FFS disability is now on the pride flag

Have a watch if the livestream recording of Let Women Speak in Brighton 2024. Shouting and chanting, noise rattling, megaphones, the lot. It continued after the event, with so-called activists getting in the faces of attendees and shouting Nazi at them. They did not let women speak. Making as much noise as possible to drown out whatever opinions they disagree with is their MO, check out antifascist groups if you don’t believe me.

I wasn't talking about inside the houses my friend could see. It was the car park to them which was totally - and deliberately - inaccessible.

You know, like those artsy cobbled pavements that are popping up everywhere.

When you realise ancient Greece would have be 5 for accessibility, compared to the UKs /2, it rather puts a dampner on the idea of progress. And they didn't even have a flag !

I'm afraid you'll find most of the posters here also agree with you about Brexit, reading the Guardian, Farage, being social liberal, women's, gay and minority rights.... well, did read the Guardian before it started writing absolute misogynist crap, prioritising men over women and vulnerable people.

My goodness. You don't know its happening precisely because you read the Guardian!

Yes it happens. It happens a lot. I am involved in women's rights. If those who oppose us find out where we are meeting, they come along with their amplifiers and seek to drown us out. Police have to attend to keep us safe from them. If we are meeting in a booked venue and they find out where we are meeting, they will deluge the venue with protests and threats until the venue cancels our booking at the last meeting. At Filia last year 1,500 women from across the UK with speakers across the world had travelled for a three day conference and the venue cancelled the day before. Only a legal letter caused them to agree at the last minute to let us in.
For the last ten years, our events are often only advertised through trusted circles to try to stop this happening, venues released the day before. We need to hire security and our bags and checked and all liquids thrown away before we are allowed to enter. The women's groups I am in cannot advertise openly. You find out about them through contacts. You have to have your social media checked and go through a vetting process and interview before you are admitted. All to keep members safe.
I know women who are followed and harassed continually by those who oppose us speaking for basic women's rights.

Its a disgrace that women are not free to meet and organise and speak and campaign freely and safely in the UK in 2024.

So yes it happens. I used to be on the left, but no more after they have not only been silent on this but actually being the one's doing all this. The progressive left is not what you may think it is. But you'll never find that out from the Guardian.

I don’t really understand what you mean.

Agree with you@sashh. There is also identifying as disabled when you are not, which is a form of body dysphoria (charitable version) and a fetish (uncharitable but more truthful version).

Are you aware that so called "trans rights", the cause du jour of "progressives", conflict with the rights of some other disadvantaged groups?

Yes it does actually happen.

@Quietnights

I'd presumed that poster means self-identified progressives who take along loud speakers to drown out the public voices at public events of anyone they disagree with.

Right. OK. I'd never heard of this before, and didn't know it was a thing. I'd like to think I'm reasonably 'progressive': I resigned from the Labour Party and voted Green in the GE (because of what Starmer said about not seeking to re-enter the EU in 'his lifetime'). I read the Guardian, I hate Farage, I'm socially liberal - I favour more rights for women, gay people and minorities.

But that drowning out thing just seems batshit to me. Having better policies that make more sense is what I want to see, not shouting louder.

Does it actually happen, or is it some kind of right wing rumour?

A lot of the views you refer to aren't actually particularly progressive or inclusive @SeeSeeRider

You can identify out of it though...

I thought it all started by people calling themselves "woke"... so you call yourself X, tell people to call you X (or else), then get annoyed when people call you X.... what next?

Btw, what do you mean by "progressive" or "inclusive"?

EA accessibility requirements don't apply to dwellings. If they did, all houses taller than one floor would need lifts.

Quite. How many charities and orgs covering disabilities and medical conditions will need to prove their rainbow credentials and Stonewall approved (at a huge financial cost) ally-ship to funds like Children in Need and other kool-aid dunked foundations in order to receive much needed funds to survive? Even though gender identity and sexuality has nothing to do with their purposes.

My head hurts. Let's just give the rainbow back to Noah 🌈

Apart altogether from the offensive politics of that vexillologist's nightmare known as the Progress Flag, there's the stupidity of messing up the original rainbow flag - a rainbow contains all colours anyway, why add more?

It shows how little most of the people understood the original ethos. It's a self own.

Do they ?

Explain that to a friend who went to see a brand new 2019 build house that was inaccessible because the car park was - deliberately - pea shingle.

Apparently there is an exemption in the EA that allows people who don't like skateboarders "in their neighbourhood" to trump "that lot" as my friend was called.

If only she'd had a flag.

Force teaming.

If you support disabled people you MUST fully adhere and abide by Stonewall Law.

It's not ok. It's a Trojan horse.

I'd presumed that poster means self-identified progressives who take along loud speakers to drown out the public voices at public events of anyone they disagree with.

Ironic that those who identify as anti-fascist seek to literally and forcibly drown out the voices of those they disagree with, thus stopping anyone else from hearing those views and forming their own opinions on what they are saying. Hard to think of something less democratic really.

I suppose stupid neo-Pride flags that almost erase the original rainbow are the in thing nowadays. In the past couple of years I've seen Pride logos incorporating Palestinian or Ukrainian colours.

To properly reflect the economics of Pride, the flag should really include a vodka bottle.

On a more serious note, I have a long-term chronic illness. It is debilitating, has visible symptoms and it's not an illness that the trendy neurospicy crowd would ever self-ID into. My illness sucks, I wish I didn't have it, and I certainly don't need a fucking flag to wave. Easier workplace adjustments would be nice though.

Apart altogether from the offensive politics of that vexillologist's nightmare known as the Progress Flag, there's the stupidity of messing up the original rainbow flag - a rainbow contains all colours anyway, why add more?

It doesn't contain black, and it also doesn't contain white, as these are absence/presence of light, not colours.
It was a perfectly adequate symbol of diversity without all these garish and clashing additions.

But I suppose ignoring scientific fact about the rainbow ties in well with ignoring scientific fact about human biology...

I assume it’s as a results of folks taking health damaging drugs… there always seems to be a high proportion of folks with canes, walkers and wheelchairs at demos. Not sure if it includes people with autism but they’d be a fair chunk too.

why can’t they just leave the flipping rainbow to cover sexuality. Personality and disability… come off it. What next?

You have not explained why you call people who play music through speakers in public places "woke". It seems to me that you have not so much hijacked the meaning as destroyed it altogether.

If a far-right demagogue or newspaper calls people like me 'woke' for having progressive or inclusive views and means it pejoratively, then I decide.

Those of us who don’t live our lives framed in victimhood get drowned out by those who do, and their white allies who have much louder voices than we do. You might want to see what has happened to women of colour who have spoken out.

Meaning aside, the flag has started to become real ugly. Can we please at least make it aesthetically pleasing?!