A rainbow flag that hung from a fence on the Pasadena Buddhist Temple was set afire and burned, and police are investigating the incident.
“We’re taking it very significantly as a result of it’s an act of hate,” mentioned Gregory Gibbs, the temple’s resident minister. “We attempt to be peaceable and accepting, however we’re going to must be extra cautious now.”
The hand-painted satisfaction flag was made by native artists and had been displayed on the temple for the previous couple of years, Gibbs mentioned.
The burned remnants have been discovered by folks on the temple on Tuesday morning, he mentioned. As they have been cleansing up, a neighbor advised them she had doused the fireplace with a backyard hose at about 7 p.m. Monday however hadn’t seen who lighted it ablaze.
The satisfaction flag that was burned had been positioned on the wire fence together with a Black Lives Matter flag, which was untouched. Additionally unscathed have been one other rainbow flag and Black Lives Matter flag, which dangle from excessive on the temple’s picket gate.
“Nothing else within the neighborhood appears to have been torched that night time,” Gibbs mentioned, “so it appears to be a direct act of hate in opposition to LGBTQ folks, perhaps additionally in opposition to Buddhists.”
About two-thirds of the temple’s Buddhist neighborhood are Japanese People, Gibbs mentioned. He mentioned those that frequent the temple didn’t know if the flag was burned solely due to their help for the LGBTQ+ neighborhood “or as a result of most of us are Japanese, or if they only didn’t get round to burning the Black Lives Matter flag, and so they simply hate us as a result of we help anybody who’s marginalized or oppressed.”
The rainbow flag was burned greater than two weeks after an unidentified man got here to the temple complaining about each flags and asking that they be taken down, Gibbs mentioned. He mentioned these on the temple had a video of the person who got here on April 6, and so they shared it with police.
Police are treating the case as vandalism and arson, and investigating it as a doable hate crime, mentioned Lt. Monica Cuellar, spokesperson for the Pasadena police. She urged anybody with details about the person who complained concerning the flags to contact police.
Gibbs mentioned he anticipated the temple’s board members would resolve to place up one other satisfaction flag to interchange the one which was burned.
“We’re definitely not going to reverse our place,” Gibbs mentioned. “We’re not going to alter our coverage as a result of somebody does some harmful vandalism on our temple and expresses hate. We’re going to proceed simply as we have now.”
