Every June since 2016, the Town of Gibsons has raised a Pride flag in support of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. And every year the flag is raised, it’s been subject to targeted attacks. This year was no different.
Only a week into Pride Month, Gibsons mayor Bill Beamish addressed threats to both Town staff and the Pride flag, after Gibsons staff received threatening phone calls on June 6.
“Unfortunately, every year since the flag has been up, we've had this individual or individuals that take it upon themselves to burn down the flag. And so our response has been to put the flag back up,” Gibsons chief administrative officer Emanuel Machado told Coast Reporter.
This year, however, voice messages and repeated phone calls to Town staff were “verbally abusive and threatening,” Machado said, with vulgar and disrespectful messages. Staff filed an official complaint with Sunshine Coast RCMP.
At the June 7 Town council meeting, Mayor Bill Beamish said the raising of the flag was a positive event, and well attended. “But afterwards, we’ve had threats against staff, we’ve had threats against the flag — people who were going to burn it down. The police had to be involved.”
During the June 7 Gibsons council meeting, Coun. David Croal said he also attended the raising of the progressive Pride flag on June 1, which celebrates the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. He thanked staff, who he said brought two flags to the event, “anticipating problems. And just to say, there have been some problems.”
In 2020, the Pride flag was cut down within hours by an intoxicated man. In 2019, the rainbow crosswalk at the Five Corners intersection in Gibsons was vandalized — painted over with white. (The rainbow sidewalk was quickly restored.)
Yet, the Pride flag still flies.
“We’re going to do all that we can to keep it that way,” Machado said.
“The community is highly diverse and vibrant. It’s caring, and you want people to feel and be safe in their own communities. That’s a spirit that has been on the Coast for a long time, and it’s quite alive here in Gibsons. We want to be known as welcoming, and demonstrate that we exist, and create space for others to feel welcome from a gender perspective or race or other aspects,” he said.
“Cooler heads will prevail, and we can enjoy the rest of the month — and every month after that — in a peaceful environment.”
Public art also under attack
Beamish also addressed concerns over comments on recently-announced public art. The online comments, he said, were “attacking the artist, attacking the committee that selected them, attacking public art as a waste of money.” The money for this art project came from Shell Oil, “maybe that’s something to attack but not the artists,” Beamish quipped.
“These are positive events that we should celebrate in our community. And the people who are involved with them should celebrate our community, they shouldn't be exposed to this,” Beamish said of the Pride flag raising and the art. “We need to stand strong, and stand in opposition to that kind of conversation.”
“We have to circle around these artists because they are putting themselves out there. We're not talking of high-level professional artists that are working. These are people in our community that are contributing to the betterment of our community. And we need to support that,” Beamish continued. “So we just say that it really is very disappointing to see that we have to face these things, but we have to respond to them. We have to challenge them when they occur.”
Coun. Aleria Ladwig told council these kinds of comments make her angry, “Social media is a platform for abuse. And I think it's about time people start calling them out on it. It's just unacceptable.”
