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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