Love & Understanding
You might have noticed over the weekend that our usual blue Thurso Community Development Trust logo had been replaced with a Rainbow version. June is Pride month, it is a month dedicated to celebrating the LGBTQ+ communities all around the world. Pride month is important time to celebrate, especially those that can feel marginalised due to their sexuality. We first used the Pride logo last year, thanks to the wonderful Lisa Poulsen from Inspired by Caithness for making the changes for us. We love it!
Rainbows have represented hope throughout the Covid-19 crises, painted windows and pictures of Rainbows adorn lots of windows in Thurso. For Pride, the Rainbow respresents diversity. But we’d also like to think hope, hope of diversity being accepted, of everyone being included and of love meaning love. We didn’t last year, nor this year use the Pride logo as a gimmick, for us it has real and very important meaning. A Thurso where everyone is accepted and loved, where diversity and inclusion are accepted and understood. Last year when we first used it we were contacted by a few Thurso people both here and from further away who told us how appreciated it was and for some emotional for a Thurso organisation to do that. To us, why wouldn’t we? People are people, love is love and everyone who lives in Thurso or loves Thurso should feel safe, appreciated, understood, included and valued.
This year, hope and inclusion have greater meaning. While we don’t want to take away in any shape or form from the celebration of Pride we, like you, have been watching the news. The news of protests across the USA and UK for the Black Lives Matter movement. Now Caithness is an area that has a 99% white population, so some of you may be asking what has something so far away got to do with us? Love, understanding and inclusion for all, that is what it has to do with us. The very act of celebrating Pride which we wouldn’t have without the efforts of a Black Trans Woman Marsha P Johnson is a celebration of inclusion. Thurso, to us is a place where everyone should feel welcome for all who live here or may visit here or just hold Thurso in their hearts. Our efforts in addressing Covid-19 have been about protecting our community, the rainbow giving hope of that protection as we celebrate the NHS. keyworkers and ask for hope at the current time. So for this year lets’s also allow that Rainbow to represent hope in making sure our words and actions are inclusive of everyone regardless of sexual orientation, race, class, disability, and gender. Taking the time to understand how a flyaway word here, an action there, an opinion or comment not challenged may have made someone in our community feel.
So this June as we look towards recovery from what the world is going through and we celebrate diversity and pride in being who we are, just folk, no matter about anything else. We’d ask our community as we are doing to take the time to think, learn and listen to voices both here and further afield on how we can all do better, think better and include more, welcoming all in our community who live and visit here.
Love is love.