Tioga Sequoia Brewery temporarily removes Pride flag

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Tioga Sequoia Brewing Company in Downtown Fresno closed its doors on Monday after the brewery received backlash for taking its LGBTQ+ Pride flag down.

"It's really upsetting. If you know the community, a lot of people here are LGBTQ," said Azul Lopez, who frequents Downtown Fresno.

"Why would you take it down in the first place, you know, if you support it, leave it up," she added.

Employees didn't want to appear on camera, but they tell Action News a manager at the brewery decided to take the flag down because he wanted to expand clientele.

After word of the flag's removal circulated online on Friday, sparking backlash, the pride flag was put back up.

Action News reached out to Michael Cruz - the President of Tioga Sequoia Brewing Company.

He wasn't available for an on-camera interview but sent over a statement that says in part:

"There was never any intention of removing the flag to harm, disrespect, or change our stance on that. We recognize and feel remorse for this egregious misunderstanding."

Still people are upset.

"There was a little bit of controversy with how the situation was handled, I feel like it could of been handled a little bit better,"

Kenneth Garcia, also known as KG559, is a local DJ.

He has hosted several events at the brewery for the last few years.

On Friday, Garcia sent over an email expressing how upset he was to hear that the pride flag was taken down.

He said when he didn't hear back from management, he decided to cut ties with the brewery for future events.

"I just feel like that flag symbolizes a safe space for us here in Fresno. And that's something that we worked hard to bring to for the last few years. For that, I feel like that was kind of ripped out of our hands, it's crazy," said Garcia.

Cruz plans to meet with his staff on Monday evening. He said he wants to better understand what led to the removal of the flag and to figure out how to move forward with the community.

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