{"id":19626,"date":"2026-06-04T17:17:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T17:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=19626"},"modified":"2026-06-04T17:18:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T17:18:00","slug":"toledo-raises-the-gay-pride-flag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/04\/toledo-raises-the-gay-pride-flag\/","title":{"rendered":"Toledo Raises the Gay Pride Flag"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-19627 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Mayor-Wade-Kapszukiewicz-expresses-the-significance-of-love-300x175.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"175\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Mayor-Wade-Kapszukiewicz-expresses-the-significance-of-love-300x175.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Mayor-Wade-Kapszukiewicz-expresses-the-significance-of-love-370x216.jpg 370w, https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Mayor-Wade-Kapszukiewicz-expresses-the-significance-of-love.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>The Truth Staff<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For the ninth year, the Gay Pride flag was raised at One Government Center as city and county leaders praised this area\u2019s acceptance of diversity, the commitment residents have shown to love each other and the pledge to fight for the principles Toledoans believe in.<\/p>\n<p>Pride, love and respect for each other was the message of the day as the area\u2019s elected officials reaffirmed their commitment to equality and diversity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do this for one solid good reason, because Toledo is a welcoming place,\u201d said Toledo City Councilman Nick Komives as he opened the flag raising event. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what your background is, we want you to thrive, we want you to live here, we want you to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz reinforced that theme as he spoke of the importance of love. \u201cI don\u2019t know anyone who thinks that the problem with this world is that there is too much love,\u201d he said and then quoted the John Lennon\/Beatles song, \u201cAll You Need Is Love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-19628 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Lucas-County-Commissioners-Anite-Lopez-and-Pete-Gerken-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Lucas-County-Commissioners-Anite-Lopez-and-Pete-Gerken-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Lucas-County-Commissioners-Anite-Lopez-and-Pete-Gerken-370x246.jpg 370w, https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Lucas-County-Commissioners-Anite-Lopez-and-Pete-Gerken.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>\u201cI\u2019m proud of this community,\u201d said Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken as he spoke of the many years he has witnessed the area\u2019s commitment to equal rights and that commitment to continue fighting for equal rights should it become necessary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI stand here proudly with the members of our community \u2013 we\u2019re not going backwards, not backing down. We stand with each other and, if we have to, we are going to fight like hell,\u201d said Gerken.<\/p>\n<p>That message was echoed by his fellow commissioners Lisa Sobecki and Anita Lopez, who not only expressed a willingness to stand by the gay community but also observed that it was a wonderful opportunity to be able to do so.<\/p>\n<p>Two consequential amendments to the Ohio constitution will soon be voted on by the Ohio General Assembly. One is an equal rights amendment, the second is a right to marry amendment \u2013 in case the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the Obergfell decision which provided federal protection for same sex marriages.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-19630\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_5589-300x216.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_5589-300x216.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_5589-347x250.jpg 347w, https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_5589.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Truth Staff For the ninth year, the Gay Pride flag was raised at One Government Center as city and county leaders praised this area\u2019s acceptance of diversity, the commitment residents have shown to love each other and the pledge to fight for the principles Toledoans believe in. Pride, love and respect for each other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19629,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[350],"class_list":["post-19626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19631,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19626\/revisions\/19631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19626"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=19626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}