Give Our Flag Back: A Petition for Huntington Beach City Council to Return Their Pride Flag

As many cities across Orange County prepare to raise the Pride Flag this June, in celebration of Pride month, the Huntington Beach City Council approved an ordinance banning non-government flags on city property in a 4-3 vote. This new ordinance reinforces the age-old perception that Huntington Beach is not a welcoming city for LGBTQ+ people. Whether intentional or not, the message is loud and clear – Huntington Beach is not interested in lifting up LGBTQ+ people.

“Give Our Flag Back” is a movement for the Huntington Beach City Council to return the pride flag to our community until they are ready to fly it once again. The city council has said they are not “anti-lgbtq”- we hope they take this opportunity to prove this statement by collaborating with us on returning this flag. From this promise we know our organization, the Huntington Beach LGBTQ+ community, and city council can take steps to move forward. Please sign our petition below and share it out with your network!

“As the Executive Director of the LGBTQ Center OC, I can see a path forward from here. Our community needs a gesture of good faith from the Huntington Beach City Council acknowledging the value we place on the Pride Flag. Our flag is not only a symbol of diversity and inclusion, it represents the safe spaces our community so painfully carved out in Orange County and across the nation. Rather than placing our Pride Flag in a broom closet or a dustbin, give it back to the community it represents. Allow the LGBTQ Center OC to be the custodian of the Huntington Beach Pride Flag(s) until Huntington Beach is ready to fly it again. When that day comes, I personally will deliver it to the City Council so that it may proudly fly and lift up the LGBTQ+ individuals who call Huntington Beach their home.“ -Peg Corley (she/they), Executive Director of the LGBTQ Center OC