A “Happy Pride” banner and two rainbow Pride flags were torn down from the exterior of a Manhattan church on Saturday night.
Surveillance video shared with NBC News shows someone grabbing the banner and flags outside the entrance to Marble Collegiate Church.
Marble Collegiate Church, a church with a history dating back to the 1600s, plans to put up more Pride flags tomorrow, according to Christina Morano Keiser, the church’s director of media and communications. She said the church is prepared to continue placing them “as often as necessary.”
“While we are deeply disappointed that someone would remove our Pride flags, their removal does not change who we are,” said Senior Minister Michael Bos. “We remain resolutely open and affirming of all people, and we will celebrate our LGBTQ+ brothers not just during Pride Month, but all year long.”
Morano Keizer said Marble Collegiate Church is not pursuing legal action.
“In all honesty, this happens to us every year, but that doesn’t stop us from continuing to show our support for the LGBTQ+ community,” she said, adding that the church congregation was “deeply saddened” by the incident.
New York City’s annual Pride march kicks off Sunday on Fifth Avenue — just four blocks south of the church.
The incident at Marble Collegiate Church is just one of several examples of the theft and destruction of Pride flags and other Pride symbols across the U.S. this year.
More than 200 pride flags was stolen in Massachusetts, days before the start of Pride Month, and on June 13, more than 150 Pride flags were broken outside Stonewall National Monument, site of the iconic 1969 Stonewall uprising. An Oregon library window was shot after displaying a Pride flag on June 6, and in Washington, 14 Pride banners were cut on June 1st.
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