When a clothing store opened in Cedar Glen, Calif., in the summer of 2021, the owner hung a Pride flag at the entrance, her friends recalled. Whenever someone would tear down the flag, owner Laura Carleton would raise another one.
But after someone complained about the flag on Friday, the encounter turned deadly.
A man arrived at the store, Mag.pi, around 5 p.m. and criticized Carleton’s Pride flag before he shot her, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Carleton, 66, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooter, whom authorities have not publicly identified, died following “a lethal force encounter” with deputies after the shooting, the sheriff’s department said in a statement.
Community members have since rallied around Carleton’s store, placing Pride flags, flowers, candles and photos of Carleton in front of it. Matthew Clevenger of Lake Arrowhead LGBTQ+ said Carleton was a strong ally of the LGBTQ+ community.
“She was a fierce protector of everybody being who they wanted to be,” Clevenger told The Washington Post.
Carleton, who went by Lauri, began working in fashion as a teenager at her family’s business, Fred Segal in Los Angeles, according to Mag.pi’s website. After graduating from the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., Carleton worked at a retail store before joining Kenneth Cole in the 1980s. Carleton worked for the fashion company for more than 15 years as an executive.
In 2013, Carleton founded her clothing store, Mag.pi, on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, Calif. She added a second store in Cedar Glen in 2021. While she built her career, Carleton married her husband and took pride in their blended family of nine children, her store’s website says.
Carleton was one of the largest donors to Lake Arrowhead LGBTQ+ and attended the organization’s Pride boat parade in June, Clevenger said. A section of Mag.pi was dedicated to rainbow-colored products, and she displayed rainbow candles by the cash register, he said.
Carleton helped create a culture in which the LGBTQ+ community felt accepted, Clevenger said. But some community members were still resistant, he added, and took down Mag.pi’s Pride flag multiple times.
After making “disparaging remarks” about the Pride flag on Friday, a man shot Carleton before fleeing, according to the sheriff’s department. He was holding a handgun when deputies found him on a nearby road, where he later died, officials said.
There is nothing conservative about radical rightwing authoritarianism. They are fascists.
There’s no reclaiming the label “conservative”. We lost it. We need a new brand.
How about what an American Conservative is supposed to be conserving, what the parts of the world with a vaguely educated population calls them:
Liberal.
Well no. Conservative, to me, means a federal government that’s pretty much powerless to change anything in the States (10th amendment), that doesn’t invade the privacy of Americans (4th amendment), and that doesn’t go around waging war without declaration.
That’s not what we have. That’s not what either conservatives or liberals want, so we need a new label.
That’s liberalism. You just don’t know what it means.
It’s classical liberalism, but the meaning of the word “liberal” has changed.
I’m not really interested in whatever Newspeak the people actively attacking democracy, education, and our Constitutional rights push, be they Reagan-type neoliberals or modern “conservatives” who sure do use a lot of dogwhistles they hope decent people are too clueless by design to hear until it’s too late.
When someone tells you they hate socialists and they’re definitely not a liberal, connect the dots.
Tbh in most of the civilized world ‘liberal’ is not a compliment. American brought tankies, wokies and liberals to the worldwide left, and that is NOT something to be celebrated (or maybe as the CIA’s best psyop)
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You’re allowed to disagree. This man wasn’t killed by police because he disagreed with the shop owner having a rainbow flag. They killed him because he murdered her and (presumably) didn’t surrender when they caught up to him.
I think what you’re talking about is the rest of us calling out your bigotry. That’s not oppression or control by the government. That’s society leaving you and your outdated beliefs behind.
So removing access to your bank for example isn’t oppression or control?
We have gone from science to belief so fast, I know how much your kind hate religion yet you are so adamant on rejecting scientific facts like only two genders and are full on accept the belief of multiple that it parallels it so hard
There is never a reason to debate or enter a conversation with a conservative. Every word uttered by a conservative is deception or manipulation. Every word.
Conservatives insist on communicating through violence. So be it.
Funnily enough I’ve had better conversations with conservatives. Usually because they are willing to talk and explain themselves.
Try that with a liberal and get prepared to be called names, insulted, blocked, censored and usually banned for thinking outside the cult. And yes they have killed over it.
Let’s compare:
Versus
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They want to be treated like human beings. Nothing insane about that.
No they don’t. The LGB community already fought for that and won. The majority were with them.
You know how they won? They didn’t force it on people, they didn’t force it in class rooms, they didn’t parade naked in the streets or encourage people to mutilate themselves, they didn’t tell people to suck the dick or get people fired or losing access to accounts.
That’s the insane part.
And won??? So there’s not a current moment to ban books talking about LGBTQ people? There’s not a “don’t say gay” bill in Florida? There’s not people attacking trans kids and adults and making it illegal for them to get healthcare? Phew. I was so worried about all those things.
Gaslighting argument. The ban is to ban books in school talking about homosexual sex to kids, showing graphic content and things they do not need to know. You know the books grooming kids.
Gaslighting argument. The Parental Rights in Education act doesn’t say gay at all and is basically about point 1. You can try and change the terms all you like but it shows how much of a mouth piece you are by not understanding.
People are being attacked by everyone, and that includes trans against the straights. And “healthcare” of becoming reliant on drugs should be illegal. Puberty blockers are incredibly dangerous and it’s scary how much support there is trying to get a generation of underdeveloped adults there are… almost like they wanted “legal kids”…
Of course because you have to be a victim, even when you’re the ones attacking and forcing these disgusting books, lessons and drugs on children you still want to play the victim.
This is exactly why people are against you.