Trinity College has agreed to publicly fly the LGBT+ Pride Flag for the first time in its history. The change was brought about following pressure from Trinity College Students' Union (TCSU), with a formal proposal and the results of a College-wide LGBT+ Survey presented before Trinity Fellows as evidence of student demand demonstrating the importance of flying the flag.

“The flag is widely acknowledged as the primary symbol of LGBT+ identity and pride, and the decision to fly it symbolises a necessary and direct validation of such identities,” Anna Dimitriadis, LGBT+ Officer of TCSU, told Varsity.

Trinity is the only college which has never flown the pride flag in a publicly conspicuous area. “Its absence was noted,” says Dimitriadis. “I hope that this year, the gesture will resonate with LGBT+ students as an acknowledgement of our historical and ongoing fight for equality”.

The flag will be raised on the 1st and 28th February in celebration of LGBT+ History Month, which sees rainbow flags being raised across many colleges at Cambridge every year. The month promotes the visibility of LGBT+ people and calls for awareness of both LGBT+ history and issues which LGBT+ people have faced.

“[The flag is] a great symbol of progress and I’m very happy about it”

Last year saw Trinity students being told by the College to remove flags from their windows, prompting accusations of censorship and homophobia at the time. However, Dimitriadis explained that the controversy “stemmed from a misunderstanding and miscommunication of the policy with respect to keeping things in windows, which was general and not restricted to ‘political’ symbols.”

Alex Atkin, a student at Trinity who helped to deal with last year’s incident, said to Varsity: “As someone who only really came out when I came to Cambridge, Trinity deciding to fly the flag makes a big difference to me. I feel like it supports, accepts and shows recognition of the LGBT+ community at Trinity.”

“While it was a bit annoying at how long it took in comparison to some other colleges, it is still a great symbol of progress and I’m very happy about it.”

As Trinity’s constitution only allows for only certain flags to be flown on main college flagpoles, the pride flag will be raised on a new, purpose-installed flagpole erected in a prominent position in the college.

This follows the example of several other colleges who have worked around constitutional restrictions in order to fly the pride flag in a conspicuous location. Last year, St John’s bypassed this issue by raising their flag on its pavilion and its boat house, while Clare displayed it on their back gate.

Prior to these changes, Trinity had promised to plant multi-coloured flowers along the riverbank in celebration of LGBT+ History Month. These, alongside the new flag, will also be visible in February.