A Shirtless, Masked Man Tried to Steal a Pride Flag — And Failed

A man who attempted to steal a Pride flag flying in front of an Arizona home quickly discovered that he was no match for the two lesbians who lived there.

The shirtless man, appropriately wearing a pink shirt wrapped around his head as a pitiful disguise, attempted to rip down the flag from the Phoenix home, but the owners had anticipated such hateful actions and secured the flag with carabiners and screwing posts.

"Kid tries and fails to steal my Pride flag," wrote TikTok user @leftovergains last week.

In the short video, the pinkly disguised young man can be seen struggling mightily to remove the flag, but his efforts were no match for the foresight of the two proud lesbians. Instead, he turns in frustration after ten seconds of futility, and cowardly runs away. Little did he know, though, the homeowners had installed a Ring Cam to catch such homophobic ding-dongs on video.

When asked why the man had such difficulty removing the flag, the two women revealed they were prepared for such acts of hate.

"A couple people have asked me how I'm hanging up my Pride flag right now and it's real simple," @leftovergains posted a short time later. "On the other side of the garage door I just have carabiners and a pair of screwing posts."

In other words, that flag wasn't going anywhere without their permission.

Pride flags have become a target for hateful homophobes recently. The town of Waterford, Ireland, famed for its crystal glass manufacturing, had Pride flags flown in front of the city council building torn down twice in one week, and in one incident the flag was also burned. Tristen Torrez, a 14-year-old gay middle school student in Ohio was attacked and choked with the Pride flag he wore to school by a homophobic fellow student last month. Also last month, video showed 12-year-old nonbinary middle school student Leo Hoffman as they were viciously attacked for displaying a Pride flag at a school picnic.

The Pride flag has also become a source of affirmation and inspiration across the country. Last month a father celebrated his gay teen son's recent coming out by helping him fly a Pride flag in front of their home while Lady Gaga's classic "Born This Way" blasted in the background. And a self-described "young LGBTQ+ person" in the small rural town of Paris, Arkansas, wrote a letter of thanks to a woman who had posted a Pride flag in front of her home, saying they were "glad to know there is at least one ally in this little town." The tear-jerker of a note was left crumpled in the ally's mailbox, and it soon when viral after she posted it on social media.

No suspect has been identified in the attempted theft of the Pride flag in Phoenix.

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