Logan Square residents will now see a new flag flying above the Illinois Centennial Monument.
"This is the first time we are actually raising the Transgender Pride Flag," said longtime Logan Square LGBTQ+ activist Robert Castillo. "We are doing so to kick off Transgender Awareness Week, a week to celebrate trans and gender diverse, gender fluid people"
More than a dozen representatives of trans & LGBTQ+ community organizations, local elected officials and allies gathered Thursday morning to raise the flag together.
Castillo, who's also on the city's Advisory Council on LGBTQ+, said the goal of the flag is to remind the community trans people are here and to be a more welcoming neighborhood to the city's most vulnerable communities.
"Logan Square has a very large transgender, nonbinary, gender diverse, gender fluid community, and I want to be here in support, and also I think the community should reflect the people that live in it," he said.
Ella Jasso, also a member of the city's advisory council, said growing up trans in Logan Square, she never thought she'd see the trans flag being raised in the heart of the neighborhood.
"Seeing the flag go up just gives me hope not just for me but for my nephews, who are also part of the community," she said. "When you create a safe space for the most vulnerable, you're creating a safe space for everyone."
Equality Illinois CEO Channyn Lynne Parker said it's particularly meaningful that the trans flag is flying next to the American flag.
"Two flags sharing the same wind, one representing a nation's promise of liberty, and another reminding that nation that that promise belongs to us, too," she said.
