To honor and celebrate Pride month, which started June 1, the city of Winston-Salem posted a Pride-themed logo on its Facebook page Thursday morning as the account's profile picture. The picture was then taken down less than two hours later. It was replaced with the standard city logo.The Pride-themed image had the city's logo with a rainbow flag behind it. Removing the picture from its prominent showing ensued controversy."The idea that a background promotes “one cause over others” is ridiculous, and it contradicts 'posted prematurely,' which implies you intended to post it on some other day than the first day of pride month. Perhaps you mean 'without authorization.' I suspect what you really mean is that you will continue to support first responders, veterans, religious holidays, history months, and other worthy causes, but avoid explicitly stating support for causes that offend hate groups. Whatever this means, you need to go back to the drawing board, because it’s not a defensible position," one person commented on the city's public Facebook.Others applauded the city for removing the themed image."I actually respect this move. Nice to see a common sense explanation instead of blindly joining in on a very strange narrative. Well done," one person wrote.Another wrote, "Thank you, for making sure this profile represents everyone. This is inclusivity." Top Stories Greensboro begins violence prevention program, 'Peace on Purpose', with kickoff event Friday3 shot in Davidson County, including sheriff's deputy, during incident with 'heavy gunfire'Free Donuts: Triad business is giving the sweet treats away while supplies lastThursday afternoon, the city posted a picture of a Pride Month flag, outside of city hall, with an apology: "The diversity background to the city logo, which was briefly displayed on the city’s Facebook page, was posted prematurely and removed. In addition to being Pride Month, June is also recognized as PTSD Awareness Month, Gun National Violence Awareness Month and Alzheimer’s & Brain Awareness Month, among others. As a matter of fairness we cannot promote one cause over the others through our logo."The apology post also included a mention of how "the city is dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion.""Our Human Relations/DEI Department currently is displaying a Pride Month banner in front of City Hall and the City Council recently approved a request to paint a “Pride” Crosswalk in the Arts District," the post says.Click the video player above to view a story about the new muralKevin Mundy, representative for the Winston-Salem City Council Southwest Ward, took to social media Friday morning about the decision to remove the profile image. In his post, he warned that he may make some city representatives angry, but he "doesn't work for the City of Winston-Salem," and he "works for the people of Winston-Salem.""What started out as an attempt by the City's marketing department this morning to acknowledge the first day of Pride went horribly wrong. The graphic I'm posting here was posted as the City of Winston-Salem's profile pic. Immediately some warm, thoughtful comments of appreciation were posted by folks who were happy to see the City being so supportive. It didn't take long for the normal Leviticus lovers to start spewing their hate. We're all pretty accustomed to that," Mundy wrote. "Then after about an hour, the Pride graphic was gone, with no explanation. And nothing else was posted about Pride. It's like the City's recognition of Pride had just...vanished. So folks started jumping to the conclusion that the City had caved to the pressure of the haters and erased all traces of rainbow anything. Yeah, that's what it looked like to me."Mundy said he's worked in marketing and public relations before. After the post was removed, he said he offered "very explicit advice and guidelines on the best way to mop up the mess they had made." Mundy said none of his advice was followed."Well, a mere 4 hours later, I read an expounded version of the lame excuse that had been given earlier. Not one word of my advice was followed. They actually took a bad situation and made it exponentially worse," Mundy wrote. "I am not a spokesman for the city or for any other council member. I speak only for myself. But to all of you, I offer my most sincere apology for how you were made to feel by the insensitive and inconsiderate actions taken by the city of Winston-Salem."On Friday morning, the city moved changing the profile picture to changing the cover photo on their Facebook page to reflect Pride month."Let's see how long it stays up this time," one person wrote.They also issued this apology on their Facebook page. "The city apologizes for the hurt that was created yesterday among members of the LGBTQ+ community when an unauthorized version of the city logo with a Pride background was briefly posted on our Facebook page and then removed. We should have immediately posted an explanation of why we replaced the logo and stated that the city fully supports Pride Month. We mishandled the situation and regret it."Watch: NOWCAST streaming newscastsNAVIGATE: Home | Weather | Watch NOWCAST TV | Local News | National | News We Love