Giant Pride flag to fly Sunday at Huntington Beach gathering

Although no rainbow flag will wave over Huntington Beach City Hall during Pride Month — after the City Council majority voted earlier this year to halt the tradition — local activists and LGBTQ+ supporters are stitching together their own plans to mark the occasion.

A giant Pride flag measuring 33 feet by 24 feet will be displayed at the city’s pier during a Sunday morning demonstration that will feature words from local elected officials and members of the LGBTQ+ community as well as rainbows aplenty.

“We’re going to fly the biggest [expletive] Pride flag ever,� said Sally Sanders, a Laguna Beach resident who helped co-organize the event. “It’s going to be huge — it’s bigger than my living room.�

A 33-foot-by-24-foot Pride flag will be on display during a demonstration Sunday at the Huntington Beach Pier.

(Courtesy of Sally Sanders)

Many who plan to participate in the event, like Sanders, have made the Huntington Beach Pier a rallying point every Sunday since the City Council voted in February to reverse a May 2021 decision to fly the multicolored standard from Harvey Milk Day on May 22 through June.

The reversal was made at the behest of Councilman Pat Burns, one of four conservative candidates voted into office in November, who said he viewed the flag as a symbol of divisiveness in a culturally diverse community. After an hours-long discussion, a narrow 4-3 vote overturned the council’s earlier decision.

Former Huntington Beach resident Ashley Williamson, who spoke before the council in support of keeping the rainbow flag flying throughout Pride Month, said the banner is about much more than gender identity or sexual orientation.

“For me, the Pride flag is a symbol of community,� said the 32-year-old, who is bisexual. “It’s a symbol that I can see and know I’m safe there, that I can be myself wherever people fly that flag.�

Williamson realized February’s council decision didn’t mean she couldn’t display the banner on her own. So, she started going to the pier each Sunday with her own flag and was soon joined by others.

Former Huntington Beach resident Ashley Williamson, left, with Laguna Beach’s Sally Sanders at the Huntington Beach Pier.

(Courtesy of Sally Sanders)

Although she relocated to Perris last month, she commutes each week to Surf City, where she, Sanders and others wave Pride flags, say hi to passersby and hand out rainbow stickers. She said the idea for a giant flag came to her in a dream, in which she saw the rainbow displayed on the iconic structure.

Williamson consulted with members of Orange Coast Huddle, a progressive political action organization, who helped her buy 88 yards of multicolored fabric and convened an ad hoc sewing committee to start piecing it all together.

Sanders said that after Sunday’s rally, the flag will be shared at other Pride Month demonstrations, including Seal Beach, where a similar event is planned for June.

“We’re all going to sign it, then pass it off to other beach cities,� she said Tuesday. “It’s going to be part of a movement in Orange County.�

Sunday’s Huntington Beach event is scheduled to run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and is anticipated to feature appearances by Huntington Beach Councilwoman Natalie Moser, Alex Mohajer, president of the Stonewall Democratic Club, and Seal Beach City Council candidate Stephanie Wade.

The city of Huntington Beach raised the Pride flag at City Hall for the first time in 2021. But a council vote in February overturned the tradition.

(File Photo)

It takes place the day before Harvey Milk Day, which celebrates the life and accomplishments of California’s first openly gay elected official. Milk was serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors when he was assassinated on Nov. 27, 1978.

Williamson sees the pier event as a space where people can be themselves and spread love.

“This is a response from the [LGBTQ+] community telling everybody who came out for this ordinance that we won’t be silenced and we’re not going away,� she said.