Mar 7
This Popular California Beach Town Just Voted to Ban LGBTQ Pride Flags on City Buildings
Emell Adolphus READ TIME: 2 MIN.
The display of Pride flags in this famous California beach town has allegedly been 86'ed at city buildings.
That's right, NBC News reported that Pride flags will be prohibited at city buildings in Huntington Beach, along with breast cancer awareness and religious flags.
In a vote, the Orange County Registrar of Voters reported that more than 58% of voters cast ballots in favor of Measure B, which would prohibit cultural flags. However, exception is given to city, county, state flags and the American flag. Commemorative banners for POW-MIAs or the Olympics would also be allowed.
The vote "sets a tone," said Huntington Beach City Council Member Rhonda Bolton, who opposed the measure. "If people think it's OK or it becomes normalized to display bigotry towards a particular group, then folks are going to crawl out of their rock and do bad stuff."
Now a unanimous vote by the City Council will be required to fly a commemorative flag from city facilities.
"The Huntington Beach City Council is run by a hateful majority whose only interest is advancing an agenda of intolerance for minority communities, including LGBTQ+ individuals," said Peg Coley, the executive director of the LGBTQ Center Orange County. "The pendulum always swings back and history is the harshest judge, but informed votes are the very best prevention."
Some critics of Measure B say it is a way to rid buildings of LGBTQ support while other critics claimed it removes divisive identity politics from the public square.
GLAAD called the ballot measure "extreme."
"Enshrining discrimination fuels division," a spokesperson for GLAAD said in an email to NBC News. "We saw it flying proudly in Huntington Beach to honor trans teenager Nex Benedict last month. Pride flags show LGBTQ people, youth and our allies that they are welcome."
A recent report of hate crimes in Orange County found that there was a 126% increase in hate crimes against members of the LGBTQ community in 2022 over the previous year.
