Community response to pride flag hostility
After an Auckland high school was met with aggression from a resident over flying a pride flag recently, the community has decided to fly 300 of them.
Maurie Abraham, the principal of Hobsonville Point Secondary School, said earlier this year the school had been setting up for their second annual ‘‘Little Gay Out’’ event when they decided to fly a rainbow pride flag in front of the school.
‘‘During the event we have around 200 LGBTQIA+ students from nearby schools coming along for workshops and keynote speakers about celebrating diversity.
‘‘We decided it’d be nice to fly the pride flag outside the school to welcome everyone in.’’
Abraham said, as the caretaker was putting the flag up, a local resident approached in an ‘‘aggressive’’ way and began filming.
‘‘He was really worked up about the flag and was saying we shouldn’t be promoting that to children – he was very angry.’’
Abraham said he managed to calm the man down and got him to delete the video but the school made the decision to not fly the flag that day.
After the incident, Emily Davidson, a Hobsonville resident who volunteered at Little Gay Out, posted about what happened on social media and the community had come together and decided they should show support by creating a pride event.
Massey University staff member Mark Kaneko, who lives in the area, was leading the community event – dubbed ‘‘Hobby Pride’’ – between November 18 and 27.
Kaneko applied for a community grant and raised $2000 with the help of local businesses, with the funds going towards buying the 300 pride flags for the community to fly.
‘‘The hope is supplying these flags provides those who want to show support a way to continuously do so.’’
This reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded by NZ on Air.
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