Progress Flag to Fly on Oxford County Property

Thursday, 27 April 2023 11:29

"Love is stronger than hate, pride is stronger than fear, and we need to support everybody in our community belonging." - Oxford County Warden and Zorra Township Mayor Marcus Ryan.

OXFORD COUNTY - Oxford County will be showing its support for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community this June.

Oxford County Council heard an emotional delegation from Tami Murray, the President of Oxford County Pride, during last night's meeting. She requested that Oxford County fly the Progress flag and officially declare June as Pride Month.

The Progress flag is very similar to the Pride flag. It includes the six-stripe Pride rainbow symbol, along with sideways chevrons of light blue, pink, and white to represent trans and non-binary individuals. It also includes sideways chevrons of brown and black to represent people of colour.

Warden Marcus Ryan says Oxford County is happy to show its support for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

"It's a standing item for Oxford County that we will declare every June Pride Month and raise the Pride flag every June. Oxford County Pride doesn't even have to come and ask, but we are VERY happy that they do because it increases awareness. I spoke very strongly about that last night on behalf of County Council and as well as several other Councillors as well."

You can watch the video of last night's Council meeting online here.

Norwich Township Council has been making national headlines this week, after passing a motion to create a flag policy bylaw that will only allow for government flags to be flown on municipal property. You can read more about that meeting online here.

Ryan, who also serves as the Mayor of Zorra Township, says Zorra adjusted its flag bylaw last week.

"We actually changed our flag bylaw to allow us to fly the Pride flag. Previous to that, we had always said that it would only be the Canadian flag, the Ontario flag, and the Zorra Township flag, not because there was any particular flag we didn't want to fly, but because sometimes it's logistically difficult to decide which ones you do and don't fly. But I think nowadays the political conversation has changed and the reality is not flying it (the Pride flag) is a conscious choice too and I think if we really genuinely want everybody in our communities to be involved we need to be prepared to politically stick our necks out a little bit. Some people might be offended, but love is stronger than hate, pride is stronger than fear and we need to support everybody in our community belonging."