Coming into work early this morning, I noticed something quite different on downtown Spokane’s Main Street. Normally, the street is lined with U.S. flags flying from lampposts placed about 40 or 50 feet apart. This morning, however, I saw that those flags had been replaced with the rainbow gay pride flag — all of them.

Here’s a photo of just one of those flags, put up in front of the Apple store on Main Street:

But that’s not all.

I also noticed that gay pride banners were also posted along the street:

Perhaps it’s in preparation for this, which I will certainly avoid…

Anchoring the rugged, hilly terrain of eastern Washington, the city of Spokane (population 209,000) is – with Boise, Idaho – one of the two largest cities of the inland Northwest. As with the rest of this region, and in contrast with Seattle, Portland, and parts of the Northwest closer to the Pacific, this lumber and trading center just 20 miles from the Idaho border is relatively conservative. But also like just about every urban center in the West, it’s becoming steadily more diverse, and its gay community is quite active and dynamic. Each year in early June, the city hosts the Spokane Gay Pride Parade and Rainbow Festival – this year Spokane Pride takes place on Saturday, June 11, 2016.

Events kick off at noon on Saturday with the Spokane Gay Pride Parade, which begins at Wall Street and Main Avenue, following a loop through downtown, and then working north toward the city’s beautifully developed riverfront to Gondola Meadows. This is the site of the Spokane Gay Pride Rainbow Festival, which starts at 12:30 pm and includes entertainment, a community and vendor fair, and food.

What gets me, though, is the fact that the rainbow flag wasn’t put up with the U.S. flag, it REPLACED the Stars and Stripes.

Excuse me? Are these people Americans first, or gay first and Americans second?

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