Chester has announced they will fly a Pride flag for the remainder of Pride month after they were hit with a flood of messages condemning their previous position not to fly the flag.
The flag policy for Chester does not allow for non-government flags on municipal flag poles, including the Pride flag, however they are making an exception this year until the policy can be updated.
The municipality of Chester clarified their position in a release sent out this morning, “In response to the many messages and comments from our impassioned residents as well as supporters from outside our small, municipal borders, the Municipality wants to share that the intention was never to exclude, marginalize or diminish the LGBTQ+ community. Hard-earned progress should be celebrated, and we need to make sure this recognition is not further delayed.”
LunenburgPride Director Shelley McCorriston was very critical of Chester’s council before it was announced that they would be raising the flag, “By not raising the flag it sends a clear message to the 2SLGBTQ+ community that their fight for inclusion is not their (Chester’s council) fight.”
In spite of this looking like a win, McCorriston still thinks that the move from Chester is a reactionary one to negative feedback, “I’m not really surprised that we had to push the envelope in order to get a change to happen.”
In response to the announcement of the flag being raised today McCorriston said ” This is the first step in getting a permanent flag pole in place for a proper rasing, but a very welcomed one an I want to thank everyone who made this happen.”
The Pride flag will be jointly unfurled by Warden Allen Webber and Shelley McCorriston today (July 23) at 1:00 p.m.
