Following impassioned pleas from high schoolers, Los Gatos agrees to raise Progress Pride Flag

The Town of Los Gatos will raise a Progress Pride Flag during the month of June this year, after Council approved a Flag Policy update and a Pride Flag resolution, following heartfelt public comments from a contingent of local high schoolers on Tuesday night.

Unlike the significant opposition expressed during the prior meeting on the subject, this time, the vast majority of statements were in support of the plan to hoist the rainbow colors.

“I was really confident we would get this passed,” said Lee Cummings, a 16-year-old junior at Los Gatos high school. “I’m just really excited that it actually did happen.”

The first step was for the Council to consider a Flag Policy update, to add the ability to raise commemorative flags.

Staff recommended these rules: A display must be initiated by a Councilmember; approval must occur by a resolution of the Council; the resolution must confirm it’s a form of government speech—and is consistent with the Town’s strategic priorities; it can only occur at a single flagpole at Town Hall; flying the flag is limited to a period no more than 31 consecutive days; and each flag-raising requires a separate Council approval.

A local resident who introduced himself as “Captain Seuss” wore a bicorn hat with a white feather and said he thought, if the Council was going to allow different flags to be flown, that they should fly a pirate’s insignia first.

No one else spoke before the public comment period was closed, but high school students began to filter in from the stormy outdoors, preparing themselves for the next item.

Vice Mayor Maria Ristow—noting that the Council is now using Judge Dave Rosenberg’s “Rosenberg’s Rules of Order”—offered a motion to kick off the discussion.

“I think this is a great idea,” she said. “We certainly have heard from our community that we would want to have the opportunity to raise the Pride Flag.”

Councilmember Matthew Hudes said, while he’s supportive of raising the Progress Pride Flag, he wanted to make sure the Flag Policy itself is something that will stand the test of time.

“One of the challenges of flying something other than an official state or other municipal flag is determining whether that represents the sentiment of the community or the will of the community,” he said. “And sometimes it’s tough to tell.”

He wondered if it might be worth requiring a supermajority—but that didn’t take hold.

Councilmember Mary Badame—who voted against updating the flag policy in December—said there “could be an equity issue” if you opt to fly the flag of one group over another. She said opening up a Town flagpole to commemorative flags could bring out divisiveness in the community. Then, she remained silent.

With Mayor Rob Moore an enthusiastic “aye” from the get-go, once again it was Councilmember Rob Rennie who was most on the fence.

“As I said last time, I have lots of concerns about using the flag pole for…government speech,” Rennie said. “We need to try to keep the government to the basic services.”

Agreeing to fly one flag vs. another is kind of like picking winners and losers, he mused.

“I think that’s an area that the Town should not be going into,” he said, almost hinting he might be leaning towards opposing the Pride Flag plan. “We need to be fair to everybody.”

(Though he did say it could be fun to allow a sister municipality’s flag to flutter in these Silicon Valley reaches.)

Because Rennie decided to abstain from the Flag Policy vote, it resulted in a unique 3-1-1 decision. That set the stage for the Pride Flag discussion. Meaning: though it seemed likely the resolution would pass, it wasn’t obvious how clear of a message the Council—which appears to have no appetite for explicitly restricting ICE from using Town facilities (in contrast with some neighbors)—wanted to send on another signature progressive priority.

The staff report looked at 10 neighboring jurisdictions, though it didn’t examine what’s been going on next door in Santa Cruz County.

Staff found five municipalities (Milpitas, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, San Jose and Sunnyvale) have formalized Pride flag displays via Council resolution or an annual commemorative flag calendar—where the Pride or Progress Pride flag-raising is authorized by formal Council action and is limited in duration and location.

Three communities (Gilroy, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills) allow commemorative or ceremonial flags by Council resolution, but it doesn’t happen automatically.

Santa Clara limits flag displays to governmental and narrowly-defined ceremonial flags approved by resolution (a Pride Flag isn’t part of its base policy).

Meanwhile, Campbell doesn’t allow commemorative flags on flagpoles; but it does mark Pride Month annually, including by decorating its water tower in support of the LGBT+ community.

The Los Gatos resolution notes “the first Pride flag was created by American artist and gay rights activist Gilbert Baker in 1978” and that “the Progress Pride Flag, designed by Daniel Quasar in 2018, adds a chevron of black, brown, light blue, pink, and white stripes to the standard six-color Rainbow Flag to represent marginalized people of color, trans individuals, and those living with HIV/AIDS”.

It states a Progress Pride Flag display “constitutes government speech in that the history and symbolism of the flag constitute a message of inclusion, equity, and diversity” and that “the display of this flag is consistent with the Town’s 2025-2027 strategic priority to ‘Ensure all residents and visitors feel a sense of belonging in Los Gatos, maintaining and enhancing the Town as a welcoming, family-oriented, safe, and inclusive community, and does not convey any message promoting religion, political candidates, or commercial transactions.’”

During verbal communications, Elijah Asheghian, a junior at Los Gatos High School, said many transgender youths have considered suicide, and argued raising the Progress Pride Flag would be a positive thing to do to support their mental health.

“This is just a flag,” he said. “No one is going to become gay because of a flag.”

Terry Hernandez, the president of Pride Social South County, said the rainbow flag represents inclusivity.

“This is not a political statement to raise the Pride Flag,” she said. “You’re showing that they’re also part of the community.”

NUMU boardmember Jan Schwartz, who noted she’s not speaking on behalf of that institution, said she has a grandchild who is transgender.

“It’s a little hard to accept,” she admitted, but added that she’s very supportive of their transition because she knows her grandchild is “in their happy place.”

“Captain Seuss” returned to the podium, this time in a red ballcap, introducing himself as “Gus Who”. He said the hearing wasn’t properly advertised, and suggested this might be why the opposing voices of the previous hearing weren’t at this meeting.

(Lynley Kerr Hogan, who often makes unprompted comments against the trans community at Council, told the Los Gatan said she agrees some who might’ve liked to attend didn’t know about the meeting. She only heard about it the day of—but made a conscious decision not to go. “I’ve spoken my truth, and I know God would never want this,” she said.)

“Gus Who” also theorized that Mayor Rob Moore was behind getting teenagers to advocate for the Pride Flag.

“You’re using high school kids, and they’re threatening people,” he said. “You don’t use kids that way.”

Chesle Bae, an LGHS senior, said in her work as a nursing assistant she’s seen how some of the area’s most advanced-in-years are only now coming out of the closet after keeping their true identities hidden for decades.

Sue Ann Lorig, who’s been trying to convince the Council to raise a Pride Flag since at least last June, was back, calling it “just such a simple thing to do.”

It was the public comments from 16-year-old Siyona Singhal, an 11^th Grader, that seemed to have played the biggest role in shifting the balance of power, however slightly.

Considering her personal experience, it’s a little ridiculous to claim that homophobia isn’t a serious problem in Los Gatos, she said.

“How can anyone truly believe that?” she asked rehetorically, thinking back to negative comments she encountered while in 7^th Grade. “I never felt truly comfortable, or truly myself.”

Luckily, she added, she was invited to a Club 41 meeting at her school’s wellness center, she said, explaining that’s a place she’d go to play board games or the piano. She talked about the time they created a pro-LGBT+ poster that was later vandalized. This, she recalled, was crushing.

“Out of fear we never signed another poster,” she said.

Singhal called out the fact that Los Gatos leaders love to make vague statements like “You Belong in Los Gatos” (referring to banners hung around town), but hasn’t wanted to actually raise a Pride Flag officially as a municipality.

“You owe it to the underrepresented LGBTQ youth in Los Gatos,” she said. “They deserve more than slogans and surface-level support.”

As she began to walk away, Councilmember Rennie called her back up.

“I come from a different generation,” he told her, noting that he has a brother and a step-daughter who are gay; he said he worries flying a Pride Flag might do more harm than good.

“Why is it important that the Town flies the flag?” he asked, sharing he’s afraid it could “bring out more hate against the community” she wants to support.

Singhal was not expecting to be put on the spot like that. But she rose to the occasion.

“It was scary,” she said afterwards, thinking of the teachable moment for Rennie, “—especially when he asked me a question.”

She took a beat, and then began.

“It’s a loaded question, but I’ll try my best,” she said.

Singhal painted a picture of kids walking through town to grab a bite to eat. Seeing a rainbow flag would help combat negative attitudes that can make some kids—who in terms of their identity are not in the majority—feel so small.

“It felt really good to get up there and say something important, and share an important perspective,” she told the Los Gatan.

Lee Cummings said she was a little nervous to speak in front of Council, too.

“It was a little scary. I’m not very good at public speaking,” she said. But, she added, “I had something to say.”

Cummings said when she was attending Dave’s Elementary her aunt was evicted from her apartment in Sacramento for hanging a Pride Flag out her window.

She started getting emotional recounting how that discrimination was confusing to her for a long time, since the environment she’d been raised in here had been so supportive.

“I’d never been afraid to love, like my aunt had,” she said. “My teachers, and my neighbors, and my camp counselors made sure of that.”

But, she continued, that’s changed—as America appears to be heading down a darker path.

“I don’t feel that kindness anymore,” she said. “We are going backwards into hate and fear. And I can see it in the whispers in my school hallways, and in the looks my friends and my neighbors and I receive from people who used to be kind. So, today I’m asking this community to show us that they care, and to place value on the diversity that makes this town beautiful. But most of all, I’m asking them—and I’m asking you—to choose kindness. Because the only thing…that’s stronger than hate is love.”

Ultimately, Rob Rennie decided to join Hudes, Ristow and Moore in support of a Progress Pride Flag-raising in June, meaning just Badame voted against.

“I’m really glad we were able to convince Rennie,” said Asheghian.

Cummings said it ended up being quite a positive experience to share her story in Council Chambers.

“I felt heard,” she said.