Alabama pastor demands anti-trans banners after Pride Month display goes up in Mobile

An Alabama pastor is pushing the city of Mobile to approve anti-trans banners after Pride banners were installed downtown, raising new questions about whether private groups should be allowed to use city property for political or cultural messages.The trouble started Sunday, when Rev. Travis Johnson of Pathway Church announced in a sermon broadcast on social media that he had submitted a request to the city to post banners “focused on the traditional family,” as reported by the Alabama news site AL.com. Johnson’s proposed banners read: “National Child Awareness Month – Protect Our Children from Gender Ideology.”“I am calling on the City of Mobile to honor my duly submitted banner application,” Johnson said in the sermon, noting it was “made in good faith, through the proper processes as a privately-funded banner display for Pride Month. … There is no legal, procedural, or policy basis to treat it differently.”The Pride banners that are now on display along Water Street were also privately financed by Mobile resident Bryan Fuenmayor.It makes a lot of positive difference here,” Fuenmayor told local news outlet WKRG when he hung the banners earlier this month. “It just makes me happy, as someone who was disowned by my family when I came out. So for me, Pride is very special, very important for me.” Bryan Fuenmayor and his husband stand proudly in front of one of their Pride month banners.YouTube/WKRGNow, the pastor’s move to place banners with anti-trans messaging has sparked heated debate on whether the city should continue to allow private parties, like Fuenmayor and Johnson, to display banners promoting events or causes.However, it isn’t the first time the city’s policies on public displays have sparked controversy.Three years ago, the city stopped issuing permits for private groups to paint a historic cannon in Midtown, according to local NBC affiliate WPMI. As one of the city’s most famous landmarks, it was a longstanding tradit