Suffolk Pride Re-born

Sunday 31 May 2026 – Ipswich Cornhill

Tomorrow is the day when it all kicks off.  A chaotic time of colour filled confusion.  No, I’m not speaking about our wonderful month of Suffolk Pride Fringe events.  These will always be colourful and perhaps chaotic (Roller Derby-ers I’m thinking of you here) but no we are never ever confused.  

We know who we are and we know where we are going and our purpose of welcoming everyone is something about which to be loud and proud.

The confusion that is coming to all of our homes tomorrow is the new multi-coloured, multi-purpose recycling regimen being rolled out across our lovely County.  

Have you had a look at what is allowed to go where yet? Glass bottles are back in the recycling bin but dirty pizza boxes are evicted and sent to the depths of the black non-recyclable.  There is good news in that though.  Licking the last of the sauce and mozzarella off the bottom of the box is no longer gross but makes you into an eco-warrior.  There’s an unexpected ‘win-win’.

What is worrying folk in the wonderful world of TwitFace, as one of our sons calls Social Media, is the possibility of sanctions and fines if things are put in the wrong bin.  

Separate bins for separate bits?  Whatever next?  Who knows? 

Perhaps people will start policing who goes into which changing room at Marks & Spencer’s – which have, by the way, always been unisex.  Or asking Girl Guides about their girlhood – which is really, really weird seeing as they have a whole section for their youngest girls called Rainbows!

Suffolk Pride refuses to sort people into different ‘bins’ if they’ve got different ‘bits’.  We refuse to re-cycle but we do choose to be re-born.  

We are proud to say who we are without shame or shadow and will not apologise for being ourselves. Life is not about sorting folk into different bins but about helping people bloom and thrive.

How do we live out this rebirth?  (Which is mostly about discovery who we have been from the beginning).  How do we show a divided, sad, and too often hate-filled world that who and how people love and where people pee, makes no difference at all?

Father Mychal Judge, the chaplain to New York Fire Department who died in the Twin Towers, said these words, 

‘Is there so much love in the world that we can afford to discriminate against any kind of love?’

Being re-born, to be ‘born again’ as the Good Book says, is to learn to love without condition and to care without judgement.

It was Nicodemus who was told by The Big Guy ‘You must be born again.’  You see Nicodemus had a problem with recycling.  He couldn’t work out which bin to put Jesus in.  He saw that what Jesus was doing was good but at the same time Jesus spoke to all kinds of people that didn’t fit into the rule book of his religion.

Until he met Jesus and learnt about being reborn, Nicodemus lived a life ruled by hate and fear instead of love and generosity.  He couldn’t see this unconditional love.  A love so great that it chases away darkness, destroys death, and banishes fear.  

And to live in fear and hatred is to live a death.

Sometimes I feel sorry for all the Transphobes and Homophobes out there.  What does it take, what cost do you have to pay,  to choose to live in fear instead of freedom?  And what is that they are frightened of?  Yep!  They’re frightened of us.  Petrified of you and me.  Really?  I did not know that we had so much power….

You see it’s not just Pride that needs to be reborn, it’s the haters as well.  

They need to learn to get a life, put aside fear, and discover that love is love.  And our task is to teach them that ‘love is love’ however it is expressed or celebrated.

After all;

‘Is there so much love in the world that we can afford to discriminate against any kind of love?’

[This blog ‘Suffolk Pride Re-Born’ is copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2026 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that the source is acknowledged] 

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Nicodemus Visits Jesus – John 3v1-17 NRSVUE

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ² He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with that person.” ³ Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” ⁴ Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶ What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ⁹ Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰ Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

¹¹ “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you do not receive our testimony. ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴ And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

¹⁷ “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.