{"id":99913,"date":"2025-12-18T17:56:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/99913\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T17:56:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T17:56:09","slug":"los-gatos-council-moves-ahead-with-plans-for-gay-pride-flag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/99913\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Gatos Council Moves Ahead with Plans for Gay Pride Flag"},"content":{"rendered":"

After years of avoiding the issue<\/a>, Los Gatos is moving forward with a policy that could allow a rainbow flag to fly above Town Hall within months.<\/p>\n

High school students and members of the LGBTQ+ community faced-off with senior citizens and religious adherents Tuesday night at a Town Council meeting, as Los Gatos considered whether a \u201cProgress Pride Flag\u201d should flutter above its civic buildings in June.<\/p>\n

If approved in a second vote in January, Los Gatos would become the 12th municipality in Santa Clara County to take such action.<\/p>\n

One speaker, Ken Windham, warned the council, \u201cYou\u2019re opening the door to complete chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Progress Pride Flag<\/a>,, adds a chevron on one side of the classic rainbow Pride Flag, to celebrate transgender people, people who died of AIDS and (with a brown stripe) people of color.<\/p>\n

While the Bay Area served as the setting for the genesis of much of the gay rights movement, Los Gatos has a solid contingent of older, more conservative, residents, people from a variety of faith traditions and Republican voters\u2014particularly now with the rightward tilt of Silicon Valley in the Donald Trump Second Term era.<\/p>\n

And the town has a fraught recent history with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights advocacy.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Rob Rennie recalled how, a few years back when Marico Sayoc<\/a> was mayor, there was such opposition to even discussing the possibility of raising the Pride Flag that the issue never made it to the full Council. Instead, Los Gatos voted to put rainbow stripes on a pair of local crosswalks on East Main Street, which sparked significant pushback from some quarters.<\/p>\n

At the time, A pair of dueling rallies were held in the wake of that decision<\/a>: a smaller \u201clove\u201d walk attended by Proud Boys, Christians, Trump supporters and anti-abortion campaigners; and an \u201canti-hate\u201d march attended by thousands that focused on a message of unity.<\/p>\n

And those differing opinions were on full display, Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I\u2019m frustrated,\u201d said Nova Jayaraj, a Los Gatos High School student, speaking in support of raising the rainbow flag. \u201cThis policy isn\u2019t revolutionary.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said choosing to support the LBGT+ community with a flag-raising shouldn\u2019t be a tough decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a place built on community, I expect you to keep building on that goal,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing gay or transgendered is not a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

At this, laughter erupted from parts of the audience. But she continued in a determined tone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our town, too,\u201d she said, adding there are many who are paying close attention those who push back against flying the Pride Flag. \u201cThat decision will not be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

Louisa Horwath, a young Los Gatos-Saratoga Youth Advocacy member in a Stanford hoodie, is one who will be watching how the debate concludes this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be honest here, being in this room scares me,\u201d she said, during public comment, while expressing support for a flag-raising.<\/p>\n

Horwath said she doesn\u2019t get how putting up the Pride Flag would affect those who oppose it.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Suzuki, the president of the Los Gatos Anti-Racism Coalition, who is now about a decade beyond his own graduation day at Los Gatos High School, lauded the high schoolers who stepped-up to speak.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re the best!\u201d he said, adding, \u201cThis is a historic decision before us today.\u201d<\/p>\n

One LGBT+ community member who spoke during public comment about how unwelcoming the town can be for gay and transgender youth, opted not to provide a name when asked by the Los Gatan afterwards.<\/p>\n

Debbi Wilson, a 72-year-old \u201cBapti-costal\u201d believer from Morgan Hill, told Council it\u2019s not just LBGT+ people who\u2019ve been discriminated against.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristians are one of the most persecuted groups,\u201d she said, adding that some perpetrators of mass violence have struggled with gender identity issues. \u201cShooters were actually transgender.\u201d<\/p>\n

Afterwards, when the Los Gatan asked her why on earth she thought this line of argument would be an effective tack in her effort to win-over people who might be on the fence about a flag-raising, her answer was simple: \u201cYou can never go wrong with the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson told Council if they\u2019re going to let the gay community have a flag-raising, they should also be willing to raise a Christianity-themed flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cRaise the \u2018Appeal to Heaven\u2019 flag,\u201d she said, stating that George Washington went into battle with that one. \u201cWe won a war we never should have won, because God was on our side.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was referring to the Pine Tree Flag that references a quote by John Locke, in which the 17th century philosopher rejects the theory of the divine right of kings.<\/p>\n

Los Gatos resident Riley Pereyra, a regional manager at the Ethos retail shop on North Santa Cruz Avenue, said flying two large rainbow flags in the window has been a \u201cfantastic experience\u201d for the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure you\u2019d want to have a community where people feel welcome and included and safe,\u201d he said, adding there have been a couple vocal dissenters\u2014but nothing too challenging. \u201cOverwhelmingly, it is positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most animated speakers of the night was Alexander Sanchez-Silva, a Los Gatos High School. \u201cReally this debate has turned into a weapon,\u201d he said. \u201cGay people are not a pawn in any agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pooh-poohed the \u201cslippery slope\u201d arguments being made by some, who claim flying a rainbow flag will allow neo-Nazis and other hate groups to take over the flagpole.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Mary Badame made it clear that she doesn\u2019t support moving forward with a rainbow flag-raising.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current town flag policy has worked well,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m supporting neutrality at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, the council voted to direct staff to move forward with a flag policy update, as well as a separate resolution to fly the pride flag in June.<\/p>\n

The motion passed 4-1, with Badame opposed.<\/p>\n

The matter is set to return to the council early next year.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After years of avoiding the issue, Los Gatos is moving forward with a policy that could allow a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[54503,2434,190,54504,54172,88,90,89],"class_list":["post-99913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-gay-pride","tag-lgbtq","tag-los-gatos","tag-los-gatos-town-council","tag-pride-flag","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}