Just as pride celebrations reach communities across the globe, with smaller villages now letting their colours fly and supporting members of their community who are LGBT+, so does counter-pride demonstrations by straight people with nothing better to do.
The little Canadian village of Chipman, Queens County really misunderstood the issue when they decided to raise a black and white ‘straight pride’ flag beside one of it’s main roads. It was done as a reaction to a rainbow pride flag that was flown by the council during the their week of Pride around June 24.
Being a little village of 1,200 people, it is strange to think that they felt the need to take action in showing their straight pride. In a speech on Sunday, mayor Carson Atkinson stated that the heterosexual flag was raised because it meets the criteria of the council. It “recognises, accepts and respects the rights of individuals” under the Charter of Rights and Freedom. Because of course straight people need recognition too.
He then went on to share:
“Whatever your personal persuasions, political or religious views, or country of origin, we welcome you in our community…”
When he realised how silly it was to raise such a flag, he released a statement on the Sunday explaining: “As a result of unintentional attention to the flag, the Village od Shipman is removing the flag based on feedback form the citizens we serve, public response has included personal threats and attacks against members of Council and cyberbullying.”.
The statement upheld that Chipman remains a “welcoming open community”.
The reaction to the flag was as expected on twitter:
"There's no such thing as bad publicity"
Chipman: Hold my beer.
— Ryan (CRASH) Barton (@Crashola) October 22, 2018
I’ve been to Chipman two or three times. Never again. Disgusting and ignorant move, raising a ‘straight pride’ flag. How can an entire municipal council/government be that stupid?
— Andy Campbell (@fredcityandy) October 22, 2018
It's not very often I'm embarrassed to be from New Brunswick. #straightflag #chipman #straightpride #gaypride #LGBTQ pic.twitter.com/bKQalgEf87
— Michael de Adder (@deAdder) October 22, 2018
Leave it to cis heterosexuals to have the most boring, monochromatic, utterly joyless flag imaginablehttps://t.co/TZ4P6GXtpz
— Darren Elmore (@darrenelmore) October 22, 2018
