Christ Church JCR has passed a motion to “collectively break” college rules and “fly the flag from their own room windows” after the House refused to fly the LGBT rainbow flag.
The motion was proposed by Rachel McCafferty and seconded by Meltem Osman at the general meeting last Sunday night. It acknowledged “an increasing number of colleges fly the LGBT flag” but “the relevant [Christ Church] authorities rejected the student body’s request to fly the flag”.
The Head of House, Christopher Lewis, told Cherwell, “We have a clear policy which is to fly the Royal Standard on royal occasions, the Christ Church flag on House occasions and the Union Flag on national occasions. We do not fly other flags.”
The motion calls for the JCR to petition the House authorities to fly the rainbow flag for Oxford Pride in June. The motion also sees the JCR resolve to “provide flags via the Welfare/LGBT team” for students to hang from their windows in college.
The motion further resolves to “pay resultant fines, if incurred by junior members, as a further demonstration of our collective action.”
The JCR motion argues, “The LGBT flag symbolises diversity, acceptance, and equality… Should the first part of the motion pass, it will demonstrate that the majority of the JCR is committed to exercising its support for the LGBT community.”
JCR Vice President Rosemary Brewin told Cherwell, “the College hasn’t yet been approached about the possibility of flying the gay pride flag… so we do not know what action they will take.”
One Christ Church student told Cherwell, “Students seem to understand the difficult position Christ Church is in regarding flying the flag, given its affiliation with the Church. While I respect their opinion, us students would like the college to be able to show their support for the LGBT community, which is why we flew the flag over the boathouse on Thursday.”
