Pink Saltire shut down after almost a decade.

An LGBT+ community development organisation in Fife has announced it has closed. 

Pink Saltire confirmed on Sunday that it has closed it doors after nearly a decade in operation. 

The charity, based in Kirkcaldy, was founded in 2014 to embed equality and improve the visibility of LGBT+ people across Scotland, especially for those who live outside the main cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The group founded several Pride events, chaired the Scottish Pride Organisers Network and supported several community groups, as well as providing vital hardship relief for LGBT+ folk since lockdown in March 2020.

In a blog on the charity’s website, the Trustees confirmed the news. 

They wrote: “After nearly a decade it’s time for Pink Saltire SCIO to pack up and say goodbye.

We’ve had the most incredible journey since becoming a registered charity in May 2014, but the Trustees feel that now is the right time to wind-up the charity, having achieved many of the objectives we set out to accomplish.  Subject to meeting the necessary requirements from the charity regulator OSCR, the organisation will be closed on 30th April 2023.

“Firstly, we’d like to reassure the community that our legacy is assured through the continued operation of The Hive LGBT+ Centre in Kirkcaldy, the UK’s largest dedicated LGBT+ community space, which will be handed over to a new Community Interest Company ‘Love & Harmony CIC’ and continues to be run by and for LGBT+ people.  

“Our long-term work in Perthshire also means we can confirm efforts there will be picked up by a new charity – Rainbow Heartlands – again led by local LGBT+ people.  Our other current projects are due to be completed between the end of March and our closure date.

“Over the past 9 years, Pink Saltire has championed the voices of those who were unheard and often marginalised, even within our own community – people from rural places, from working class communities and whose experiences were not always ‘mainstream’.

“Equality cannot be won on the backs of exhausted volunteers and community organisers who struggle to sustain basic services as Councils and Government have little or no equalities funding. It is not good enough for politicians to simply stick their heads in the sand when communities are demanding action on issues like hate crime, poor access to healthcare and when levels of trust in our public institutions is flat-lining.  

“We should demand much more of our political class and of those who claim to speak for our community in these circles.  We stand in solidarity with all those volunteers and community leaders in small organisations doing a huge amount of work right across Scotland.

“While we might not be around to fight those fights as an organisation after April, our individual efforts will continue in new ways.  

“Our fight through Pink Saltire comes to an end, but the fight for LGBT+ equality in every community in Scotland continues. Be part of it.”