On Thursday, the city of Winston-Salem’s Facebook page briefly updated their profile photo to display their logo atop a Progress Pride flag — one whose design with the traditional rainbow flag has been slightly altered with arrow-shaped lines to include LGBTQIA+ communities of color and the transgender community. The photo was abruptly removed about an hour later. 

Now, in response to criticism from many in the community, the city has released two statements that apologize for the removal of the photo as well as a declaration of support for Pride month. The profile picture for the city’s Facebook remains the generic city logo. The banner image shows a Pride progress flag.

On Friday morning, a post apologizing for removing the photo was released by the city. The full statement reads: “The city apologizes for the hurt that was created yesterday among members of the LGBTQ+ community when an unauthorized version of the city logo with a Pride background was briefly posted on our Facebook page and then removed. We should have immediately posted an explanation of why we replaced the logo and stated that the city fully supports Pride Month. We mishandled the situation and regret it.”

In an interview with TCB on Thursday evening, the city’s first openly gay councilmember Kevin Mundy said: “That’s a crappy excuse.”

Mundy said that one of the reasons he ran for office was because “we had not had someone looking out for the gay community.” Mundy added that he was “perturbed” by the way the situation was handled.

On social media, the city has received a lot of pushback for their apparent retraction of the profile picture. Many called the city’s decision “pathetic” and “cowardly.”

A statement posted on the city’s Facebook page on Thursday reads, “In addition to being Pride Month, June is also recognized as PTSD Awareness Month, Gun National Violence Awareness Month and Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month, among others. As a matter of fairness we cannot promote one cause over the others through our logo.” 

Later in the day on Friday, the city’s Human Relations Commission released the following statement that then appears to reiterate the importance of Pride month despite its Facebook post from Thursday.

In full, the statement reads as follows:

“The City of Winston-Salem Human Relations Commission (HRC) celebrates the diverse designations of various populations of our community during the month of June. One such designation is Pride Month, which recognizes the contributions from and inclusion of our LGBTQIA+ community, as reflected in the annual city-issued proclamation. The HRC is a proud sponsor of the Pride banner, displayed on the City Hall front lawn, and the upcoming Pride street mural installation, at Sixth and Trade streets, in downtown Winston-Salem. The HRC will also continue the tradition of being a sponsor of our local Pride Festival, as we have for the past 10 years. These outreach activities are all consistent with the city’s enforcement of our non-discrimination ordinances, which prohibit discrimination in employment and public accommodations based on 17 legally protected classes of persons, including sexual orientation, gender expression, and gender identity.”

Series: Winston-Salem Pride

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