For the first time, a rainbow flag symbolizing LGBT pride drapes the front of Birmingham City Hall in Alabama.
Almost 1,000 miles away, the New York Police Department covers a police car with rainbow motifs.
“Pride Equality Peace,” the side of the police car reads. “Our (heart) goes out to Orlando.”
A week after 49 people were killed at an Orlando gay nightclub, rainbow flags have sprouted up everywhere, replacing Facebook profile photos and gracing churches for the first time.
One year ago, in the wake of another mass shooting, the country was focused on another flag — one that drew a largely vitriolic reaction.
Talk about the Charleston massacre, in which nine people were killed at a mostly black church, soon morphed into a heated debate about the Confederate banner — a painful reminder of racism and oppression to some, a symbol of Southern pride to others.
The gunman in Charleston, who had posed with a Confederate flag, said he had wanted to start a race war when he shot up the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Both mass shootings targeted minority groups. And both led to conversations about flags with deep histories.
The divisive battle stripes
The debate over the Confederate flag reached an apex last year when South Carolina, reeling from the Charleston massacre, removed the Confederate flag from the front of its state house.
“It should have never been there,” Gov. Nikki Haley said. “These grounds are a place that everybody should feel a part of. What I realized now more than ever is people were driving by and felt hurt and pain. No one should feel pain.”
Even retailers such as Walmart, Amazon, eBay and Sears stopped selling Confederate flags.
But defenders of the rebel flag rallied in droves — not necessarily to defend the Charleston shooter, but to defend against attacks on the banner.
The Southern Poverty Law Center said in the six months following the Charleston attack, more than 350 pro-Confederate flag rallies took place across the country.
Deep historical roots
The rainbow and Confederate flags have two things in common: both bear similarities to the U.S. flag, and both have gone through resurgences after challenges faced by their supporters.
Each version of the Confederate flag is red, white and blue. The first incarnation looked so similar to the Union flag, some soldiers on the battlefield got them confused.
After the Civil War, the Confederate battle flag was seen only occasionally — for example, at events commemorating fallen soldiers.
It didn’t explode on the scene again until the mid-20th century struggle for civil rights by black Americans. In 1948, presidential candidate Strom Thurmond, who promoted segregation, was often greeted by crowds carrying Confederate flags.
Three decades later, Gilbert Baker was dreaming up a new way to represent gay pride. He and others in the gay and lesbian community wanted a symbol beyond the pink triangle — the symbol Nazis had put on gays.
So he designed the LGBT pride rainbow flag, with six symbolic stripes: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, blue for harmony and purple for spirit.
“We needed something to express our joy, our beauty, our power,” Baker said. “And the rainbow did that.”
Not everyone supports rainbow flag
About 80 miles from Orlando, a rainbow flag flies at the Hillsborough County Center in Tampa — much to the dismay of County Commissioner Stacy White.
White said he received an anonymous call from a county employee who said “it will be nearly unbearable for her pass the ‘pride’ flag each morning” due to her strong Christian beliefs, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“I wish to state for the record that, even if there is deemed to be zero liability from an HR perspective, it is still — in my view — unconscionable that the county administrator didn’t express to the board that this divisive symbol might create an uncomfortable workplace environment for many of his employees,” White wrote, according to the Times.
While he opposed raising the rainbow flag, calling it divisive, White supported keeping the Confederate flag in the county building after the Charleston massacre, the Tampa Tribune reported. After a lengthy debate, White switched sides and voted to remove the Confederate flag.
White has not responded to CNN’s requests for comment about his stances on the two flags.
But public outcry against the rainbow flag pales in comparison to the throngs of supporters.
“There is now a giant rainbow flag hanging in front of the 2nd largest Presbyterian (USA) church in the country,” Layton E. Williams of Chicago tweeted.
And the rainbow displays went far beyond the U.S.
“Belfast City Hall. Blackpool Tower. St George’s Hall Liverpool. Lit up with rainbow flag,” LGBT Labour said.
