Someone Cut Down the Pride Ribbons on Main Street. Pittsford Is Responding.

Sixty of 63 transgender pride ribbons placed on Village lampposts were cut down on the evening of April 2, 2026 — removed deliberately, according to authorities, sometime around 9pm. The ribbons had been installed by Pittsford CommUNITY, a local nonprofit, with a permit, to mark International Transgender Day of Visibility. They were supposed to remain through April 4.

What happened next says more about Pittsford than the act itself.

What Happened

What Happened

Pittsford CommUNITY placed 63 ribbons bearing the colors of the transgender pride flag on Village lampposts beginning March 29. The organization had followed the proper process — applied for and received a Village permit. When volunteers returned to collect the ribbons on April 4, 60 of the 63 had been cut down and discarded.

According to WHAM 13, Pittsford Village Mayor Alysa Plummer described the act as "mean-spirited" and "deliberate," and asked anyone with nearby security footage to contact the Monroe County Sheriff's Office at (585) 753-4178. The Sheriff's Office has opened an investigation.

Tharaha Thavakumar, president of Pittsford CommUNITY, spoke directly about what the ribbons represented. They were not decoration. They were a signal — a visible marker that said to transgender residents and anyone else who feels marginalized: you are seen here, and you are welcome.

"It's a sign of belonging. When something like ribbons get taken down, it just tells people that we're not welcome here."

— Tharaha Thavakumar, president of Pittsford CommUNITY

The ribbons had also been displayed in Pittsford the previous year in solidarity following the killing of transgender man Sam Nordquist — an ongoing effort by local advocates to make visibility a regular part of community life here.

What Pittsford CommUNITY Said to the Board

What Pittsford CommUNITY Said to the Board

Thavakumar addressed the [Mayor and Board of Trustees directly](https://www.rochesterfirst.com/pittsford/pittsford-nonprofit-calls-for-response-after-transgender-awareness-ribbons-removed/) in a public comment session, calling on village leaders to take a clear public stance. The full public comment was shared on the Village's official website:

"This is about more than ribbons. It is about what kind of community we choose to be. When symbols of support are torn down, the message sent is not just to one group, it is heard by every resident who has ever wondered if they truly belong here."

The question she brought to the Board is one worth sitting with. Not as accusation. As genuine inquiry. What does it mean when a community that prides itself on safety and belonging cannot protect a permitted display — installed by neighbors, for neighbors — from being deliberately destroyed in the night?

This did not happen in isolation. According to GLAAD's ALERT Desk, anti-LGBTQ incidents across the country increased in 2025, with incidents targeting transgender and gender-nonconforming people accounting for more than half of all tracked cases — a 10% rise from 2024. New York State reported 49 such incidents in 2025, sixth-highest in the nation. Hateful vandalism was the single most common category, accounting for 128 of the 1,042 tracked incidents nationwide.

What happened on Main Street on the evening of April 2 fits a pattern. That doesn't make it less worth naming locally. It makes it more worth naming.

What Belonging Actually Requires

What Belonging Actually Requires

Pittsford CommUNITY's public comment ended with a direct ask to the Board: speak clearly, say removing these ribbons was wrong, say that transgender neighbors are valued here, and say that the Village will not be silent when exclusion shows itself.

The mayor has already called the act what it is. The sheriff is investigating. The nonprofit that put up the ribbons is still here, still working, still asking the community to show up.

The ribbons are gone. The question they raised isn't.

What does it mean to belong to a place — not just to live there, but to have it claim you back?

Pittsford is not a community without disagreement. People here hold genuinely different views on transgender rights, on what schools should teach, on how visible identity should be in public spaces. That's real, and it's okay. A community that can only hold one viewpoint isn't actually a community — it's groupthink.

What happened on Main Street on the night of April 2 was not disagreement. It was the refusal of conversation. Whoever cut those ribbons made a choice to act alone, in the dark, without a name attached. They may have had a viewpoint. But they chose to express it in a way that made a real conversation impossible — and that’s the problem. We live in a moment when having hard conversations across genuine disagreement has never been more difficult. The political climate, the algorithms, the way we’ve sorted ourselves into camps where we mostly talk to people who already agree with us — none of that makes this easier. But the skill of sitting across from someone you disagree with and staying curious rather than defensive is exactly what communities like Pittsford need most right now. Cutting ribbons in the dark is the opposite of that skill. It’s the easy way out — and it leaves everyone worse off.

If you have concerns about what the ribbons represented — genuinely, not just as cover — there's a better path. Here's what it looks like in practice.

Lead with a question, not a position. The most disarming thing you can do in a hard conversation is admit you want to understand something. Not "I disagree with you" as an opener — that's a wall. Try: "Can you help me understand what this means to you?" or "What would it mean to you if this weren't here?" You don't have to agree with the answer. You just have to be genuinely curious about it. Peter Block calls this substituting curiosity for advice — and it is harder than it sounds, because our instinct in disagreement is to explain ourselves, not ask questions.

Separate the person from the policy. You can hold strong views on transgender policy — on school curricula, on sports participation, on medical decisions for minors — and still recognize that the person in front of you is not a policy. The transgender residents of Pittsford are neighbors. Disagreeing with a position doesn't require dismissing a person's right to feel welcome in their own village. Those are two different things, and conflating them is what makes these conversations feel impossible.

You don't have to understand something to respect it. This is the hardest one. Most of us want to fully comprehend an experience before we extend respect toward it. But that's backwards. Respect comes first. Understanding, if it comes, comes later. You don't need to have resolved your feelings about gender identity to agree that nobody should feel afraid to walk down Main Street.

Show up with your name on it. If you have something to say about what these ribbons represent — say it. At a Board meeting. In a letter to the mayor. In a conversation with a neighbor. Pittsford CommUNITY is not hard to find. The Village Board meets regularly and accepts public comment. Anonymous action forfeits your voice in whatever conversation comes next. Named disagreement, offered in good faith, is something a community can actually work with.

The ribbons are gone. The people they were meant for are still here. The question isn't whether Pittsford can avoid this conversation — it's whether we can have it in a way that makes the community stronger rather than smaller. If you have security footage from the evening of April 2 in the Village, the Monroe County Sheriff's Office is asking for your help. Contact them at (585) 753-4178.