Pride Flag Is Raised over Santa Barbara City Hall for First Time

Gathered on the steps of City Hall, dozens of members and allies of Santa Barbara’s LGBTQ+ community embraced and celebrated Monday’s historic act of raising of the rainbow flag above City Hall, all while waiving their own miniature pride flags. 

After a resolution introduced by the Pacific Pride Foundation was passed on July 28, City Council unanimously approved the first-ever flying of the pride flag in De la Guerra Plaza for the month of August, kicking off the foundation’s 2026 Pride Week in Santa Barbara.

“We have stood with our transgender community, our elders, our families, and so many who need to know that they are not alone, and 51 years later, we are still here doing the work,” said Julio Roman, executive director of the Pacific Pride Foundation, at Monday’s flag-raising.

His organization provides thousands of Santa Barbara community members with health, prevention, advocacy, and social service programs each year. 

Monday’s event was a collaboration between the City Council, Pacific Pride Foundation, PFLAG Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Transgender Advocacy Network, YouthWell, and the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara.

“At a time when LGBTQ people — particularly our transgender community — continue to face attacks on their dignity, their rights, and their very existence. This is why, more than ever, this flag-raising means so much, because this flag is more than colors and fabric,” said Roman.

First created by artist Gilbert Baker in 1978, the Rainbow Pride Flag has been an overarching symbol of LGBTQ recognition and equal rights movement for more than four decades. The original design featured nine stripes of different colors, but due to manufacturing issues and a high demand for pride flags after the assassination of Harvey Milk in November 1978, the traditional pride flag as it is known today features just six rainbow colors.

In 2000, a new flag created by Daniel Quaser and coined the Progress Pride Flag was popularized, featuring the same six rainbow stripes, with the addition of a triangular stripe pattern of white, pink, and light blue to represent the trans community, brown to represent communities of color, and a black stripe to honor the thousands in the community who died in the HIV/AIDS crisis. 

The Progress Pride Flag was hoisted up the flag pole by Bryan Latchford, the City’s public information officer, and is currently flying over the lawn of De la Guerra Plaza. 

The Progress Pride Flag was hoisted up the flag pole by Bryan Latchford, the City’s Public Information Officer | Credit: Elaine Sanders

“Today, flying over our city has become a statement and a symbol. You belong here. You are valued here, and your story is a part of the Santa Barbara story,” said Roman. 

According to the July resolution, the flying of the flag “is an expression of the City’s own official message of inclusion, equality, and support for LGBTQ+ residents, and not an invitation for private parties to use City flagpoles as a forum for private expression.”

For Meara Aubin and Michelle Lauren, it is important for their 8-year-old daughter, Era Lauren, to see the Santa Barbara community support not just LGBTQ+ people but also families. 

In the midst of talking with an Independent reporter, Police Chief Kelly Gordon knelt down and started talking with Era, giving her a SBPD badge sticker. “Just so you know, my kiddos have two moms too,” said Gordon.

“That’s exactly it, right there. Representation,” said Aubin. “This is just a reminder that her city, where she lives, supports our community and that there are other families like ours.”

Although the flag will not be flying though the entirety of August, as outlined in the July resolution, it will be up during Santa Barbara’s Pride Week hosted by Pacific Pride and through the annual Pacific Pride Festival, which will be held at Chase Palm Park Field on Saturday, August 22, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Headliner Ada Vox, as well as 2026 Royalty of Pride Winner and Santa Barbara’s own Jaundice Joplin (of BARBARA fame), will be performing.