A EUROPEAN Union flag has seemingly been torn down from outside Scotland's only queer independent bookshop ahead of the looming Brexit deadline, according to the shop's owners.
Category Is Books, nestled in Glasgow's diverse Govanhill area, reported on Twitter that their flag had disappeared while the shop was closed, and issued an appeal for it to be returned.
Hanging in front of a window emblazoned with the words "trans rights are human rights", the EU flag had been raised in response to "Boris Johnson’s lack of respect for democracy", replacing the rainbow flag that normally hangs outside the shop.
On returning to work on Wednesday however, the wife and wife team who run the store discovered that the flag was gone. Taking to Twitter, the shop's owners claimed "our #fuckboris flag was removed while we've been closed. Go give it back? It's not yours."
.... looks like our #fuckboris flag was removed while we've been closed. Go give it back? It's not yours. #brexit #nothereforit #angryqueers pic.twitter.com/VxoDkdfxnn
— Category Is Books (@CategoryIsBooks) September 4, 2019
The flag was raised outside the store in Nicola Sturgeon's constituency at the end of August, on Glasgow Southside's Allison Street.
Change up for the flag today.
— Category Is Books (@CategoryIsBooks) August 31, 2019
Generally too angry for words about what’s going on but @Stella_A_Star has always reminded us that visibility is important. 💛💙💛💙💛💙#DefendDemocracy #StopTheCoup pic.twitter.com/pYRNwRKrqN
Shop owner Fionn Duffy-Scott, who runs the bookstore with their partner Charlotte, said: "We know how important it is to be visibly queer, and so we put up the flag last weekend as a visual symbol to say #fuckboris!
"We felt we needed to express how outraged we are about Boris Johnson’s lack of respect for democracy and the anger we feel about Brexit in general. It is easy to think about the divisions in our country only existing on Twitter, but this has reminded us about how tense the conversation is in real life.
"The fact that even in the southside of Glasgow somebody was angry enough to rip an EU flag down shows how volatile things are at the moment. We would encourage even more people to be more visible on the streets about support for the EU."
The flag has yet to be returned.
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