{"id":180350,"date":"2026-04-30T16:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T16:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/180350\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T16:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T16:01:08","slug":"pride-flag-burned-outside-gay-couples-pennsylvania-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/180350\/","title":{"rendered":"Pride Flag Burned Outside Gay Couple\u2019s Pennsylvania Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for\u00a0The Agenda<\/a>, Them\u2019s news and politics newsletter, delivered Thursdays.<\/p>\n

A gay couple reported the burning of a Pride flag was outside of their Lancaster, PA home on April 28. The Lancaster Police department is currently investigating the incident.<\/p>\n

Tuc To and Peter Helman told local NBC affiliate WGAL<\/a> that they noticed the burnt flag on Wednesday morning after the vandalism allegedly occurred. When they checked their Ring security cameras, they found footage, shared with WGAL, of a person in a hoodie with their face obscured approaching the flag with a lighter and proceeding to set it alight. The flag was left with burns and rips, but the fire did not spread to other areas of the home, in part because the flag itself was made of nylon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do want to show that there are real people behind these acts,\u201d To told the TV station. \u201cThere were real possible implications and consequences, like if it had caught on fire to a significant amount, it may have gotten to the house and certainly \u2014 we’re in a row home, so there’s adjacent houses that might have been affected, too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The couple says this is not the first time someone has targeted and vandalized their Pride flag since they moved in six years ago, as people have allegedly stolen and or damaged them in the past. They are not discouraged from displaying flags, however, and feel largely supported by their community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely disheartening,\u201d To told WGAL . \u201cBut it\u2019s something that we do know, like in the back of our minds, like when we put something like this up, it does kind of put a target on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

To, who is a primary care physician at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, treats trans patients regularly and provides gender-affirming care. He told Lancaster Online<\/a> that as an advocate for LGBTQ+ healthcare, it\u2019s important for him to make a statement and fly the Pride flag.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s to let people know that it’s a supportive neighborhood and that we are here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s something that we feel is important, especially nowadays with the current kind of political climate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luckily, To and Helman have a supply of backup flags on hand and say they will be putting up another as soon as the rain subsides.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Get the best of what\u2019s queer.\u00a0Sign up for\u00a0Them\u2019s weekly newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for\u00a0The Agenda, Them\u2019s news and politics newsletter, delivered Thursdays. A gay couple reported the burning of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,80471],"class_list":["post-180350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pride-flag"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}