This badge acknowledges that change does not simply come about on its own but comes about because people work for it. The act of challenging conformity is intrinsic to the struggle for justice in the world. The various movements that have led to the freedoms that LGBT people enjoy are intrinsically connected to other movements for justice and progressive change.
Often change happens because a very small number of people believe something to be right and start to annoy the powers that be.
When a very small number of activists started gathering signatures for the petition on equal marriage (many of which were gathered by members of St Mary’s Cathedral, Glasgow) they were simply doing what people who want change have always done – organising, dreaming, gathering and worrying away at the problem, refusing to let it go.
It is very much the case that when the equal marriage movement was beginning, several of the activists involved did not believe that they would see the change that they were hoping for happen within their lifetimes.
Change happened because people were prepared to ask what the next small step would be towards the final goal and then taking that step. Sometimes people got annoyed. In the end, everything changed.
The fact of that change is now a challenge. If such a change could come about within only a few years, what else could be changed for good in society by a small group of dreamers?
