Mount Airy Trinity Episcopal Church gets pride flag stolen twice in a week
A Mount Airy church has had its pride flags stolen twice in the span of a week. On Thursday
By Joshua Davis
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MOUNT AIRY, North Carolina (WXII) — A Mount Airy church has had its pride flags stolen twice in the span of a week. On Thursday, police say they arrested the person responsible.
Sarah Morris, the rector of Mount Airy Trinity Episcopal Church, says the congregation wasn’t really surprised their pride flag was stolen.
“It just makes us sad that somebody feels the need to do that,” she said.
For Pride Month, the church decided to hang a pride flag outside on their fence to send a message of love and support to LGBTQIA+ communities, but that flag was stolen twice.
A video shared on Facebook video showed someone ripping the second flag from the church’s fence Wednesday before taking off down the street.
“The whole point of putting the flag out is to is to share God’s love and to let people know that they’re loved, and welcomed and affirmed,” Morris said.” We made sure that our flag said everyone is welcome here, because that’s the message we wanted to get across.”
Mount Airy police confirmed Thursday that they arrested the person who took the flags.
They don’t intend to investigate the incident as a hate crime, and Trinity Episcopal Church doesn’t plan to press charges.
Morris says support came pouring in after the first flag was stolen and with them, more flags to hang up.
“I think we have maybe 20 [flags] now, it’s amazing,” she said. “[They’re] from all over the country, not just from here, which is amazing. One [is] from Canada and one from [is] Washington State. It’s kind of awesome that the message is spreading about God’s love.”
Morris also says she’s hoping to sit down with the person responsible.
“I would just like to talk to the person who did this,” she said. “To help them to understand where we’re coming from. You know we believe in forgiveness, and that’s what we want.”
Morris says the church remains committed to being an ally during Pride Month, and if another flag is taken, the church is ready to put another one up.
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