• Somewhere over the rainbow

    rainbow

    I’ve just heard that I’ve been included in the Independent on Sunday’s Rainbow List. This is the new name for the Pink List – a list of gay, lesbian, bi and trans people whom the newspaper wants to celebrate as people who have made a difference in the past year.

    To be honest I’m surprised to be included again – I’ve been on the Pink List for the last few years and was really expecting to be nudged out of the way this year. But there I am and they’ve very kindly bumped me up over fifty places to number 34 and I’m in company that takes my breath away.

    It is great to see Vicky Beeching, Richard Coles and Colin Coward on there too, Bishop Alan Wilson heading the straight allies list, Jeremy Pemberton listed as one to watch and it isn’t too difficult to think of other heroes in the church who haven’t been listed this time around.

    I’ll be looking forward to meeting others who make a difference at the Rainbow List Party which takes place in London this week. Congratulations to everyone on the list and to everyone who was nominated. The world is changing. It isn’t changing fast enough for my liking, particularly in the church, but there’s much to celebrate and much to give thanks for. We shall overcome, one day.

    I remember when I was first named on the Pink List – it meant a lot, to be honest. You don’t get many thankyous for relentlessly going on about LGBT equality issues in the church. To have been named again a couple of times and again today is a great honour.

    My thanks to those who nominated me and those who quietly (and sometimes noisily) support me in this area of my life.

    You could say I’m over the moon.

    You could say I’m somewhere over the rainbow.

4 responses to “Alternative Queen’s Speech”

  1. Pluralist Avatar

    They are only in office for a year. Then the Lib Dems will collapse, the Conservatives lose out to UKIP, Labour will also lose out to UKIP, but should, I hope, win if only to produce a luke-warm left government that will continue to bully those on benefits.

  2. Revruth Avatar

    Jolly good. May we also have fairtrade bananas sold loose instead of bags of 6 or 8, please?

  3. Elizabeth Avatar
    Elizabeth

    Hear, hear!!

    Ruth – you can find such loose and fair bananas in many fine emporia in this fair city of Glasgow. Do come visit soon!

  4. Alan McManus Avatar

    Kelvin, on the point of privacy, after being forced to opt-out (probably too late) from having my address (and perhaps email and telephone information) sold to anyone by Glasgow City Council, I’ve just sent the email below to Hugh Munro the Chartered Accountant who is Electoral Registration Officer for GCC. It strikes me that roll-calling in the Bible is usually A Bad Thing and in this case it quite obviously is. As Rosemary H. pointed out (in the middle of a rather heated debate on the Referendum – where she was very restrained and others including me were not) the problem with devolving power to Local Authorities is that they have to be both competent and ethical (my paraphrase, I can’t re-find her exact words).

    On Monday, 3 November 2014, 12:53, Alan McManus:

    Dear Mr Munro,

    I have just opted out of the Open Electoral Register by email, something which I should not have had to do. You, or whoever has executed this scheme, had no authority to sell my contact information and in doing so you, or they, have abused my trust. I expect a signed apology in writing and that this scheme be terminated with immediate effect.You are well aware that you are preying on the trust of the elderly who have no access to the internet and who will be too confused by this betrayal of confidence by their Local Authority to take action by telephone. You have sold the rights of privacy of the citizens of Glasgow for material gain. This is despicable and does nothing to ameliorate the legacy of the low reputation of the leadership of GCC.

    regards, Dr Alan McManus

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