Dullbridge and Smalltown Carnivoo Committee has finally addressed concerns about their homophobic stance with regard to banning the Easton-under-Water Pride Group from the Smalltown Carnivoo and have issued a statement.
DASCC Chairman, Mr Bill Old, confirmed “We held an urgent meeting in my living room last night, where I discussed the matter with the other members of my family who make up the committee and they agreed that my Press Release was brilliant.”
That DASCC Press Statement in full.
The Committee would like to thank everyone who came out to support our Carnivoo on what was a very wet and windy night. The weather was awful, wasn’t it? Many people got very wet, but we were pleased to see so many people out on the streets, attending our first Carnivoo since 2019. The collection raised just over £9,400 which we thought was very pleasing.
Oh yes. This bit.
However, we were mildly peeved that this has been slightly overshadowed by a little bit of poor communication between ourselves and the group concerned and we would like to apologise for any distress and upset this caused. But we’re not going to. And we are certainly not going to apologise to the Smalltown and Dullbridge residents who may have been similarly upset and distressed.
The DASCC would like to wish the Easton-under-Water Pride Group all the best with their entry in all the other Carnivoos in Somerset – who have all accepted their attendance with open arms.
DASCC Chairman, Bill Old, had previously confirmed that, despite having told the group the Committee had concerns over the entry name ‘What a Gay Day!’ and they felt that Rainbow suits would not be well received by the people of Smalltown and Dullbridge, the new excuse for refusing entry was because of concerns over ‘excessive advertising’.
“We felt this entry could potentially break Carnivoo rules with regard to excessive advertising. All those rainbow flags, suits and a unicorn parading through town advertising things LGBT are not welcome in Smalltown, where we have traditionally preferred entries to advertise the leisure parks and radio stations in the area.”
A representative from Easton-under-Water Pride Group said” “We checked with other Carnivoo Committees in the area and they assured us we had not broken any rules.
The only bit of ‘advertising’ on our entry was a line on the side of our minibus which detailed our group name. Hardly excessive.
DASCC did suggest that we change the name of our entry to something ‘less offensive’, but we declined as we didn’t believe our entry name was offensive in the first place.”
Residents of Smalltown reacted angrily to the suggestion from Mr Old that they wouldn’t want to see an LGBT entry in their local parade and that banning the group from attending was latent homophobia.
However, Mr Old denied these allegations saying “We didn’t ban them. We just said they couldn’t take part and disallowed their entry, which effectively banned them from joining in.”
DASCC now consider the matter closed However if anyone still has concerns these can be addressed by contacting:-
DASCC Publicity Manager – Mr Bill Old
DASCC Press Officer – Mr Bill Old
DASCC Communications Manager – Mr Bill Old
DASCC Social Media Manager – Mr Bill Old