SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - More than a year after vandals repeatedly targeted a Pride banner, Ascension Lutheran Church in Allied Gardens has a new flagpole and Pride flag flying out front.
I first reported on the story last May, after video showed the banner at the church being torn down and run over — one of 3 similar incidents over a 5-month period.
Our stories helped spark a fundraising campaign that made the new flagpole possible.
For Pastor Rick Fry, the flag waving in front of his church is a symbol of a community coming together.
"I just feel pride myself, a love from the community," Fry said.
I first talked to Pastor Fry in May 2025, after their banner reading "Welcome, Inclusion and Celebration" was torn down, run over, and tossed outside a nearby school. Video showed a masked lookout nearby while two others tore down the framed banner. It was the second time in 3 months vandals had been caught on video targeting the banner.
"A lot of emotion and tears, felt like an attack on who we are as a community," Fry said last May.
The church repaired the banner, and the next month it was put back up — but 9 hours later, surveillance video captured three people, their faces hidden, climbing the wall and ripping down the banner. That banner was later found inside a nearby dumpster.
Youth leader Jennifer Gittings responded to the last incident in June 2025.
"We're not going to let fear win. We will come back with a message of love and acceptance," Gittings said in that interview.
After our stories aired, donations poured into a GoFundMe campaign set up for the church.
"It means a lot to us, I'm really grateful," Fry said.
A year later, those donations turned into a new flagpole and Pride flag, raised last week.
"Sends a message that hate will have no place here, that all people are loved," Fry said. "We're not going to be afraid, continue to offer our welcome.”
The flag raising comes weeks before the church's Pride festivities. Pastor Fry says the Pride flag will be flown year-round.
"We want this to be a symbol portrayed through the year, for people to know they are loved and cared for," Fry said.
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