Ryan Gierach, whose harassment five years ago over his original rainbow flag began a series of San Pedro’s first Pride celebrations, suffered another hate-related attack on his flag on June 4.
The former owner-editor of WeHo News displayed a 6×10 foot rainbow flag at his apartment on the 600 block of 2nd St. steps off Gaffey St., to celebrate Pride Month, but days later found the flagpole broken and the flag gone.
Beginning when he moved to town from West Hollywood, Mr. Gierach’s neighbors targeted him with vandalism, battery and a smear campaign, culminating in a rainbow flag raising by then-council member Joe Buscaino, LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn and Congress member Nanette Barragán at San Pedro’s Welcome Park on his behalf to kick off Pride in 2018.
The following year, Bridge Cities Alliance leveraged that heightened awareness to put on Pride on the Port, the first San Pedro Pride event at the Battleship Iowa, bringing a crowd of nearly 5,000 celebrants according to estimates.
Asked for comment, Ryan Gierach said, “Gay people can buy as many flags as haters can tear down. LGBTQ people are no strangers to this. Look at how some people want to erase us, despite our children learning next to theirs. We live on, just as we are and not as some want us to live.”
Mr. Gierach filed a hate crime vandalism police report and the landlord seeks clues to the perpetrator’s identity through the surveillance footage.