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City officials respond to vandalized Pride banner in Winston-Salem

A banner celebrating Pride month was vandalized in Winston-Salem, which city officials call a hate crime. The banner was discovered cut in half early Friday morning. Mayor Allen Joines said in a statement that the city reaffirms its support of Pride Winston-Salem. 

“I view this act as an apparent hate crime. I want to state in the strongest terms that the city of Winston-Salem and the city council fully support Pride Winston-Salem, their upcoming events, and Pride Month. The city is acting swiftly to repair the banner in the interim and replace it with a new banner as soon as possible,” said Joines.

The city’s director of human relations, diversity, equity, and inclusion, Wanda Allen-Abraha, says that a replacement banner is scheduled to be installed on Monday.  

“We want to assure the members of the LGBTQIA+ community that we empathize with and are sensitive to their concerns about such incidents,” Allen-Abraha said. “I have asked Police Chief William Penn to investigate this as a potential hate crime.”

Emily joined WFDD in 2014. It's a homecoming after 11 years working in public radio for stations in colder climates. She graduated from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro in 2003, where she earned her degree in music. She moved to Bloomington, Indiana, where she saw an advertisement on the side of a bus for the local station, WFIU, and began volunteering. That turned into a full time gig, where Emily did everything from producing fund drives, co-hosting a classical music quiz show, and handling station relations. In 2007, Emily accepted a position at WYSO in Yellow Springs, Ohio, as the host of All Things Considered. It was there that Emily learned how to be a reporter. Her stories won state and national awards and were regularly featured on NPR. Emily became News Director at WYSO in 2011.Now, she's back in North Carolina and happily leading the news team at WFDD. She lives in Winston-Salem with her husband and two children.

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