City of Downey bans the Pride flag

Downey was the first city in  southeast Los Angeles County, a predominantly Latino region, to ever display the Pride flag. Now, the city council members has voted for what is called a “neutral flag policy,” thus eliminating the use of the flag on any government property. In the all-Latino city council, only two of the five council members voted against the proposal. 

Every year, the Pride flag is hung during Pride celebrations as a sign of inclusivity and an embrace of diversity. In the state where the Pride flag was first designed and founded, it has only been in recent years that the flag is being banned across the country. 

According to the Save The Rainbow campaign, the City of Downey joins the list of over six cities in California who have also done the same, including Huntington Beach, Redlands and Carlsbad. Like in Downey, MassResistance, the group behind the legislation, has been successful in banning the flag all over the country. Named a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, MassResistance has an active chapter in the South East LA region. LA Wave media reported that the chapter leader, Sandi Padilla had already been organizing around banning the flag as far back as 2021 with the support of the national organization. 

The National League of Cities has long reported that embracing the LGBTQ+ community through policies and programs helps not only LGBTQ+ residents but residents overall. For LGBTQ+ residents alone, the policy to display the flag is more than just symbolic, it could be a sign for safety. 

This is all happening at the time that a bi-partisan spending bill was able to ban the waving of Pride flags across all United States embassies. Both parties have been debating the use of the Pride flag since the Obama administration. 

The Trevor Project has reported that over 86% of transsexual and nonbinary youth say ongoing discussions around hostile-to-trans bills have harmed their psychological well-being. As a result of these discussions, 45% of trans youth experienced cyberbullying, and almost one out of three did not have a solid sense of reassurance to go to the specialist or medical clinic when they were harmed.

While Latinos have been largely supportive of LGBTQ+ equality in the last two decades, these sentiments seem to be a part of this larger campaign against the community. Anti-LGBTQ policies like these continue to be on the rise due to the election and a focus on these symbolic dog whistle politics. 

In several social media posts by organizations hosting events for Pride in the city of Downey this year, several individuals and groups say they are organizing to make Pride activities even louder and stronger because of the hostile actions against the LGBTQ+ community.