I say this as a proud gay man, a husband, a father, and a grandfather: America is greatest not because we are the same, but because we are different and still choose one another.
Donald Trump ordered the removal of the Pride flag from the Stonewall National Monument. That act is not neutral. It is erasure. Stonewall is the birthplace of a movement born from criminalization, police abuse, and state-sanctioned shame. Taking down that flag sends a clear message: some histories are optional, some people expendable.
This decision fits Trumpโs broader effort to dismantle equality by treating recognition as dangerous and difference as a threat. That mindset always puts due process next on the chopping block. You do not defend the Constitution by narrowing who it protects.
Iโve seen this same impulse play out locally. In Oceanside, City Councilmember Jimmy Figueroa voted to remove the Pride flag, claiming it was in the โcommunityโs best interest.โ Too often, that phrase means protecting comfort over respecting existence. Erasing people is never in the communityโs best interest.
Iโve also seen what courage looks like. In La Mesa, we fought to raise the Pride flag, and it still flies today. Nothing was lost. Something honest was gained.
Respecting others, protecting equality, and refusing to erase people is not political theater. It is the minimum standard of a free society. History does not disappear because Donald Trump or local politicians take down a flag. It only exposes those who are afraid of the truth.
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