This badge is another one that the Provost has worn on Pride Marches.

A few years ago, the Provost was marching with a group of Episcopalians at a Glasgow Pride event. As the march progressed, a young Australian man asked whether he could join us for a bit. He did and chatted for a while and then said, “Well I must go and find my friends. But can I ask you something first? Are you real?”

“What do you mean, am I real?”

“Well, are you a real priest?”

“Yes, I’m real”.

“Cool. But just one more question – those nuns up ahead…”

He gestured towards the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence who were marching just ahead of the Episcopalians.

“…they’re not real, right?”

(More on lesbian nuns in next week’s badges)

This badge was made following the landmark decision by the General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church in June 2017 to extend marriage in the church to same-sex couples. It has been worn at Pride marches throughout Scotland by Episcopalians ever since.

The words “Love Wins” were taken from the response that had been seen in the United States two years earlier when, in their own landmark decision, the US Supreme Court had voted to make same-sex marriage the law throughout the nation. In his opinion for the Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy had written, “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than they once were.”

It is so ordered.

The clenched fist on this badge was the symbol of the Gay Liberation Front.

The Gay Liberation Front was initially founded in the United States in the wake of the Stonewall Riots of 1969. Its members organised the first Pride march in New York City. They demanded an end to the oppression and persecution of lesbian and gay people, and an end to police brutality against the lesbian and gay community. The leaders of the movement included members of the trans community, most notably Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Ray Rivera who co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) which was a mutual aid project between trans sex workers and queer homeless youth.

In 1970, a parallel movement of the Gay Liberation Front was founded in the UK at the London School of Economics. It spread elsewhere in the UK, and organised a series of direct-action events including disruption of Mary Whitehouse’s Festival of Light.

The organisation in the UK splintered after 1973, but many of the rights fought for and won by the LGBT community in the UK can trace their roots back to the GLF. The organisations that spun off from the GLF included the Gay and Lesbian Switchboard, the Gay Times, the activist organisation Out!Rage founded by Peter Tatchell, and Gay Icebreakers, which produced a group which in turn founded “Gay’s The Word”, the first independent LGBT bookshop in the UK.

This badge is the perhaps the only badge from the St Mary’s Badge Stall to have featured in an article in the Times newspaper.

When the Scottish Episcopal Church debated opening marriage to same-sex couples in 2017, many members of the General Synod were wearing this badge during the debate. This was spotted by a reporter who based part of his report of the synod on it.

It was widely expected that the Archbishop of Canterbury would in some way condemn the decision of the Scottish General Synod when it was made. In the end, this didn’t happen though whether that was because of the reports of these badges in the national media is anyone’s guess. The previous Archbishop of Canterbury had had much to say about a similar decision in the US based Episcopal Church.

The badge is based on the 37th article of the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion which are recognised by the Church of England. (Scottish Episcopal Priests do not have to affirm the Thirty Nine Articles) which states The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this Realm of England.

Occasionally, people erroneously believe the Scottish Episcopal Church to be in some way directed by the decisions of the Church of England. The debate on marriage was just one of many ways in which this was obviously not the case.

This badge is a reminder of how much those who identify as being LGBT have to be grateful for, from many in the feminist movement. We walk in the footsteps of great women.

Like most movements, feminism hasn’t always been 100% positive towards LGBT people. However without feminism it is impossible to imaging the modern LGBT movements.

Feminism means advocating for women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes. The language of equality and equal rights that feminists have pioneered has been taken up by those arguing for LGBT rights on the grounf of the fundamental equality of all people.

Christian feminists and Christian LGBT advocates would point to the biblical idea of all people being created in the image and likeness of God as being a key supporting doctrine for what they believe in.

Speaking to people using the language in which they would describe themselves is as much about politeness as politics. Badges such as this are worn by people wishing to indicate which pronouns are appropriate for them. No-one is born with pronouns. Each of us has an identity that is formed throughout life.

The colours of this badge are the colours of the Trans Flag, which was created by an American trans woman, Monica Helms in 1999. The colours blue and pink are colours that have been traditionally assigned in some parts of the world to things associated with boys and girls respectively. The white it he centre of the flag is to represent those who are transitioning, intersex or who consider themselves as having an identity which isn’t best understood as being either male or female.

This badge is gloriously out of date. It is that badge that the Provost of St Mary’s used to wear on his lapel, along with a rainbow ribbon whilst attending Pride events in Glasgow. As someone dressed in a black suit amongst a sea of rainbows, it was fairly obvious that he was the only ordained person attending such events wearing religious dress.

LGBT people who are Christian sometimes debate whether it is more difficult to come out as an LGBT person within the church or to come out as a Christian within the LGBT community. For many, it seems to be the latter.

These days the Provost is never the only person attending Pride in Glasgow wearing a clerical collar or religious dress. He now attends Pride along with colleagues from the Scottish Episcopal Church, ministers from other churches and members of religious orders.

This badge is often seen in St Mary’s. Members of the congregation wear them both in church and in their daily lives to indicate their support for those who are seeking refuge and asylum in this country. Some members of the congregation are involved in providing practical support for asylum seekers. Some are involved in campaigning for safe and secure housing for refugees and the clergy of the cathedral have repeatedly spoken out against the “hostile environment” policies of the government.

This badge is a reminder that some have to seek asylum because they come from countries where their LGBT identity puts their lives at risk. It is still illegal to be LGBT+ in about 70 countries in the world. In 12 countries the death penalty still exists for LGBT+ offences.