Locals Praise the City for Flying the Pride Flag

Pasadena will raise the Pride Flag for the first time at City Hall during a brief ceremony Monday. 

The 12:40 p.m. ceremony will be open to the public and city staff and be conducted in a safe manner with masks and social distancing.

“Seeing the Pride Flag flying over Pasadena stirs the hearts of not just the LGBTQ+ community, but of all those who work to make Pasadena a city where our commitment to equality, justice and compassion unites us across our differences,” said the Rev. Susan Russell of All Saints Church. 

“All Saints Church joins in the celebration of Pride Month as we continue to work to make liberty and justice for all not just a pledge we make but a reality we live in our city and in our nation,” Russell said.

Councilmember John Kennedy made a request to raise the flag after Pamela Weatherspoon, who was recently appointed vice president of Enterprise, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Huntington Hospital, asked him if he could get the city to join the hospital in raising the LGBT Pride Flag at Huntington and City Hall. 

Kennedy, along with Mayor Victor Gordo and other members of the City Council, are scheduled to be in attendance Monday. 

Kennedy said it has been an honor to play a small part in getting the flag raised in Pasadena.

“Later today, the LGBT PRIDE Flag will be raised for the first time at Pasadena City Hall,” Kennedy said. “History is being made and once again Pasadena is at the forefront in taking affirmative steps to embrace the month of June to share and advance the wonderful and powerful diversity that exists in our community.

“Our efforts are an extension of the words and actions found in my friend President Barack Obama’s 2010 Proclamation:

In 2010, President Obama called upon all Americans to observe this month by fighting prejudice and discrimination in their own lives and everywhere it exists,” Kennedy said.

The roots of Pride Month go back to 1969 after police raided a gay club called the Stonewall Inn in New York under a false claim the bar was operating with an improper liquor license.

Patrons claimed the raid was an excuse to harass and arrest LGBTQ+ people in one of the few places where they felt safe.

Similar raids on gay-friendly businesses had been occurring for decades, but Stonewall was one of the first times when the patrons fought back.

During the event LGBTQ patrons clashed with police. The ensuing six-day period of protests and demonstrations is now known as the Stonewall Riots. The riots are considered a landmark moment in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.

On the first anniversary of the riots, the now-regular tradition of Pride Month started and led to the first gay pride marches in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.

On June 24, 2016, Obama officially designated the Stonewall National Monument, making it the nation’s first national monument designated as an LGBT+ historic site.