Bellingham is supporting Pride events, plans to give city crosswalk a rainbow makeover

Robert Mittendorf
·1 min read
14

A downtown Bellingham crosswalk will be getting multi-colored makeover soon, the latest effort by the city to show its support for Pride Month, which honors LGBTQIA+ people.

Downtown is already sporting rainbow-colored Pride banners designed by Bradley James Lockhart, creator of the official city flag, and a Pride flag flies at City Hall.

The annual Pride in Bellingham parade through downtown is being co-sponsored by the city, starting at 11 a.m. Sunday, July 9.

“We’re joining people all over the world in celebrating our LGBTQIA+ communities,” Mayor Seth Fleetwood told the City Council at a recent meeting.

Pride is usually celebrated in June or July because of its origins in the New York City uprising of June 28-July 3, 1969, when gay individuals resisted violent police harassment at a Greenwich Village bar called the Stonewall Inn.

Firefighter Beth Carroll and other members of the Bellingham Fire Department participate in the Pride Parade in 2017. The Fire Department has special Pride duty shirts that use the rainbow colors of the Pride flag.
Firefighter Beth Carroll and other members of the Bellingham Fire Department participate in the Pride Parade in 2017. The Fire Department has special Pride duty shirts that use the rainbow colors of the Pride flag.

Fleetwood discussed installation of a Pride-themed crosswalk on Cornwall Avenue, midway between Holly and Magnolia streets.

It could be the first of several crosswalks incorporating art and murals in neighborhoods across the city, according to a presentation at the council’s recent Committee of the Whole session.

City officials took care to say that the Pride flag, banners and crosswalk are part of city policy or “government speech,” and not a public forum open to all viewpoints.