBTIQA+ and mourn for the loss of their beautiful and creative sparks. We also remember all those who we lost to HIV/AIDS and those that stood in solidarity with us when we were seen as perverts, predators and carriers of death. But Pride is also a time we remember the fight is not yet over. Just this week it has been reported in the UK press that the ban on conversion therapy that the government promised in 2018 has not happened because the new equalities minister has announced that conversion therapy is a complex issue…this is hogwash, and that is me being polite. Conversion therapy is harmful and dangerous, if you are unsure of what it is, it claims to “cure” gay people of their gay-ness, as if it is an illness. It has been proved that this “therapy” does not work and has caused many deaths by both suicide and murder (usually labelled as honour killings). All the major UK health organisations have condemned conversion therapies because of how dangerous they are.

Pride month this year in the UK is also somewhat affected by the appropriation of its pride flag by unscrupulous online retailers and others. The rainbows that have been adopted the world over during this time have for millennia been a symbol of hope and peace, but here in the UK the rainbow flags being sold, and the NHS rainbow badges being worn by members of the government are not true rainbows…they are Pride rainbows. Some might ask what is the difference? It’s six colours instead of seven, but the NHS rainbow badges were produced by the NHS for staff to wear in solidarity with LGBTIQA+ colleagues and patients and also to mark them as “safe” people to be approached if you were Queer and needed help. The appropriation of a symbol that has been our community’s rally point, armour and safe space marks for some a thoughtless (or maybe well thought out) erasure of our identity. Many who would not support Pride or display a Pride flag in June are now hanging them outside their homes to “support the NHS” without an iota of thought about the mixed message it is sending, and this is doubly worrying when we have seen in the last three months, this pandemic used as an excuse to push through Anti-LGBT+ laws in countries around the world and we then see that our symbols and identity have been taken and relabelled to prop up bad government decisions and a greedy retail market. Our flag represents to us the hard fight for human rights that others take for granted and some just want to wipe that away.

So, this month of June, I will be waving my Pride Flag at home while eating rainbow cake in solidarity with my LGBTIQA+ siblings around the world. I will raise a glass to those who fought the equality battles to get us to here, I will light a candle to remember all those we have lost, and I will ensure that my red ribbon is clearly seen on my bag. I will continue to be out, loud and proud and hopefully build on ideas to create a stronger bridge between our church and my beloved rainbow community so that next year at Pride we can be a strong and loving presence & eat cake together.

Be Blessed

Kirsty <>

Photo by Tanushree Rao on Unsplash

Would you like to know more about Church Related Community Work and how you can be an agent of social change? You may be a church member involved in community work already and want to find out how you can do even more? Let the CRCW office give you advice and guidance by calling the URC switchboard on: 020 7916 2020 or emailing us.

Please note that the office is currently closed due to the pandemic so if possible, please send any enquiries by email: crcw.admin@urc.org.uk