Pasadena Raises the Pride Flag for a Sixth Year, Honoring a Local Tradition Its Founder Did Not Live to See Grow

The Pride Flag will rise over Pasadena City Hall again on Monday, June 1 — the sixth time in six years, each one tracing back to a city councilmember who died before the tradition he launched could take root. 

The late John J. Kennedy, who represented District 3, made the request in 2021 after Pamela Weatherspoon, then vice president of Enterprise Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Huntington Hospital, urged the city to join the hospital in raising the rainbow flag. Kennedy and Mayor Victor M. Gordo raised it together that June, the first time a Pride Flag had flown at Pasadena City Hall. Kennedy died in office the following year at 61. The flag has gone up every year since.

This year’s ceremony begins at 12:30 p.m. in front of City Hall,. Mayor Gordo and the City Council will host. Attendees are encouraged to wear colorful attire and join what the city calls a “community rainbow.” 

The flag raising opens Pasadena’s official observance of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, which is marked nationally each June in honor of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City. The event is free and open to the public. 

In prior years, the ceremony has drawn council members, representatives from the San Gabriel Valley LGBTQ+ Center, members of the LA County LGBTQ+ Commission, and community members. The Progress Pride Flag, designed by non-binary artist Daniel Quasar and produced by San Diego-based Pride Flag SD, has been used in previous ceremonies. 

“In Pasadena, inclusion and diversity are not just words — we live by them,” Gordo said at last year’s ceremony. “Raising this flag is an annual reminder that every resident, regardless of who they love or how they identify, is a valued part of our community.” 

On the day of the inaugural ceremony in 2021, 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.” 

The City of Pasadena’s Pride Flag Raising takes place Monday, June 1, at 12:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. The ceremony will be held at Pasadena City Hall, 100 North Garfield Avenue. For more information, call (626) 744-7210 or email AMellem@CityOfPasadena.net.