West Hollywood Removes Rainbow Flag from City Hall

West Hollywood, the autonomous, gay-friendly city surrounded by Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, shocked many recently when the city council unanimously decided to remove a rainbow flag from city hall.

WeHo already famously features rainbow crosswalks, as well as rainbow flags in its traffic medians. But the city, created in 1984 by gay rights supporters and rental rights advocates, "belongs to heterosexual people as well [as LGBT], and City Hall belongs to everybody in this community, gay or straight," according to councilmember John Duran.

City Hall, located on a stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard saturated with gay bars and LGBT-owned restaurants, will now only fly the U.S., California, and West Hollywood flags. Meanwhile, the man who donated the rainbow flag to the city is asking for it back. Read more here.