Logan • Logan Pride board member Sawyer Berggren arrived at the nonprofit’s Pride House last month to a distressing sight: The two pride flags that were on display in front of the home, signaling a safe space for queer members of the Cache Valley community, had been cut from their poles.
In the distance, Berggren spotted the severed rainbow flags lying in the field of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Logan Tabernacle.
All he could think was, “Not again.”
“It seemed placed there on purpose,” Berggren said. “It was pretty out in the open.”
The vandalism occurred amid what Berggren described as a surge of pride flags being stolen from homes in Logan. While Berggren said he hasn’t experienced someone cutting his flags before, he has had three pride flags stolen from outside his home this summer, and he said he knows many others who have experienced the same.
Each time a flag was stolen, Berggren replaced it, only to find it gone within days or a week. The experience has left him both frustrated and confused, but also empowered to keep putting up flags.
“I am a real person,” he said. “The people who you’re stealing these flags from are all individual human beings with our own thoughts and feelings. And ultimately, we all just want love.”
(Clarissa Casper | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Pride House in Logan.
Dorothy Wallis, president of Logan Pride, said the fact that the house’s flags were physically cut is one of the most concerning parts of the theft.
“It just gives that kind of feeling of lack of safety,” she said. “With the scissors or a knife or whatever it is. That just has a little bit more connotation to it than just stealing it off the pole.”
Logan resident Connie McDonald said she had a pride flag stolen from her property twice in the past two weeks. Like Berggren, she replaced the missing flag only to have the replacement stolen just days later.
McDonald’s latest replacement was placed in better view of her home’s security cameras and covered with messages to the perpetrators, such as “You are lovable” and “Love is not bred from fear.”
No matter how many times her flags get stolen, she said she plans to replace them.
“I’ll keep one behind the window so there’s always inclusion,” she said. “But I want there to be something flying physically so that there’s a reminder like, while Pride Month exists for a month, the pride that we want to express should be there year-round.”
Logan City Police Department Assistant Chief Curtis Hooley believes pride flag vandalism and thefts are significantly underreported. This year, he said, seven flags have been reported stolen and three damaged.
In one of those reported cases, a pair of minors were caught, he said. However, for all the other cases, the authorities have no suspects identified.
Hooley said these acts are classified as hate crimes and warned that those caught will face consequences, including misdemeanor charges.
“All that does is divide us as a people,” Hooley said, “when we take away the right of one individual to express their opinion about something.”