Arran hasn’t had many LGBTQ Pride events but it so happens I was staying on the island in 2023 when they had one of their first. I remember noticing the Pride flags on the lampposts along the seafront in Brodick and having a couple of apparently conflicting thoughts – conflicting because of the divisive and divided place we’ve in now.

The first thought was that the flags were probably a sign of something good. We know it can be harder to grow up gay in rural areas – firstly, because it’s more difficult to connect with people the same as you, but secondly, because rural areas tend to be more conservative than urban ones. And so an apparently open approach to gay people on a Scottish island, in the form of flags on lampposts, looked like a positive thing. The Pride march itself was small, but so what: everything starts small.

My second thought about the flags was more complicated however. For a start, flags have never been my favourite form of expression, an aversion made worse by the referendums of 2014 and 2016. And by 2023, I was also struggling – still am – with how I feel about LGBTQ , trans, gender, and self-ID, and Pride flags in particular. There was a time, in the 90s, when I would’ve felt overwhelmingly positive about the flag, but in 2023, it was starting to change.

The fact that my views have changed was underlined at the weekend when I heard that the police on Arran are investigating an incident with this year’s Pride flags. The flags were on the main street in Brodick, as they were in 2023, but they were taken down some time overnight before the main Pride event on Saturday. There were reports on social media that some of the flags were later found dumped on the beach.

The Pride event itself was not affected and went ahead as planned, but Police Scotland........

© Herald Scotland