The small community of Millport is to have an LGBT+ pride. Thoughts?

[MintBird]

Millport is on Cumbrae (don't confuse with Cumbria)- a small island on the West of Scotland coast, population not much over 1,000 with a lot of elderly. It's the only town on the island so most people generally just say Millport. As one of the more Southern islands and its small size it is popular for tourists and cycling.

So they are going to have their first ever pride on Sep 12th. Pride events usually happen in cities so it's unusual for one to take place in a small island with a lot of elderly and Christian residents. Some on social media are complaining the "ideology is being pushed on small island communities" whilst others are saying Ayrshire is a decade behind Glasgow in terms of LGBT acceptance with men or boys being targeted even for discreetly holding hands.

https://millportpride.wixsite.com/millport-pride

www.heraldscotland.com/news/26252152.millport-host-first-ever-pride-festival-september/

Mumsnet has 8 million unique users a month. It's a discussion forum so you'll probably get a range of views. 🙂

This, the organiser was inspired by Arran Pride, amongst other smaller rural events, LGBT people live rurally or in smaller towns why shouldn't they have an event,

Ime Millport isn't particularly religious.

So you want screen shots then?

It seems bizarre to me to think of small rural communities in 2026 as being utterly out of touch wit the modern world. People travel, move away to go to university and jobs and come back to live here, there are tourists (so many tourists), people coming in to live here (most recent cafe here opened by a gay couple with enormous support by locals, best matcha in town says ds), we have the internet, TV, radio. I've not seen much religious activity her either, Christian or other. Maybe OP, it's time to update your prejudices.

Not sure that it’s a particularly ‘christian’ community? And don’t see any problem with a Pride event on the island.

Some people think rural Scotland is stuck in the 1800s!

I'm fed up of the TQ+ pushed everywhere.
I live in a town not a million miles away and that's what happens here, although here it's really pushed at kids.
All the teens and adults go to Glasgow Pride anyway

Out of interest are you from Ayrshire or know it at all ?

Where you refer to the council estate being filmed it wasn’t even in South Ayrshire , it was Kilmarnock which is east Ayrshire council and both Largs and Millport are North Ayrshire !

The biggest problem the pride event will have is hoping the ferries are actually working that day to get people to and from the island !

Who is organising it?

I know a new pride event near me. Almost all being organised by one bloke. A really nice bloke. Has expressed views which are not exactly corporate. Indeed wants to get away from corporate and council led and go back to grassroots. Fed up of the big pride events. We are supporting. He will do an amazing job.

The article said Pam Currie a local school teacher.

Ooh I love Millport. I think they should make it a cycle round the island pride rather than a march.

Providing they are truly inclusive and eg welcome the LGB Alliance and lesbian groups for women only, then why not? Hopefully the blokes in fetish gear stay the hell away though.

Mx Currie

An absence of 'Kill Terfs' signs would be good too.

LGB needs to finally ditch the T.
They’ve gone away from being about same sex attracted to being filled with absolute fruit loops.

Sorry, I don't buy it.

Generally a good faith poster puts their own views in to play as well.

It's the use of the word "we" that jars.

Certainly there is a community of regulars on FWR but "we" are also a bunch of individuals who tend to work out what we think on important questions in daylight through discusion on the threads. The groupthink, such as it is, is mostly just in jokes and eyerolling at the ongoing groundhog day nature of TRActivist and TRAlly points.

The natural question for one of "us" would be "I'm not sure how I feel about this because XYZ....what do you think?" (or "what does everyone else think?") expecting to get a range of responses. It would be very weird to ask what "we" think about a topic as if there's some sort of agreed stance before the fact.

I have actually been noticing this a lot recently - posts asking what "we" think about some small and pretty innocuous social media or news post in what seems to be an attempt to elicit intolerant or petty responses, or a pile on against some poor individual like Orc guy So thank you for giving me an opportunity to flag something that has been niggling at me.

For the record:

I think it's great that small communities want to run Pride events as long as they are grassroots from the local LGB community not bussed in by activitss from elsewhere who either think they "should" have Pride event or are actually hoping to create a negative reaction they can leverage for publicity and don't care that this will actually hurt the local LGB community.

I also think that Genderism is a regressive sexist belief system and that adding T to LGB has diverted Pride into destructive and divisive political posturing instead of celebrating the existence and visibility and normality of being same sex attracted.

Unexpected I agree, small scale and not corporate (let's support this but ill treat staff the rest of the year). If no-one's lives are being unduly disrupted, a free choice to stay away from it.

Sounds like a good day out. Only thing I don't like - and as a secondary teacher the organiser should be aware of the issues - is having the youth section of the day be from age 12 to 25, which is an insane age range

Sounds like they need Pride then

I don't know why you thought it was necessary to point that out ! You seem surprised that a gay woman didn't want to point out her marital status and remain ambiguous.

Sounds like it's more needed there than anywhere else. Pride in cities is often very corporate, this sounds far more organic and homegrown.

It will really help LGBT children who daren't come out, and sounds fun. Hope everyone has a good time.

Wow. You've just proved why trans people need and deserve to be included in Pride - as they have always been, from the very start.

Trans/nb people know what it's like to experience misogyny, homophobia, biphobia and acephobia as well. Lots of trans people are gay, bi, pan or ace.

Trans/nb people are as individual as anyone else, they just happen to be trans/nb while living normal lives. And people hate them for it, treating them as a hive mind and calling them an 'ideology' - which is why Pride is so important.

The victimisation that LGB people have faced is very different in nature to that of transgender people

the reasons behind are different- one being provable innate and the other - even if there is an innate aspect - provable strongly society driven

I mean pride hasn't been extended to include other victimised groups like Jews or Muslims / just Ts - which seems arbitrary to me

Is it a Christian community? I don't know Cumbrae at all but my parents were stalwarts of the Church of Scotland on Arran, and I know from conversations with their church friends that attendance at the remaining churches on the island is pitifully small now. People still use the churches for funerals, they may attend at Christmas or Easter and they sometimes have christenings and church weddings. In the latter cases I would cynically suggest it's because it looks good in photos. I'm not getting the impression that faith of any sort is central to the lives of most people there, any more than it is in the rest of the UK. There are probably more Wiccans on Arran now than regular churchgoers.

I have the impression it's different further north where the Free Churches are still dominant.

hoping the ferries are actually working

[deep breaths]
[deep breaths]
[calming thoughts]
[do not revisit Arran ferry debacle, do not go into swivel-eyed loon mode]
[find soothing GIF instead]