HOMOPHOBIA within Nigel Farage’s far-right Reform UK party surfaced again when it declared in a recent social media post “Enjoy it while you can, when we take the Council next May we will be pulling all support for the event.”
This comes shortly after one of its councillors, Richard Hopley, above, complained of a rainbow flag displayed at South Molton Town Hall.
Following “a significant negative reaction” to the post regarding Sunderland Pride it was deleted on June 28, but a screenshot of the statement had already been taken.
After being informed of the deleted post, Out North East chair Peter Darrant said:
It’s very sad to see an organisation making this kind of remark without any real grasp of the facts, purely to try and stir up hatred.
Out North East is a regional LGBTQ+ events charity that “connects people and ensures the voices of everyone within our diverse community are heard and celebrated”.
Out North East organises Sunderland Pride and other North East Pride events.
Said Durrant:
We are more than happy to meet with Reform UK Sunderland and help them understand the value that Pride In Sunderland brings to the city and educate them as to why Pride is so important.
Reform UK controlled Staffordshire County Council have already said they will not be funding August’s Stafford Pride event with Council leader Ian Cooper saying, “We are not going to spend taxpayers’ money funding that”.
Out North East representatives have expressed their disappointment that they had “no dialogue” with Reform UK Sunderland — which would have given them the opportunity to show the value that Pride brings to the city, including the local economy.
Durrant added:
If Reform UK Sunderland had made contact with us, we could have shown where the contributions which allow us to stage Pride came from. We received £10k from the Festival and Grant fund — a grant anyone in Sunderland can apply for. The festival cost £95k to stage which we raised through sponsorship and donations, so for every £1 from Sunderland, we gave back £9.
Along with the Pride events, the organisation has also worked with the North East Business and Innovation Centre to help entrepreneurs and business start ups, along with holding support sessions and signposting vulnerable people to support networks.
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The Pink Triangle Trust 
It beggars belief that any self-respecting LGBTQ+ person could ever vote for or subscribe to the tenets of these racist shysters.
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