We’re pretty sure that pride month won’t be news to anyone here with all the celebrations and love we’ve seen on social media - but let us take a moment to wish you a very lovely one nonetheless. Remember, pride is for everyone! If you haven’t ever been to Pride, we’d highly recommend it. It’s important to show our support and share in celebrating the incredible diversity our community holds. You don’t have to be LGBTQ+ to be proud.
Flag design by Caz
We’ve been working with house residents Queer by Gum and Revamp Raccoon on some fantastic projects this month that will be heading out to Lancaster Pride this weekend (Sunday 23rd June). And then heading back over to Morecambe for Morecambe Pride (27th July).
Pride Jesus:
We’ve had a lot of fun reworking our huge Pride Jesus this week, a project spearheaded by Lancaster Methodist Church this time last year (thanks for being proud by the way). We don’t imagine there’ll be anyone else that tall so you should get a good glimpse at both Lancaster & Morecambe pride events. Pride Jesus crucially, is not the white Jesus many of us grew up with, but rather pride Jesus has the skin colour that the real Jesus would have had. The real Jesus wasn’t from London or Texas, he was born in a town that was a satellite of the roman province of Syria. He then moved to an area that was formerly Palestinian. So it's no surprise that our Jesus may reflect the appearance of many people we see in the news fleeing for their lives, or even similar to some of the refugees and asylum seekers that we may meet here at home. We’re pretty sure that if Pride Jesus could talk he’d have had something to say about how our society is treating people today.
Flags:
We’ve been collaborating with Queer by Gum, our resident LGBTQ+ arts and social CIC with some flag design and textiles workshops. With support from Revamp Raccoon & lots of sewing by Vaz we’ve been turning left over fabrics into a range of community made flags. Conversations were plentiful but the sentiment was clear, we need to focus our energy on standing in solidarity with the trans community who are currently experiencing a challenging political climate despite which in our opinion is both unnerving and unnecessary. People should be judged on their character, not their gender.
For those who aren’t familiar with Queer by Gum, the organisation supports a number of LGBTQ+ social groups and arts / music events. Mostly in Lancaster (often at the Gregson) but QBG now have their HQ at the GTC studios on Northumberland Street and will be adding more activities into their quiver, including on this side of the river, in due course. So if you’re sandgrown and you’re missing a regular connection to others in the community, it’s a super welcoming organisation that enables regular opportunities to share in a heavy portion of Queer Joy.
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