Pride Flag – Photo: Sophie Popplewell via Unsplash
The Missoula City Council has drawn the ire of Republicans — including Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte — by sidestepping a state ban on Pride flags through a resolution declaring the LGBTQ Pride flag as an official city flag.
On June 2, the council voted 9-2 in favor of the resolution. According to city attorney Ryan Sudbury, speaking to Missoula-based NBC affiliate KECI, the city previously had no official flag.
“Currently, there is only one official flag for the City of Missoula, and that’s the Pride flag adopted last night. There was no prior official flag,” Sudbury told the news station.
The resolution was passed in direct response to a new law signed by Gov. Greg Gianforte on May 13. The measure, approved by the Republican-led Montana Legislature, bans flags on state property — including public schools — that express a “political viewpoint, including but not limited to flags or banners regarding a political party, race, sexual orientation, gender or political ideology.”
However, the law includes exceptions for “official historical flags” such as the Gadsden flag and the Confederate flag. It also permits flags honoring law enforcement — like the “Thin Blue Line” flag — as well as military service flags and the POW/MIA flag. Flags of tribal nations, foreign countries, and official flags of counties, cities, or localities are also allowed — a loophole Missoula is using to sidestep the ban.
The council’s vote mirrors similar actions by the city governments of Salt Lake City, Utah, and Boise, Idaho, which have also worked around statewide Pride flag bans.
Ward 1 Councilmember Jennifer Savage, who sponsored the resolution, cited her daughter — a member of the LGBTQ community — as a key reason for introducing it. She added that the city may adopt additional official flags in the future.
“When I see the pride flag, I breathe a little sigh of relief and think my kid is safe here,” she said.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, fourth-grade teacher Petrea Torma spoke about Montana’s flag ban and how she was forced to remove a Pride flag from her classroom. She argued that the ban sends an implicit message to students that some people are not welcome or accepted.
“They have seen my flag up in my classroom all year, and last Friday, they had to walk in and realize that it’s gone,” Torma said.
Gov. Greg Gianforte later issued a statement blasting the liberal-leaning city council.
“[N]ine members of the Missoula City Council made clear their top priority is flying a divisive pride flag over government buildings and schools — all while ignoring the city’s housing affordability crisis, raising taxes by 17% because of overspending, and refusing to take firm action to end encampments in the city,” the governor said in a statement. “Missoulians deserve better, and fortunately, two council members voted against imposing this divisive, far-left agenda on their community.”
State Rep. Braxton Mitchell (R–Columbia Falls), who sponsored the Pride flag ban and has previously introduced anti-LGBTQ legislation — including a drag ban currently blocked by the courts — has already threatened to amend the law in the next legislative session to explicitly prohibit cities from naming Pride flags as official flags.
“Leave it to Missoula to try and turn a city flag into a pride flag. Nothing says ‘unity’ like politicizing public property,” Mitchell told KECI in an email. “The ultra far left Missoula City Council and their mayor are completely out of touch with reality and the values of the vast majority of Montanans.
“Taxpayer owned property should represent everyone, not just the loudest political movements of the moment. The pride flag, like any other political symbol, has no place replacing a city’s identity,” Mitchell continued. “This is exactly why we resoundingly passed HB819 to stop governments from hijacking public property to push ideology…. If they want to fly that flag, they can do it at home, not on the taxpayer’s pole.”
The former Kentucky clerk -- and anti-LGBTQ culture warrior -- who went to jail rather than issue licenses to same-sex couples is now targeting the landmark 2015 ruling.
A decade after catapulting to right-wing stardom, Kim Davis -- the former Rowan County, Kentucky county clerk who chose jail over issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples -- has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its landmark 2015 decision that legalized marriage equality nationwide.
Represented by the anti-LGBTQ Liberty Counsel, Davis has formally asked the nation’s highest court to strip away the right of same-sex couples to marry.
A Mike Huckabee acolyte and four-time married fundamentalist zealot, Davis rose to fame in 2015 when she refused to issue marriage licenses to any couple -- gay or straight -- after the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision struck down all state-level bans on same-sex marriage, including Kentucky’s. Ordered to comply, she instead spent six days in jail for contempt of court.
Gun rights groups are blasting the Trump administration after CNN reported that senior Justice Department officials have been discussing the possibility of restricting transgender U.S. citizens from owning firearms, following the recent mass shooting at a Catholic church in Minneapolis. Although officials described the talks as "preliminary," critics warn that even floating such a proposal scapegoats transgender people and threatens their constitutional rights.
The internal talks appeared to draw on a theory promoted by conservative influencers and media outlets: that transgender people are mentally ill, and that transition-related hormones negatively affect mental health, making them more prone to violence.
The U.S. Air Force says it will separate all transgender personnel with 15 to 18 years of service without retirement benefits. The move denies them early retirement under a policy that normally allows some members with more than 15 -- but fewer than 20 -- years of service to retire with prorated benefits instead of completing the standard 20 years.
Under the Temporary Early Retirement Authority (TERA), service members approved for early retirement receive prorated benefits -- including insurance coverage, disability pay, and access to housing on military bases.
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