Orange County neighborhood rallies after resident’s Pride flag slashed by vandals
Residents in Anaheim are rallying behind a gay couple after vandals ripped down a Pride flag from their home and slashed it into pieces over the weekend.
The June 15 incident happened in the early morning hours and was captured on the couple’s home surveillance cameras.
Jake Nolan and his partner, Jon, have lived in their Anaheim home for the last seven years and said they installed the flag as a celebration of Pride Month.
“We were like, ‘Did that really just happen? Did someone slash the flag and pull it down?” Nolan told KTLA’s Rachel Menitoff.
Footage of the incident shows a person walk through their yard up to the flag and pull out a knife.
“You see him grab the flag, slash it and then rip it down,” Nolan explained. “Then he says some stuff and you kind of see him stomp through the yard.”
While the couple said they have a hard time understanding why someone would act this way, what they found after they posted the hateful incident to a neighborhood Facebook page was an overwhelming response of support.
“I said, I’m going to order 10 flags. If you guys want a flag, we can show solidarity and we can all show support,” neighbor Elia Renteria said after reading the social media post. “Come on down and grab a flag and you can all put it on your front door.”
Neighbors on the street responded in droves and now one house after another is flying the Pride flag in solidarity.
“It makes you feel good to know that where we planted our roots is a community that looks out for us and we can all look out for each other,” Nolan said.
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He added that he’s not going to allow the hateful act to deter him from showing his love and support for Pride.
“If people can see it and feel support, like, that was a big motivator for us to get it back up as soon as possible,” he said. “It’s a message of you can do it, but you can’t keep us down.”
The couple did file a police report and officers with Anaheim Police Department were at their house on Monday. The incident is also being investigated as a possible hate crime.
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