Mayor Bass signs order allowing Pride flag to be flown at LA City Hall during June
LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- Mayor Karen Bass announced Saturday she has signed an ordinance unanimously approved by the City Council allowing the LGBTQ+ Pride Flag to be raised at City Hall and elsewhere in the Civic Center in June.
"I'm proud to have signed this historic motion to fly the Pride Flag over City Hall," Bass said in a statement issued early Saturday. "Our message to the rest of the country and to the world is clear -- now more than ever, we must stand together.
"I want to thank Councilman Tim McOsker and the rest of City Council for working together to get this done. We know the harm that discrimination and hate brings and I'm proud that in Los Angeles, we accept our LGBTQIA+ community with open arms."
The City Council approved the new policy Friday on a 12-0 vote. McOsker and fellow council members John Lee and Kevin de León were absent during the vote.
On Tuesday, council members instructed the City Attorney's Office to prepare an ordinance to update the current flag regulations. Council members wanted to change the policy to ensure that the Progress Pride Flag -- a version of the Pride Flag that some LGBTQ+ advocates say is more inclusive -- was flown in time for Pride Month in June.
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The monthlong celebration commemorates lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender pride, a movement that began after the Stonewall riots, a series of gay liberation protests in 1969 in New York City.
Council members McOsker, Monica Rodriguez, Traci Park, Hugo Soto- Martinez and Bob Blumenfield introduced a motion last year seeking to raise the Progress Pride Flag at City Hall, City Hall East, City Hall South and other city facilities where the American, California and city flags are displayed during June.
City Charter Section 7.66 prohibits flags other than the American, California and city flags from being raised at City Hall or any other city facilities. The council members introduced the motion in June 2023, but were too late to raise the flag that year.
Last year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to raise the Progress Pride Flag at several government buildings.
The Progress Pride Flag was created in 2018 by graphic designer Daniel Quasar. It retains the common six-stripe rainbow design of the original gay pride flag, but adds black, brown, light blue, pink and white stripes to include other marginalized people, including the Black and Indigenous communities and other people of color, and people who have died from or are currently living with HIV/AIDS.
The decision comes at a time when some Southland communities are moving in the opposite direction. In May, the Downey City Council enacted a "neutral flag" policy on a 3-2 vote, taking down the Pride Flag that had previously flown for three years at City Hall. In March, more than 58% of voters in Huntington Beach approved a ban on nongovernmental flags, including those for Pride Month, being flown on city property.
At least two California school districts, in Temecula and the Bay Area community of Sunol, have also banned Pride Flags.
The first known Pride Flag debuted at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade in June 1978. At the encouragement of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, artist Gilbert Baker designed the flag to symbolize the value and dignity of the gay community.
In June 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom requested that the Pride Flag be flown on the main flagpole at the State Capitol building in commemoration of LGBTQ+ Pride Month -- marking the first time in state history that had occurred.
But historians say a Pride Flag was previously flown at the state Capitol on Oct. 11, 1990 for Coming Out Day, reportedly the first time such a flag was flown at a state capitol building in the United States.
