DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (CBS) – Police in Bucks County are looking for whoever stole a Pride flag from Monument Square in Doylestown Borough.
The flag was flown on June 1 to commemorate the start of Pride Month.
“Someone tried to attack LGBTQ visibility and Pride and Love,” said Marlene Pray, director of The Rainbow Room and a member of the Doylestown Pride Festival Committee.
Central Bucks police say that on June 13, just before 2 a.m., someone cut the rope holding both the Pride flag and an American flag. A person then stole the Pride flag and left the American flag on the sidewalk before leaving on a motorcycle.
Pray said this is the seventh known vandalism of a Pride flag in the neighborhood in the past year.
Last June, CBS News Philadelphia reported on the theft of rainbow flags outside Evolution Candy on nearby State Street, along with Volume One Hair Salon on Oakland Avenue.
“The Doylestown Pride Festival, which is working with the city to raise the flag, has already ordered two replacements in anticipation of it happening again. It will only be a matter of minutes or hours before we fly our Pride flag high again,” Pray said. .
Pray that security will be increased for events throughout the area during Pride Month. But she also emphasized that love always wins.
“We love them more than they hate us,” Pray said. “It doesn’t matter how many times you destroy a flag. We are here. We are part of the neighborhood and community. We are your neighbors, family and friends, and we are not going anywhere.”
Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call Central Bucks Police at 215-345-4143 or email Detective Sergeant Darien Derstine at dderstine@cbrpd.net.
