Two men accost shop owner for displaying rainbow flag
A Fremont business owner is receiving a wave of community support after being verbally accosted last week by two men apparently angry with the display of a rainbow flag outside her shop.
Rae Steckler-Homorody, who co-owns The Iron Dog antique shop on Niles Boulevard, said since she posted about the confrontation on Facebook, many people have stopped by to thank her for continuing to fly the colorful flag, which serves as a symbol and show of support for the LGBTQ community.
Steckler-Homorody said that on July 13 at about 3:30 p.m., she was minding her shop when a man entered.
“It was obvious that he was really upset and angry, and he just beelined for me,” she said.
He began aggressively questioning her about the rainbow flag and said it was disrespectful to veterans to have it displayed instead of the American flag, Steckler-Homorody said. Many businesses along Niles Boulevard fly U.S. flags yearround.
Stecker-Homorody said she asked the man to leave, but he initially refused. He then began hurling obscenities and derogatory terms at her, she said. Eventually the man left. But a short time later, while she was walking a friend out of the shop, Steckler-Homorody said she saw the man heading toward her business with another man in tow.
She said they met her at the threshold of the business and the second man began yelling at her too.
“‘What the f…k’s up with this flag? What are you doing?,’ ” she recounted him saying. After asking them to leave, she started taking photos of the men with her cellphone and they tried to swat it out of her hand.
Steckler-Homorody’s husband managed to get some photos of the license plate of the car the men got into as they left. The men told him they were veterans and offended by the rainbow flag.
“I was kind of unraveling,” Steckler-Homorody said. “After they left I was pretty shaken up and upset, because it was pretty awful. I really felt attacked and it was scary.”
After speaking with both sides, Fremont police told The Argus on Wednesday they could only determine that an argument occurred and neither party wanted to press charges against the other.
Owners of the Color Me Quilts shop down the street from The Iron Dog told The Argus the same two men Steckler-Homorody photographed had come into their business about a month ago. At that time, they aggressively questioned the co-owner of the shop — Belle Spring, who is in her mid-70s — about a sign in the window promoting inclusiveness. Over the past couple of years, they’ve had two rainbow flags stolen from outside their business.
“It’s disgusting,” Deborah Ochoa, 60, of Hayward, who was shopping in Niles on Sunday, said of the July 13 incident.
“I mean, come on, you don’t need to be rude, you don’t need to be causing trouble just because of a flag. If you don’t like it, then don’t go into that store if that’s the way you want to look at it,” Ochoa said.
Several others interviewed for this story in Niles over the weekend expressed surprise that something like this happened in the eclectic district, home to many antique shops, restaurants, and a well-known biker hangout, The Florence Bar, among other establishments.
Sitting outside the bar on Sunday afternoon, Rod Spikula, 53, who lives in Niles, characterized the incident at the antique shop as “disturbing.”
“I’m upset with him for being so immature about the whole thing and his angry attitude,” he said, adding that the rainbow flag does not bother anyone. “There’s much more tactful ways to handle things.”
Steckler-Homorody said she has run the business with her family, including her father — former Fremont Police Chief Craig Steckler — for more than 16 years and has had the rainbow flag displayed for months at a time before.
She said there’s been fewer than a handful of occasions when people come in to ask her about it respectfully. But nothing had ever risen to the level of what happened last week.
In Niles, she said there’s “not a speck of space left for intolerance.”
“I hang that flag to let people know who I am,” Steckler-Homorody said. “I support all people with regards to love. It’s pretty much that simple.”
She added that everyone should have “freedom to be exactly who you are, and not be subject to belligerent outbursts by people who want you to be as they are.
“The LGBTQ community, they endure much worse than this much more frequently than my random moment. And for that reason, today, that flag will continue to hang,” she said.