Hackney (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Hackney Council faces accusations of legal violation after flying a trans-inclusive Pride flag outside its town hall, drawing mixed reactions from the public.
Since summer 2020, Hackney London Borough Council has raised the Pride flag in February and July to commemorate London Pride and LGBT+ history month.
However, because flying the flag is a “political statement,” campaigners and Christian attorneys contend that the Labour-run authority, headed by Mayor Caroline Woodley, is violating the Local Government Act.
Black, brown, pink, pale blue, and white stripes on the Progress Pride banner, which is an updated version of the rainbow-colored Pride flag from 1978, stand for people of color in the LGBTQ+, trans, and HIV/AIDS communities.
According to Christian Legal Center CEO Andrea Williams, Hackney may be “vulnerable to litigation.”
She told The Telegraph:
“Flying the so-called Progress flag at a time where the Government and the courts have been actively moving to protect the psychological and physical health of young people and safe spaces for women from overreaching interpretations of transgender-related laws is clearly a political statement.
By flying that particular flag, the mayor of Hackney is clearly engaging in partisan political advertising based on her own and her political party’s views on this issue.”
Maya Forstater, the chief executive of human rights charity Sex Matters, added:
“Dismissing people who complain about flags or waving this away as a ‘culture war’ completely misses the point. These symbols are not harmless messages of ‘inclusivity’.
The Progress Pride flag represents a highly contentious belief. It is Hackney council’s job to serve the whole community, in line with the Equality Act, not to signal its support for the claim that ‘trans women are women’.
Flying this flag sends a highly political and ideological message to every resident of Hackney, not to mention those council workers at the front line in the leisure centres, libraries and youth clubs where the law about single-sex spaces and services needs to be upheld.”
One source said:
“The cracks in Hackney Labour are becoming impossible to ignore – especially on sex and gender. Since the Supreme Court judgement, councillors who’ve been silenced by fear of cancellation are beginning to find their voices.
Many were deeply uncomfortable when the previous mayor forced through the ‘trans women are women’ motion without a single word of debate. Many lesbians and women who believe sex matters have repeatedly asked why Hackney flies the Progress Pride flag but refuses even to consider a women’s rights flag for International Women’s Day.”
In correspondence seen by The Telegraph, Ms Woodley said that a version of the Pride flag has flown above the Town Hall each February and July since summer 2017, to mark LGBT+ history month each February, and also the week leading up to and including the London Pride weekend each summer, in solidarity with the LGBTQI+ community and to highlight the council’s commitment to equalities and social inclusion.
In summer 2020, the council replaced the original Pride flag with the Progress Pride flag, which includes extra colours to represent queer people of colour and trans people in recognition of the diversity and intersectionality of the community. In 2023, the Progress Pride flag was then replaced with the Intersex Inclusive Progress Pride flag.
A request for comment has been made to the London Borough of Hackney.
What are Hackney council’s official reasons for raising the Pride flag?
To honour and celebrate the variety and intersectionality of Hackney’s sizable LGBTQIA+ population, the council raises the inclusive Pride flag, which has extra colours to symbolize transgender and gay people of colour.
The flag is meant to serve as an outward representation of the borough’s dedication to equality, particularly during periods when transgender rights and more general LGBTQIA+ rights are in jeopardy.
The flag’s hoisting
“Adds vital visibility to our borough’s commitment to equality, especially when trans rights are under attack and we need to reiterate that all LGBTQIA+ Black Lives Matter,”
According to Mayor Philip Glanville.
The flag serves as a focal point and is flown to commemorate important occasions like Pride Week, London Pride, and LGBT+ History Month.