While Oxford University is lauded for its heavy-handed traditions and Hogwarts-style buildings, the 38 colleges that make up the prestigious academy all have their own reputations. Wadham College, a 17th-century castle at the center of the university, is often considered the progressive college. This week it proved worthy of that reputation by flying a rainbow flag over its spires to mark the annual weeklong celebration Queerfest. While the gay community is supported at Oxford, the flying of the flag is thought to be the first official symbol of LGBT support displayed in the university’s 900-year history.
Michael Brooks, a 19-year-old undergraduate and organizer (or organiser, if you will) of Queerfest told Pink News that the idea to raise the flag was welcomed
“Putting up the flag was such a simple thing to do, but it had a huge effect on Oxford. I heard many people from different colleges talking about it. I saw tourists stopping outside Wadham to take photos of it… It challenges the stereotypes people have of Oxford and I hope that it will make those within Oxford who do hold very conservative views concerning LGBTQ rights to think differently.”
We hope that flying the rainbow flag becomes a tradition for the next 900 years.
Image via David Bolton
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TMikel
If an ancient university such as Oxford will display the rainbow flag, there is hope for us all! Huzzah for Wadham College!
Fagburn
Wow!
That’s all I can say right now – WOW!
Someone has put a flag up a flagpole!??
I can’t believe it – and at a college!
This is like the moonlanding or the fall of the Berlin Wall or seeing Nelson Mandela walk free from prison or something.
I know we’ll all remember where we were when we heard this news.
Thanks Queerty.
WOW!
EK
@Fagburn: It’s almost as amazing as that person who kept taking flags off of a churches flag poles. oh wait that was theft.
iDavid
Is there a pic w the actual flag flying?
iDavid
Why yes iDavid, there is.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/11/23/oxford-college-flies-first-ever-rainbow-flag-above-university/
Robert in NYC
A lot of other universities in the UK have been flying the flag for a long time, this is nothing new, but a first for Oxford of course. Times are indeed changing. I wonder if Cambridge University will follow suit if it hasn’t already?
Michael Brooks
Hi,
One (heterosexual) student at Wadham is currently in the process of writing a motion to make the rainbow flag a permanent fixture over Wadham college. Let’s see how she does. Maybe it will be there for the next 900 years…
Michael Brooks
Zolly696
When I was a student there I went to the last queerbop which was the HUGE party at the end of queerfest. Students typically go in rainbow thongs and then ride the mechanical bull which is shaped like giant penis. A flag doesn’t seem all that revolutionary after that.
Aaron Cohen
This headline implies they last raised the rainbow flag 900 years ago. Heh.
Malwyn
@Aaron Cohen: Those were the good ol’ days, before Christianity took over most of the world and made it a crime to be gay.