Pride Flag

We recently heard a broadcast on CBC’s Information Morning that aired earlier this morning. While we will participate in a follow-up interview on the show tomorrow morning, we feel that tomorrow is too late to respond to the issues raised. We were not interviewed by CBC this morning, so the information that is circulating that the Municipality specifically stated that we indicated that flying the Pride flag "would not reflect our community's values" is completely false.

Council was approached to fly the Pride flag; however, Council did not approve the request at that time because the existing policy only allows for the flying of government flags – municipal, provincial, federal, national, and the United Nations. Council acknowledged that the policy should be reviewed, and it was added to a list of policies and bylaws that need to be updated. We didn’t deny the request, but we have not yet reviewed the policy. It was in no way due to a lack of understanding, support or any other notion that the LGBTQ+ community is not valued and respected in our Municipality.

The Municipality of Chester supports our community groups and initiatives. We pass many requests for proclamations, officially recognizing specific causes and important events. We provide hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding. We provide staff time to groups who request help. We’ve entered into binding agreements pledging support. If a group within the Municipality of Chester requests support, we try to give it.

Not flying the Pride flag doesn’t mean we deny the LGBTQ+ community or what it stands for. We would welcome requests to celebrate Pride, invitations to participate in events, requests for a proclamation, just like we welcome all requests from people representing our communities.