The Lion pub forced to tear down gay pride flag

12:00pm Sunday 19th August 2012 in Local News

A GAY friendly pub has been forced to take down rainbow pride flags after complaints from villagers.

The Lion, in The Street, Ardleigh, was displaying three rainbow flags at the front of the grade II listed property.

But Tendring Council enforcement chiefs have ordered them to be removed after the parish council complained.

Rules state that only one national flag can be flown without permission and the gay pride display was against advertising regulations.

Landlord, Stephen Culham, has slammed the decision and said he would not have had complaints if he was flying Union Jacks.

He added: “I have run my business in the village, for the village and they have given me two fingers up.

“My policy is we don’t care who you are or who you sleep with. We welcome everyone.

“As a proud gay man I have taken enormous offence at this.”

Mr Culham, 34, has since made the flags into curtains displayed in the pub’s window.

Comments(20)

cavillas says...
4:53pm Sun 19 Aug 12

Fine, be gay if that's what you want but DON'T push your orientation onto others. Heterosexual people are not interested so just keep it to yourself. I have had enough of all this publicity for homosexuals at the expense of national and local traditions. I am not homophobic as I have many gay freinds of both sexes, just don't keep pushing it into everyones face, it is boring and quite rude.

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andyinessex says...
5:50pm Sun 19 Aug 12

What a narrow minded bunch of homophobes. Just let them get on with their lives. Who cares?

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susie21 says...
6:13pm Sun 19 Aug 12

I dont see why they would want to put such flags up to advertise that one section of the community are welcome there. I imagine that, if a pub down the road, put up a flag welcoming heterosexuals there would be a big fuss because it would be seen as homophobic.I dont have a problem with anyone being homosexual I just dont understand why they should feel the need to advertise it on a flag.

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andypandy1952 says...
6:24pm Sun 19 Aug 12

cavillas wrote:
Fine, be gay if that's what you want but DON'T push your orientation onto others. Heterosexual people are not interested so just keep it to yourself. I have had enough of all this publicity for homosexuals at the expense of national and local traditions. I am not homophobic as I have many gay freinds of both sexes, just don't keep pushing it into everyones face, it is boring and quite rude.
This comment is the very offensive . You say you are not homophobic and have many ga frienss of both sexes,
well maybe they have the same opinion as you of Hetrosexual people with all the publicity that they get in the tabloids these days.

So why not have a rainbow flag flying
so whats the difference in this day and age..

good luck to Mr.Culham carry on the good work . ignore the ignorant ones
they need to realise we now live in the 21st centry not the 19th.

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jaceylacey says...
6:30pm Sun 19 Aug 12

Gay people want to be totally equal so why do they have to fly flags and have marches. They flaunt themselves at every opportunity, so they shouldn't complain when it comes back and bites them on the backside!!

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jaceylacey says...
6:39pm Sun 19 Aug 12

andypandy1952 wrote:
cavillas wrote:
Fine, be gay if that's what you want but DON'T push your orientation onto others. Heterosexual people are not interested so just keep it to yourself. I have had enough of all this publicity for homosexuals at the expense of national and local traditions. I am not homophobic as I have many gay freinds of both sexes, just don't keep pushing it into everyones face, it is boring and quite rude.
This comment is the very offensive . You say you are not homophobic and have many ga frienss of both sexes,
well maybe they have the same opinion as you of Hetrosexual people with all the publicity that they get in the tabloids these days.

So why not have a rainbow flag flying
so whats the difference in this day and age..

good luck to Mr.Culham carry on the good work . ignore the ignorant ones
they need to realise we now live in the 21st centry not the 19th.
So is George Michael, Elton John and his partner...etc. always in the Tabloids.

So what are you flaming on about.

There is a vast difference between equal treatment and preferential treatment like you want!

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andypandy1952 says...
7:46pm Sun 19 Aug 12

jaceylacey wrote:
andypandy1952 wrote:
cavillas wrote: Fine, be gay if that's what you want but DON'T push your orientation onto others. Heterosexual people are not interested so just keep it to yourself. I have had enough of all this publicity for homosexuals at the expense of national and local traditions. I am not homophobic as I have many gay freinds of both sexes, just don't keep pushing it into everyones face, it is boring and quite rude.
This comment is the very offensive . You say you are not homophobic and have many ga frienss of both sexes, well maybe they have the same opinion as you of Hetrosexual people with all the publicity that they get in the tabloids these days. So why not have a rainbow flag flying so whats the difference in this day and age.. good luck to Mr.Culham carry on the good work . ignore the ignorant ones they need to realise we now live in the 21st centry not the 19th.
So is George Michael, Elton John and his partner...etc. always in the Tabloids. So what are you flaming on about. There is a vast difference between equal treatment and preferential treatment like you want!
no body if flaming on about ne thing. you for one dont know wat your talking about maybe in is preferential treatment but cant see why you are going on about it. a flag is a flag wether it be rainbow or red,white n blue.....
equal treatment is for all gay or straight to stop being offensive.

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jaceylacey says...
9:59pm Sun 19 Aug 12

ShadowReturns wrote:
jaceylacey wrote:
Gay people want to be totally equal so why do they have to fly flags and have marches. They flaunt themselves at every opportunity, so they shouldn't complain when it comes back and bites them on the backside!!
You're an idiot.
And you're a ****. Be gay but you don't have to keep broadcasting it!!

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Moglymo says...
11:09am Mon 20 Aug 12

Rules state that only one national flag can be flown without permission and the gay pride display was against advertising regulations.
It may come as a surprise to Homosexuals but you should abide by the laws of Britain, after all the laws of this country have bent over backwards to appease a minority in your favour!

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peanuts68 says...
12:06pm Mon 20 Aug 12

My god how pathetic over a few flags so what and big deal the flags are doing anyone no harm get over it for god sake grrr

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nbtafelberg says...
3:48pm Mon 20 Aug 12

cavillas wrote:
Fine, be gay if that's what you want but DON'T push your orientation onto others. Heterosexual people are not interested so just keep it to yourself. I have had enough of all this publicity for homosexuals at the expense of national and local traditions. I am not homophobic as I have many gay freinds of both sexes, just don't keep pushing it into everyones face, it is boring and quite rude.
Perhaps he should put up Swastikas instead.

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nbtafelberg says...
3:50pm Mon 20 Aug 12

and to add. I take it the Church will be taking down any Crosses?

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Im_Like_HELLO says...
6:37pm Mon 20 Aug 12

I am not sure of the exact ruling on flying flags but some versions of this report say flags should not be flown from flag poles (in which case just fly it from the pub sign or something), this report states one national flag can be flown (the gay flag is not a flag of a nation) or just paint a board with colours of the rainbow. I am sure there are ways round it; that said it does seem a little petty.

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Keep Essex Green says...
11:27pm Mon 20 Aug 12

I am not gay but must say WELL DONE to the Publican, so many stupid rules in this country...if you was to fly a flag with the words"We welcome Asians" no way would you be made to take that down, no matter how many people protested, the Parish Council would scared to death on the fear of being labelled racist! Anything else, " take it down".
I feel sorry for you.

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brownie1 says...
1:56pm Tue 21 Aug 12

They are only flags... They don't display any offensive language.

It's a lovely little village pub... You can go in there for a drink and there'll be the locals of all ages and sexualities enjoying a drink.

Everyone is always made welcome...

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peachey says...
6:14pm Tue 21 Aug 12

Regardless of people's differing opinions on homosexuality and the right to express one's sexuality this is also about the parish council appearing homophobic. Considering councils appear these days to push equality to the limits this is not a good advert for local government at all!

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jaceylacey says...
7:10pm Tue 21 Aug 12

I dunno....there's "Nowt so queer as Folk"

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WingDings says...
9:01pm Tue 21 Aug 12

It's not about being gay or not. Thesimple fact is that there is a law, it was broken. If it had been one Union Jack, one Saltire or a Welsh dragon the result would have been the same. Only one flag then only a national flag. The landlord has done exactly the right thing and the curtains will last longer.

If we are talking about tolerance the first thing is to respect the law, if you don't like the law then get it changed.

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jaceylacey says...
6:44pm Wed 22 Aug 12

WingDings wrote:
It's not about being gay or not. Thesimple fact is that there is a law, it was broken. If it had been one Union Jack, one Saltire or a Welsh dragon the result would have been the same. Only one flag then only a national flag. The landlord has done exactly the right thing and the curtains will last longer.

If we are talking about tolerance the first thing is to respect the law, if you don't like the law then get it changed.
I agree....some minority groups who claim to want equality....also want to be above the law as well.

Funny old world.

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andyinessex says...
8:33pm Thu 23 Aug 12

I presume that the landlord flew the flag so that gays would know that it was a 'gay friendly' pub.
Meaning that they could enjoy a relaxing drink & dinner without being beaten to a pulp or stabbed. Which could ruin a really pleasant evening.

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