Doylestown LGBTQ community undeterred after Pride flag stolen: "We love them more than they hate us"
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- Police in Bucks County are searching for whoever stole a Pride flag from Doylestown Borough's Monument Square.
The flag was raised on June 1 to commemorate the start of Pride Month.
"Someone attempted to attack LGBTQ visibility and Pride and love," said Marlene Pray, who is the director of The Rainbow Room and a member of the Doylestown Pride Festival Committee.
Central Bucks Police say just before 2 a.m. on June 13, someone cut the rope holding both the Pride flag and an American flag. A person then stole the Pride flag and left the American flag on the sidewalk before taking off on a motorcycle.
Pray said this is the seventh known vandalism of a Pride flag in the borough in the last year.
Last June, CBS News Philadelphia reported on rainbow flags being stolen outside Evolution Candy on nearby State Street along with Volume One Hair Salon on Oakland Avenue.
"The Doylestown Pride Festival that works with the borough on raising the flag has already ordered two replacements in anticipation that if it happens again. It will just be a matter of minutes or hours that we are hanging our Pride flag high again," Pray said.
Pray said security has been increased for events across the area during Pride Month. But she also emphasized that love always wins.
"We love them more than they hate us," Pray said. "It doesn't matter how many times you vandalize a flag. We are here. We are part of the neighborhood and community. We're your neighbors and family and friends, and we're not going anywhere."
Anyone with information about the theft is asked to call Central Bucks Police at 215-345-4143 or email Detective Sergeant Darien Derstine at dderstine@cbrpd.net.