The Sacramento City Council on June 25 adopted a resolution to fly the Pride flag at City Hall in support of the LGBTQI community.
A symbol of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, the flag was raised by Councilmember Steve Hansen and members of his staff on Friday morning, June 28.
The date marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, a series of violent interactions between the gay community and law enforcement in Greenwich Village, New York. The riots are seen as a seminal moment in the fight for equal rights for LGBTQI people.
Bearing the traditional rainbow design of the Pride flag, the flag used at City Hall also displays additional colors to represent the transgender community and people of color.
It currently flies adjacent to the U.S. flag and underneath the California state flag next to Historic City Hall at 915 I Street. It will fly for the remainder of June, which is Pride month.
“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.
The City’s resolution follows Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to display the Pride flag at the California State Capitol.
According to the City Council’s resolution, raising the Pride flag ” … is consistent with the City’s 2019 State and Federal Legislative Platform of Equal Rights for all Sacramento residents to ‘ensure that the fundamental rights guaranteed by the California and U.S. Constitutions apply to every person in the city.'”
It is also in accord with the City’s historical support of the diversity of the city, including the LGBTQI community,” the resolution states.
The flag will fly each June at City Hall, according to the resolution.
Hansen is the City’s first openly gay Councilmember and represents Council District 4, which includes downtown Sacramento.