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