Huntington Beach.(Photo: huntingtonbeachca.gov)
Huntington Beach City Council Votes Not to Fly Gay Pride Flag At City Hall
Council votes 4-3 to reverse Gay Pride Month policy originally passed 2 years ago
By Evan Symon, February 10, 2023 7:10 am
A Huntington Beach City Council decision over what flags to fly in front of city government buildings made earlier this week received increased scrutiny on Thursday with more LGBT groups demanding that the rainbow-striped gay pride flag be allowed to fly again.
The controversy dates back to 2021 when the Huntington Beach City Council voted to allow the gay pride flag to fly during the gay pride month of June. In 2022, it flew again. However, many in Huntington Beach began to feel that the flag was more divisive than inclusive, and that flying the flag to prove that the community was inclusive was counterintuitive. Other questions over the flag also came up up over it not being an official government or military flag, as most locales usually limit permitted flags to those categories.
As a result, Councilmember Pat Burns, a Republican who was recently elected in to the Council, brought forth a proposal this week that would limit the flags being allowed to be flown in front of government buildings to United States flag, the California state flag, the city flag, the county flag, the POW/MIA flag and flags for the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Air Force, and Space Force.
“It has nothing to do with segregating or being anything else to another group,” noted Burns. “It has nothing to do with that. It’s recognizing we are one.”
During the meeting on Tuesday, several former and current lawmakers challenged reasoning.
“This is a small gesture that recognizes the value of our residents and visitor who belong to the LGBTQ+ community, a gesture that shows the city sees them and values them,” said former Mayor Connie Boardman.
Democratic Councilwoman Rhonda Bolton added that “The fact that we have symbols that have a special meaning to certain segments of the community does not mean that other segments of the community are excluded.”
Opponents, noted that the majority of letters from residents sent in before the meeting supported the flag being up during pride month, while proponents of the new proposal pointed to the many residents in attendance who came in support.
In a party-line vote, the proposal passed 4-3 on Tuesday. In the following days, LGBT groups have pushed for a reversal on the proposal, with many nearby cities now being pushed to pass similar local legislation by local residents. Anne-Marie Katz, a Southern California pollster over LGBT issues, noted that the Huntington Beach issue had been particularly divisive as opposed to other recent controversies involving the LGBT community.
“This one has been getting a lot of attention,” Katz told the Globe on Thursday. “It’s a combination of something LGBT being taken away instead of expanded on, a fight over what inclusiveness actually means, and just a general divide on the issue in one of the redder areas of the state.”
“What is noticeable is that no one is saying anything remotely close to having rights being taken away, nor has anyone said anything about the flag not being allowed to be flown anywhere else. We started a few polls on Wednesday, and we got some answers from those in favor of LGBT rights thinking that the city banned the flag altogether. All that happened is that the city revised the flag standard to government and military flags only. That’s it. People are still allowed to fly the flags they want to, and after this, I expect a few more residents will bring out gay pride flags come June.”
As of Thursday, there is no current proposal to reverse the flag policy that was passed earlier this week.
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Good on the level headed Huntington Beach City Council members like Republican Councilmember Pat Burns for voting to fly only government and military flags over city buildings. If one special interest group gets to fly their flags on city hall, then all other special interest groups will demand the same right and there will be no end to the number of special interest group flags on city buildings!
Good. Pandering to a loud, divisive minority of mentally ill is not “inclusive”.
Democratic Councilwoman Rhonda Bolton falsely claimed that “The fact that we have symbols that have a special meaning to certain segments of the community does not mean that other segments of the community are excluded.” She is deluded and her comment is not surprising since Democrats have always been about dividing and excluding people. Democrats are the party of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow laws, and the KKK.
Members of the radical leftist alphabet mafia and their supporters like Democrat Councilman Rhonda Bolton and former Mayor Connie Boardman need to be told that no group should receive special rights at the expense of others.
Ahhh, the vocal, belligerent minority wants to show everybody that their flag is the most important. No, no it isn’t. Fly your freaking flag over your own dump. I have a flag I want to fly. It’s got a picture of ME on it and it is important to me. Can I fly it at city hall? Well, probably not.
Excellent and correct decision! The Pride flag is quickly morphing into support for gender reassignment of children and young adults.
Democrats and the administrative state are trying to push the LGBT agenda globally. The damage it has cause not only here at home but around the world is obvious to anyone paying attention. The war that was unleashed on our culture is abhorrent to common sense folks from across the political spectrum. The lines are being blurred and the crimes and injustice in piling up while the elites and their willing foot soldiers spread chaos.
I am a traditional pro-life Catholic. I want to fly my pro-life flag. I am straight I want to fly a straight flag. I am in the Knights of Columbus I want to fly my Knights of Columbus flag. Wait it is ok to discriminate against me. Certain groups that are extreme minorities need to live with the majority!
I’m homosexual and am VERY pleased the Councilmen did this. I am just me. I am retired. I enjoy my hobbies. I read. I travel. I retired from engineering. What I do when the door closes is a very small aspect of my life, and it does NOT define me. I don’t need a flag. I don’t need patronizing. Just let me live, and let live.
All political contests are about power, about dominance. The LGBTPBQ++ flag is no exception. It is meant to convey the message that one particular minority of mentally ill perverts is prominent and dominant over all other political, religious, social, military and government organizations and therefore, the majority of the population must acquiesce, pay homage and accommodate the LGBTPBQ++ incessant and ever-expanding demands. That’s what it’s all about
Who knew there were some common non-perverted people in Californicate?
a militant minority forces “inclusion” garbage on the public and then gets angry when people use the democratic process to vote it down. they never seem to quietly respect the vote when it’s against them, do they?
Right on. Seems a lot of people don’t have much of a life these days. If they were out visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, supporting the poor in
various ways, in other words giving their lives in service to others, they would be doing what all of us should be doing with our time, talents and treasures once our own families are given the care we owe them.
NoFagFlag!!!
Nofe Ag Flag!
Thank you H.B. ! Bout time someone started to reclaim the city.country from this ‘queer’ agenda. Gays etc had all types of considerations and rights that many other country’s still do not have. Yet they’ve shoved their ideology down our throats and get mad when something gets done about it.