Bishop O\u2019Dowd High School, the 75-year-old college-preparatory Catholic school in East Oakland, removed LGBTQ+ Pride flags ahead of the first day of school yesterday to comply with a directive from the Oakland Catholic diocese.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The flags, at least one of which had been hanging in school classrooms for more than 30 years, were taken down after the end of the 2026 spring semester, according to someone who works at O\u2019Dowd. The flags were sometimes placed in classroom windows, so their emblematic colors could be seen from the outside.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The move was publicly criticized by alumni who saw it as reversing decades of LGBTQ+ acceptance at the school and by Bay Area advocates for people who have experienced homophobia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rick Oculto, an LGBTQ+ community advocate based in San Francisco and former Catholic school student, told us that he saw the removal of the flags at a school that has been seen as supportive to the community as a betrayal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aTo have an organization that has said, \u2018\u200aWe care about you. We see you. We support you,\u2019 to then take that away, in many ways, it hurts more than an organization that has always said, \u2018No, you are not accepted here,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201c\u200aIt\u2019s deeply hurtful, and it feels like they are pandering to the aspects of Christianity that we left a long time ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Oakland archdiocese, which leads East Bay Catholics, asked the O\u2019Dowd administration to remove rainbow and transgender Pride flags at the school last winter, according to the O\u2019Dowd employee.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On June 1, the Pride flags were removed without any formal communication to students or families, according to the person who works at O\u2019Dowd. The employee said the moment was marked by a ceremony attended by staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The employee told The Oaklandside that everyone from top administrators to teachers has tried to push back against the conservative-leaning archdiocese for years, but ultimately, O\u2019Dowd is a diocesan school, which means O\u2019Dowd answers to the diocese and its archbishop, Michael Barber. The archbishop was a member of a national Catholic committee, the Committee on Doctrine<\/a> of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, that has authored guidance this decade that has been seen as anti-trans, including the \u201cDoctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body<\/a>,\u201d which defined bodies as biologically male or female.<\/p>\n An Oaklandside investigation<\/a> into pressure from the diocese on another local high school, St. Joseph\u2019s Notre Dame in Alameda, found the diocese sought to limit the use of alternative pronouns for the school\u2019s trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming students. At the time, Oakland Catholic Diocese superintendent Andrew Currier told us that he and other church leaders were looking for guidance from the US Conference\u2019s \u201cDoctrinal Note,\u201d which had recently been released. Currier is a member of the Board of Regents at Bishop O\u2019Dowd, according to the school website.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Oaklandside has reached out to the archdiocese for comment on the removal of flags at O\u2019Dowd or any other diocesan schools, but it has not responded yet.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a statement sent to parents last Thursday and shared with The Oaklandside by the school, Kim Walsh, O\u2019Dowd\u2019s president, explained the school\u2019s thinking regarding its \u201ccore charism value of Community in Diversity and the ways we continue to support every student.\u201d<\/p>\n Walsh said that over the last year, tensions with the Catholic Church over Pride flags had become a \u201clightning rod within our own community\u201d and that the school did not want a \u201csymbol to become the source of division that diminished our ability to care for students.\u201d She said that faculty, staff, counselors, parents, the Board of Regents, LGBTQ+ community members, and student leaders met and eventually came up with what they said was a compromise: an \u201cinclusive<\/a> O\u201d made up of multiple colors to represent O\u2019Dowd\u2019s LGBTQ+ community and \u201caffirm that our LGBTQ+ students, families, faculty, and staff are seen, known, loved, and belong here.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the school\u2019s statement, the new symbol is now displayed across campus. We asked whether students would be allowed to wear the Pride-like \u201cO\u201d on their school uniforms, but the school did not immediately respond.\u00a0<\/p>\n A photo published by the school on its Facebook page yesterday shows the Pride-like \u201cO\u201d inside a larger \u201cO\u201d at the school\u2019s main entrance, alongside other affinity O\u2019s.<\/p>\n The statement from Walsh noted that the school\u2019s Pride Arts Club and Inclusive Family Day will continue, and that a new LGBTQ+ family retreat and an inclusive advisory council were being created to help the community feel represented.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reaction from students, parents, and alums <\/p>\n The O\u2019Dowd employee told us that in the hubbub of the first few days of school, students have not yet expressed public outrage over the removal of the Pride flags. The school did not immediately respond to a query about how parents have reacted to the flag removals, including whether the school has received any calls or letters. But LGBTQ+ families have told other outlets they were disappointed.\u00a0<\/p>\n In an interview with ABC-7, O\u2019Dowd parent Mujinga Mwamufiya said<\/a> their child, who identifies with the Pride flag, didn\u2019t think the removal of the flag represented O\u2019Dowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTheir response is just that they know what O\u2019Dowd is about,\u201d she said. \u201cThey know that it is an inclusive school and they feel welcome there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Posts from alumni indicate many are less than thrilled about the compromise.\u00a0<\/p>\n In an Instagram post<\/a>, an alum named Dani Clement said they were ashamed of the rainbow flags\u2019 removal. \u201cThis is hurting a community within your walls, and you are moving toward no flag at all. Call it what it is. FLY THE FLAG!\u201d<\/p>\n Tammy Kama Udkow, who identified as an O\u2019Dowd alum on Instagram, said that flying pride flags and creating a new inclusive \u201cO\u201d were not mutually exclusive actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Someone posting on Instagram under the username jagfilm<\/a>, who also identified themselves as an LGBTQ O\u2019Dowd alum, said<\/a> it was upsetting to see the school she was proud of shied \u201caway from true inclusion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBring back the O\u2019Dowd that found ways to stand by its LGBTQ community in the face of criticism, that proudly put on The Laramie Project in the early 2000\u2019s,\u201d she wrote. \u201cRemoving the flag so many look to as a sign of belonging and support from their community to replace it with a less public logo that you\u2019ll display somewhere inside a private building is not only cowardly but enables dangerous discourse to continue.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrea Bradley Wade, another alum, exclaimed \u201cYUCK\u201d to the school post<\/a> on Facebook and said the custom \u201cO\u201d \u201cdoes the inverse of making those it represents feel included.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cO\u2019Dowd has always been about inclusiveness. My comment goes back to that old adage of \u2018if it ain\u2019t broke, don\u2019t fix it,\u2019\u201d she wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rett Bergmark said<\/a> that alums like him would be withholding their \u201cdonations, participation and support until full expression is allowed for people (not harming anyone) just being people.\u201d<\/p>\n One commenter, Grace Telcs, said<\/a> she was considering O\u2019Dowd for her child but \u201cnot so much now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n And Octavio Sandoval, another self-identified alum, said<\/a> on Instagram under the username\u00a0@juanitocuetes<\/a> that the flag removal sent \u201ca harmful message.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHigh school is already a vulnerable time for teenagers. Stripping away visible markers of support tells LGBTQ+ youth that they are unwelcome, unseen, or that their identities must be hidden to fit an institutional mold,\u201d Sandoval said. \u201cDecisions made behind closed doors \u2014 seemingly under pressure from outside leadership \u2014 without meaningful input from parents, teachers, and students show a profound lack of transparency and respect for the school community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Oaklandside has reached out to other high schools in the Oakland diocese to ask whether their Pride flags have also been removed. Those schools include St. Joseph\u2019s Notre Dame High School in Alameda, which had allowed students to put up rainbow flags on campus in the past, Holy Names in the Oakland hills, and Moreau Catholic in Hayward. We\u2019ll update this story if they respond.<\/p>\n “*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n \t