For the second time in as many weeks, the Pride flag at Ladner United Church has been defaced.
In a Friday afternoon post on its Facebook page, Ladner United Church said that sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, our pride flag was defaced again with black spray paint.
“It's hard to put into words the emotions we're feeling, but sadness, frustration, and anger come to mind,” says Ladner United. “Anger might not seem like an appropriate response as a church, we're stereotypically supposed to be “nice” and happy, but seeing hate perpetuated over and over again against the pride flag and LGBTQ+ community of Delta is an issue of justice and righteous anger is a valid response.
“We are angry for the harm this causes to the queer community. We are angry for those whose safety is being threatened. We are angry that someone out there thinks it's okay to threaten and hurt others. We are angry.”
The church goes onto say that they won’t let the anger take over and bring us to places that are unhelpful or unloving.
“Instead, we'll use that anger for the flourishing of life, for supporting the Delta Pride Society and the LGBTQ+ of Delta. We'll use our anger to keep going. We will persist,” said Ladner United. “We'll be hanging a new flag in the coming week and, for now, we proudly have a Pride flag hung in our front window -- a donation from the Delta Police Department.
“A big thank you to the Delta Pride Society, who has shown so much love, shared in some tears, and has donated money for the new flag. We are so grateful for the work you do in this community.”
The Optimist has reached out to Delta Police for comment and will update this story as any new information becomes available.
