Olympia paints transgender flag colors on crosswalks for Pride Month

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Olympia is painting Transgender Flag colors on two crosswalks at 5th Avenue and Washington Street in preparation for Pride Month in June.

The project is part of the city’s support for the LGBTQ+ community "as a way of standing with transgender communities at a time when they have been specifically targeted with harmful legislation and an increase in hate crimes.”

Commemoration event

The commemoration event for the crosswalks is going to be on Saturday, June 3, at 1 p.m., on 5th Avenue between Washington and Franklin Streets.

The festivities include community members and city officials that are expected to speak at the event and the public invited to attend.

Roads will be closed from noon to 3 p.m.

“The City of Olympia has a long-standing history of celebrating and supporting LGBTQA+ communities,” explained the city in its press release.

Olympia also pointed out that it has been a long-standing supporter of the LGBTQA+ community, hosting the Capital City Pride celebrations from the beginning until the present, implementing gay-inclusive policies and programs, designating LGBTQA+ police liaisons, and flying the rainbow flag over city hall during Pride Month.

Questions and concerns can be addressed to Strategic Communications Director Kellie Purce Braseth at 360.753.8361 or kbraseth@ci.olympia.wa.us.

Comments

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  • rubinken

    As a straight white guy I am so glad that Olympia is doing this. We all need to counter the hate and intolerances happening around us. Kudos for Olympia!!

    Thursday, May 25, 2023 Report this

  • Honestyandrealityguy

    Sad times when "normal" people are harassed. Everyone can make choices, including normal people.

    Thursday, May 25, 2023 Report this

  • Callie

    I like it. It's festive, and we want celebrations!

    Friday, May 26, 2023 Report this

  • Seth682

    City of Olympia celebrates mental illness.

    Friday, May 26, 2023 Report this

  • FordPrefect

    “Sexual history?”

    “Epic and private.” -Ron Swanson

    I don’t want to know what choices some people are making with regards to their sexuality.

    And who paid for this project? I hear our fire department is underfunded, maybe we shouldn’t be wasting resources on pastel crosswalks.

    Friday, May 26, 2023 Report this

  • KinesthesiaAmnesia

    There are rights and privileges not given to many members of the LGBTQIA+ community in America, even in our own little Thurston County. Lack of recognition for LGBTQIA+ people impacts their ability to access and enjoy the same rights and privileges everyone else gets. The least we can do to recognize, heck maybe even show we actually care, is to paint a sidewalk fun colors for a month?

    Friday, May 26, 2023 Report this

  • FordPrefect

    KinesthesiaAmnesia,

    Which rights and privileges are you referring to?

    I’m not aware of any laws that discriminate based on one’s sexual preference. If anything, the LGBT crowd is getting more attention/consideration than everyone else.

    My questions are:

    What did this cost? And who paid for it?

    If by donations, then I truly don’t care…

    If by tax revenue/general funds, then I maintain that the city should concern itself with providing essential services, nothing more.

    We have an underfunded fire department, underpaid teachers, full jails, graffiti everywhere, and unhoused drug addicts who defecate in alleyways downtown.

    So we paint sidewalks because needs of the few outweigh those of the many? Why is our local government spending our money to dilly-dally with meaningless gestures. I’d wager that project was at least $2000 that could have been used more wisely.

    Saturday, May 27, 2023 Report this

  • TonyW33

    FordPerfect,

    Two crosswalks on a single downtown street corner for one month at a cost of (by your "estimate") 0.000011236% of the annual budget for all city services is insignificant. We celebrate diversity here as others elsewhere might as well. This $2.000 is a miniscule price to pay to remind folks that LGBTQA+ citizens are among us and deserve to be counted as contributing members of our society. Now I know that in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and other states, they are determined to not only forget that obvious fact but to eliminate these people from society if possible. Folks, from what I have read, are leaving those places seeking a better place to live. The roads that those folks are using to travel to here and other more progressive locales have travel lanes in the other direction too. Maybe you and a few others should consider what kind of society suits you better. I support diversity of political opinion as well as diversity in all social matters but bigotry and such are not worthy of my recognition.

    Sunday, May 28, 2023 Report this

  • FordPrefect

    Tony,

    You probably missed the message because you had assumed that I’m on team “red”. I appreciate you calling me a bigot and implying that I should move away. Now take a deep breath and collect yourself, I’m probably not the racist, right-wing transphobe you were hoping for... so pretend I’m your next door neighbor and that we have a common interest in our city government prioritizing resources for the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

    Of course transgender people exist, but maybe it’s ridiculous to keep drawing attention to it.

    Our town has plenty of pressing issues, but a lack of recognition for the LGBT community certainly isn’t one of them. This was another example of our city leaders throwing money at solutions without problems. I’m sure the transgender folks in our community would happily have foregone a couple festive sidewalks if they knew that money could have fed a hungry family for months.

    P.S. You may want to check your math… if our annual budget is $17.8B then you can paint all the crosswalks you want. So you’re off by a couple orders of magnitude…. percentages can be confusing and third grade math was a long time ago.

    P.P.S. I regret guessing at the cost of the project. Bottom line, it wasn’t free.

    Monday, May 29, 2023 Report this