Pride Flag Raising at City Hall Monday Reflects Tradition Urged by Late Councilmember Kennedy

The City of Pasadena will raise the Pride Flag at City Hall at 12:30 p.m. Monday in recognition of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, marking the fifth consecutive year of a tradition first proposed by late Councilmember John J. Kennedy.

The flag-raising launches Pasadena’s official participation in Pride Month, which is celebrated nationally in June to honor the legacy of the 1969 Stonewall Riots.

Kennedy made the original request to raise the pride flag in 2021 after Pamela Weatherspoon, then newly appointed vice president of Enterprise Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Huntington Hospital, urged the city to join the hospital in raising the LGBT Pride Flag at Huntington and City Hall in a visible show of support.

“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.”

Kennedy, along with Mayor Victor Gordo and other members of the City Council, attended the first flag-raising in 2021. Kennedy said it has been an honor to play a small part in getting the flag raised in Pasadena.

“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.

Pride Month traces its roots to 1969 when police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club 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.

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