Sacramento City Hall to become latest public building to fly gay pride flag
Following the state Capitol’s lead, the LGBTQ pride flag is about to fly from Sacramento City Hall.
The Rainbow Flag will be raised Friday morning at 915 I St. — the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, said Steve Hansen, the city’s first openly gay City Council member.
It’s believed to be the first time the pride flag will be flown at City Hall, said city spokesman Tim Swanson. It’s the latest government building to fly the pride flag following the President Donald Trump administration’s ban on the flying of such flags at U.S. embassies.
“For the city of Sacramento, we have been a pioneer in the region providing protections for LGBT people long before any other city in the region and sometimes before the state,” Hansen said. “We passed our domestic partnership registry in 1992 and we’ve had a heightened awareness.”
He continued: “We continue to have important debates about how to ensure that the most vulnerable members of the LGBT community can be taken care of. It’s only rightful we raise the flag as a symbol of not only our progress, but our continued efforts to ensure that the most vulnerable members of our LGBT community enjoy equality as they rightfully should.”
The flag will fly outside City Hall through the end of June, which is gay pride month, and will also fly throughout June each year, Swanson said.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in a statement. “The symbolic hanging of a flag says loud and clear that we are proud our beautiful diversity not just during one month but all year round.”
The City Council voted Tuesday to direct staff to raise the flag.
The resolution read: “As the capital city of California, Sacramento wishes to join in solidarity with the State of California and other capital cities throughout the country by flying the pride flag prominently from City Hall throughout June as a unifying symbol for all Californians and Sacramentans in support and recognition of pride month.”
This story was originally published June 27, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
