by Scott Lerner | Special to the Courier

A small Pride flag — a symbol of respect for and solidarity with the LBGTQ+ community — waves alongside an American flag in front of the Village home Rose Wallace shares with her dad. With the Volkswagen van parked out front and aromatic blooming lavender and sage, it’s a common scene in the neighborhood.

“I remember exactly when I got the flag and why I put it up,” said Wallace. In late 2023 she was in Lake Arrowhead for a birthday celebration. She and some friends walked into a restaurant, Spade and Spatula, and were delighted to see it was “covered in Pride flags.” They learned the flags were the restaurant’s response to the killing of Lauri Carleton that took place the previous summer near Lake Arrowhead, reportedly over her display of Pride flags at her place of business.

As lifelong Claremont resident and regular commuter to Los Angeles, Pride flags weren’t new to Wallace. But something about the restaurant’s display of solidarity and resistance to fear signaled the extent to which the community could — and did — make a statement of support.

On her way out of the restaurant, free Pride flags were being offered. Though Wallace describes herself as “a little self-conscious making any sort of statement,” she took one. And, two years later it still flies at her Claremont home.

The flag, she said, has the potential to send an important message to the community: “You’re welcome here. You’re safe here.”

Wallace isn’t alone. Pride flags are visible across Claremont, and not just now during June, Pride Month, or on Pride Day, June 28. Many have been up for years and fly year-round.

Susan Castle, a Claremont resident since 1994 and former preschool teacher, first displayed hers in 2021 as a show of solidarity with another resident whose flag had been vandalized.

Together with other members of the Facebook group Claremont Connects, Castle helped order, sell (at cost), and distribute some 200 Pride flags throughout the community. Coming out of 2020’s COVID-related isolation, the combined effort provided rare moments of connection and support.

Castle isn’t sure how many of the 200 flags remain on display in Claremont. But the memory of coming together in 2021 is vivid. The collective effort “strengthened friendships and led to new connections,” she said.

Other Claremonters described their Pride flags as something they want to display in uncertain times. One Village resident, a recent graduate of a master’s program in Claremont, said the flag represented both this notion and a visual, tangible way of supporting of their housemates, some of whom identify as queer.

Gary Geiman’s Pride flag is one of many on view at Pilgrim Place. Geiman, 72, a retired United Methodist Church pastor, moved to the retirement community in 2023. The motivation, he said, was wanting to live in a “community that was inclusive, affirming, and open to everybody.”

Geiman worked primarily in rural, conservative settings in Montana and the Dakotas, where he often encountered tension surrounding the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in congregations and leadership. He recalled a “watershed moment” in the 1980s: One day, he walked into bible study to find the discussion focused on a national news story about gay activists demonstrating for, in his view, basic human rights. His congregants did not agree, and the fervency of the disagreement mirrored a larger, ongoing debate within the church community, both locally and nationally.

“These are wonderful people,” Geiman said. “We just happen to disagree about this.” The debate has been challenging and at times exhausting, but it hasn’t left him of his wife discouraged or disillusioned. “We’ve spent our lives trying move people to be more inclusive,” he said.

A few blocks north, Wallace said, “We need to be as visible and supportive as possible to communities that are being actively harmed.”

Geiman sees the Pride flag as a statement of support and the potential for unity.

“I display an American flag, too,” he said, “not because everything is perfect as it is, but because of what I hope it can be.”