Pride flags flying outside a church in the western suburbs of Houston were torn down recently — for the tenth time in two years.
“Our flags have been taken down again,” said Heather Tolleson, head pastor at First Christian Church (FCC) in Katy, Texas, in a charitable description of the event video posted to TikTok. “It’s okay, we’re out here hanging them back up. We will continue to put up flags, over and over and over again.”
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“It really started during Pride Month a couple years ago, and then here and there on occasion,” Tolleson told the Houston Chronicle. “But now it’s just picked up. Whenever somebody feels the need, they just go out and tear them.”
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Tolleson describes the repeated vandalism, which has been caught on security cameras, as a “crime of convenience.” Sometimes, flags are stolen around big events, like drag bingos or Katy Pride, which the church sponsors. Other times, it’s random.
No suspects have been identified or apprehended.
In 2022, FCC’s drag bingo event, which the church throws to raise to raise money for programs like their gender-affirming Transparent Closet, was the target of an anti-drag protest that saw hundreds of gun-wielding protestors with Nazi flags descend on the church.
Since then, FCC, a member of the progressive Protestant denomination the Disciples of Christ, has endured repeated assaults.
In 2017, FCC voted to become “open and affirming,” which they define as welcoming “persons of all gender expressions and sexual orientations to the table of Christ’s communion.”
The church is outspoken in its support for the LGBTQ+ community, with nine different flags flying outside, including two large rainbow flags — one declaring “America says yes to equality” — and others representing different identities on the LGBTQ+ spectrum.
FCC is the only LGBTQ+-friendly church in the area.
“Not only are members of the LGBTQ community welcome here, but they can fully participate in the life of the church in any way,” said church elder Chris Nelson. “We don’t believe that it’s sinful for someone to be gay or to be trans or anything like that.”
“FCC Katy truly believes that Jesus calls us into faith in order to be justice brokers, because that’s just core to who we are,” Tolleson said. “We say the first commandment, the greatest commandment of all, is to love others as you love yourself. Well, there’s no other way to put that out there other than by example, right?”
Pastor Tolleson said the attacks have garnered a huge amount of support from community members, as well as churches in the area, in particular, with donations of Pride flags. They have so many, she said, there’s a stockpile ready for the next time vandals attack.
“It will never get us down. You can steal all the flags that you want. We will constantly put them back up,” Tolleson said. “We’re just going to keep doing what we’ve been called to do in this community, no matter the difficulty that we have.”
