Mull unites after Pride celebrations targeted with Swastikas

As one of the most colourful towns in the UK, Tobermory makes an amazing backdrop for Pride celebrations. 

More than 100 people attended the Pride event in Tobermory in June, but afterwards organisers were subjected to discriminatory comments online, including extremist imagery.

Organisers An Tobar and Mull Theatre, which has run Pride events in and around Tobermory for the last two decades, was shocked when Swastikas, including one which was edited to include the colours of a trans-inclusive pride flag, were shared in response to social media posts about their 2026 celebrations.

The posts were made anonymously, a move which had been labelled "cowardly" by organisers.

"It shows they clearly know what they are saying is wrong," said An Tobar and Mull Theatre’s Artistic Director Rebecca Atkinson-Lord. 

Mull Pride was established by children at Mull’s Youth Theatre who wanted to create a welcoming environment for LGBTQ people. But despite this positive origin, some commenters accused the event of ’forcing this on children’ or saying Pride ’has no place on an island like Mull’.

"Since we restarted Pride celebrations following the pandemic, we’ve received many unpleasant comments, mostly from young men, local and non-local, being childish," said Rebecca. 

"But this year, that kicked up into quite aggressive comments.

"And then you have the Neo-Nazi imagery - that’s a very deliberate act of intimidation. 

"The Nazis killed queer people, imprisoned them in camps, so that can easily be looked at as a threat of violence.

"People forget that the internet is a real place, if someone had shown up to event waving a Nazi flag it would have been terrifying."

Thankfully, due to the obvious hate speech present in the comments, the posts were removed. 

But for the LGBTQ community on Mull, the damage was already done.

Mull has a large and diverse LGBTQ community. But for many off-island agitators, they seem to hold a belief that remote and rural Scotland should not have any LGBTQ people at all, Rebecca said, calling their viewpoint a "toxic nostalgia".

"They see the Hebrides as an escape from reality, but we are not a time warp. Gay people can and do exist everywhere," she added. "But if LGBTQ people don’t feel safe, they will leave, which is what these people want."

As for the Nazi images, due to the anonymity of the posts, the fear is it could be anyone on the island making them. There are certainly people who hold these views on the island, Rebecca said, adding that despite Mull being an accepting place at large, just as LGBTQ people can exist anywhere, so can bigotry.