Tory councillor, 81, suspended after saying she does not want ‘pride sex flags along my high street’
20 March 2023, 08:01
A Tory councillor has been suspended pending an investigation after posting on Facebook that she did not want Pride “sex flags” on ‘her’ high street.
Angela Kilmartin, a councillor on Braintree District Council in Essex, posted online that she did not want “Pride sex flags along my high street.”
“I don’t want Pride sex flags along my high street. I don’t even want heterosexual flags along my high street.
“Sex is for the bedroom and private life, not for displaying preferences in public,” she wrote.
She has been suspended from the local Conservative group for 21 days pending further investigation, the Telegraph reports.
Michael Lager, the town council Conservative leader, told the BBC: “We dissociate ourselves totally from the reported remarks from this particular member.
“We do not tolerate discrimination between people of different faiths, beliefs and all the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010, that we respect and promote.”
Mrs Kilmartin plans to step down as councillor after 16 years ahead of local elections on May 4.
She wrote the comment in response to a post from a man who had bough Pride flags for businesses in Witham to put in their shop windows.
A hair salon in the town that displayed a flag had its front window egged earlier in the week.
A council spokeswoman added: "There are a number of separate code of conduct issues that we're also looking into."
