Campaigner stands up against hostile Pride comments

A community campaigner has rallied local leaders together in a show of unity after hostile comments were made about a Pride event.

Tom Howard, 30, from Bury St Edmunds, said he was shocked when he saw the comments on a social media post about the Suffolk town's upcoming Pride event on Saturday.

Keen to show others within the LGBTQ+ community they were not alone, Howard wrote an open letter calling for inclusion and respect.

He asked councillors and local leaders to sign it including the Labour MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, Peter Prinsley, who agreed that the comments made had been concerning.

"It made me feel sick to the stomach because being a gay man myself, I thought these are people in my local community who think I'm a freak, mentally ill or should be met on the street with pitchforks," said Howard.

"It was really upsetting and hurtful... that's why I needed to take a step back and just remind myself it is a minority. A loud minority, but it still is a minority."

Howard believed more people felt comfortable expressing these types of views when hiding behind fake names and profiles.

But he said he was "disappointed" to see some profiles that clearly stated they were from Suffolk.

Howard said he wanted social media companies to do more in tackling these types of comments as he had reported them, but had seen no action.

He added that he had wanted to ensure his letter did not feed into a divisive debate during the Pride month of June.

"Pride stands as an important time of the year to keep fighting for equality, a time to have these discussions, and a time to come together as a community," he added.

"Anyone is welcome at Pride events. It's not exclusively to people who are LGBTQ+ and if people don't want to go, they don't have to."

Prinsley told BBC Radio Suffolk's Sarah Lilley he was concerned about the comments and that the town was a "tolerant and inclusive place".

"The idea that there are some malevolent individuals who are posting really terrible stuff on the internet is pretty distressing, certainly for me and many members of the LGBT community," he said.

"It's very easy to sit at a computer screen or on a phone in private and make the sort of comments that you certainly wouldn't make to somebody's face.

"People need to be careful about what they say on the internet - just as careful as they would be if they were talking to people.

"The idea that people can be vilified for their sexuality or their gender is no longer something that we wish to see in this day and age."

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