By David King

Two organisations competing to represent the LGBT+ community in Glasgow this year, have escalated their feud through the publication of a lawyer’s letter on social media.

Mardi Gla have put out a copy of an instruction that they say amounts to Pride Glasgow attempting to stop the event set for Glasgow’s Merchant City this summer.
Lawyers at the firm, T F Reid and Donaldson, confirmed that the letter was authentic.

A statement on Mardi Gla’s Facebook page said that Pride Glasgow “have lost the support of the vast majority of our community, the local LGBT Businesses and Glasgow City Council.

“They are now attempting to stop any event if they are not running it.

Read more: Mardi Gla: Glasgow's newest Pride event has city council backing

“We are stunned at such disgraceful conduct.”

They also disputed the claims that Pride was under new management, citing the presence of Chris Lang as chairman.

They said: “Chris Lang the Chair of Pride Glasgow has been in charge for many years as a Director with the legal responsibilities for ensuring that Pride Glasgow complied with the law.

“He now continues as the overall Chair of that organisation. They are not under new management as he claims.”

Mardi Gla said that although a legal battle was not what they wanted they said they wouldn’t run away from it.


Christopher Lang, chairman of Pride Glasgow, released a statement in response to the post by Mardi Gla.

He said: “We know we let ourselves and other people down last year and we’ve given our apologies, but we made a promise to everyone that we’d have everything resolved for 2019.

“We have no desire to continue unnecessarily or accelerate any disputes but we must challenge when our reputation is at stake.”

Read more of today's top Glasgow stories 

Glasgow Pride was branded a shambles last year by revellers who had pre-purchased tickets and were turned away as the event hit capacity.

Some revellers were waiting in the blistering heat of the day for two hours as organisers had to resort to a one out one in policy.

The march through the city was said to be the largest Scotland had seen and Nicola Sturgeon became the first UK leader to lead a march at a pride event.

Mardi Gla is set to be held on the 20th and 21st July, with Pride Glasgow saying that they are almost ready to make an announcement about Pride Glasgow 2019.

Run by the LGBT Co-operative, it will be Glasgow’s first ever Pride event recognised by the influential European Pride Organisers Association, known as Euro Pride.

A Glasgow City Council spokesman said: “The council has welcomed Mardi Gla’s commitment to deliver a sustainable, inclusive and free LGBTi event. Any other issues are for the respective organisers to resolve and it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to comment on them.”