Hebridean Pride is going big in the Western Isles for 2023.
With Pride month in full swing, marches and events celebrating the LGBTQ community are taking place all over Scotland.
Since 2018, the Outer Hebrides has joined in, with Hebridean Pride holding events in Stornoway.
This year they aim to bring the community together with a day of celebration on July 8, followed by a Pride march later in August.
After a smaller event last year, Hebridean Pride organisers Gina, Emma, and Charlie want to come back louder and prouder than ever.
‘We need something big’
“I think after Covid we need something big,” says Charlie.
For the event Stornoway will be welcoming Amy McDonald, manager of Rangers Women’s football team.
The Hebridean Pride team hopes she will inspire the island’s young people in particular, with the local girls’ football team already “growing in strength”.
Families will also be able to enjoy activities like face-painting and a bouncy castle throughout the day, and for the grown-ups, a masquerade ball in the evening will be a way to party in style.
Making sure the Western Isles LGBTQ community is heard
Charlie says for the LGBTQ community in the Western Isles, being openly out isn’t always easy.
“The queer community is everywhere,” says Charlie. But the islands’ strongly-held religious traditions and close-knit communities mean it is often put “behind closed doors”.
Listen: Hebridean Pride team members Gina and Emma describe the group’s foundations.
Previous Pride celebrations have been picketed by people protesting on religious grounds, and in 2019 the Western Isles council refused to fly a pride flag for the event.
And, in day-today life, Emma says that in particular there are “quite a few of our transgender folk on the island who have had many different issues”.
Hebridan Pride, Charlie says, is about “bringing [the LGBTQ community] forward and not making it as much of a taboo subject, and trying to involve the community as much as possible.”
“Everyone’s beliefs are important to them,” says Emma. “So we’re trying to be as diplomatic as we can, but making sure that we’re heard as well.”
This Pride month, the future of LGBTQ rights is on a lot of people’s minds. One Hebridean Pride committee member, whose girlfriend lives in Florida and is transgender, says she worries about transgender people being targeted more and more in both the UK and the US.
“I have been considering leaving the UK,” she says. “[It’s] rapidly becoming unsafe for transgender people.”
For the Hebridean Pride team, then, this year’s event is more important than ever. Putting it together has been a labour of love.
Hebridean Pride’s future plans to support queer people in Stornoway
“You have to have a lot of patience and a lot of time to pull this off,” says Charlie. All three of the organisers are parents, and Charlie is juggling Hebridean Pride’s work with caring for three boys.
“It’s been stressful, but we’ve got there,” adds Gina.
But even with all the work it takes, Pride events are just the beginning of Hebridean Pride’s goals.
Explore the Pride events taking place over Scotland, from the Borders to Shetland:
“We’re going to try to do things all year round,” says Gina. The team has hopes for a support group for young queer people on the island, as well as tea evenings that could be a “safe zone” for people of all ages.
“We really, really want our community, the LGBTQ community, to feel welcome on this island,” says Charlie.
“We want to be included, and I don’t think that’s an impossible dream any more.”
More local reporting from the Western Isles:
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