Culture

This Morning hosts think rainbow Christmas trees ‘celebrate the NHS’ and everybody’s pointing out the obvious

Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on This Morning

Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford on This Morning. (ITV)

This Morning hosts Ruth Langsford and Alice Beer apparently forgot all about the existence of the LGBT+ Pride flag when faced with a rainbow Christmas tree.

Langsford is, according to reports, about to be dropped from her regular Friday gig on the ITV show, and seems determined to drag it down with her.

Presenting alongside her husband Eamonn Holmes on Friday (20 November), Langsford claimed a rainbow Christmas tree was for the NHS, as consumer editor Beer presented one in the six colours of the LGBT+ Pride flag.

“Not traditional, but kids would love that, also we’ve had the NHS rainbow,” Langsford noted.

Not traditional, great for kid and the NHS. But absolutely no mention of LGBT+ Pride. Cool.

“We’re celebrating the NHS,” agreed Beer. “It’s very thematic… frankly this could be your second tree.”

The oversight was very quickly picked up queer viewers.

Friday’s This Morning looks set to be one of Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes’ last, as reports suggest they are on the verge of being replaced by Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary.

The couple usually host once a week, but will now only appear on the show during the six-week summer holiday taken by Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, according to reports.

The NHS Rainbow.

The NHS Rainbow has been a bone of contention for many in the LGBT+ community this year.

Since the start of the pandemic, the six-stripe rainbow has been used as a symbol of solidarity with healthcare workers, appearing in the windows of homes, on the sides of buses and even on the Great British Bake Off – where Paul Hollywood announced rainbow bagels represented the NHS, to much derision.

In May a petition demanded an end to the “rebranding” of the rainbow and the erasure of LGBT+ history.

The campaign was started by 16-year-old Bella McMonagle from Northern Ireland, who told Forbes: “I and thousands of other LGBT+ people in this country feel like they are having their history erased – both young and the old members of the community. I thought someone should speak up and do something about it.

“I know, and my online supporters all agree that we love and respect what the NHS workers are doing for us. We aren’t blaming them at all for our flag being ‘rebranded’.

“It’s the fact that now there are some homophobic people flying the symbol, which we used and we have fought to be able to use, claiming that it isn’t our symbol.”

The six-stripe rainbow has been used as an emblem of the LGBT+ community since 1978, when Gilbert Baker designed the first Pride flag.

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