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.”
Graeme Reid will continue as the U.N.'s expert on LGBT rights for another three years, as 29 nations back the mandate despite opposition from China, Pakistan, and others.
The U.N. Human Rights Council has voted to extend the mandate of its LGBT rights expert, ensuring continued global oversight of anti-LGBTQ human rights violations for another three years.
Under the mandate, the U.N.'s Independent Expert on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity is tasked with identifying the root causes of anti-LGBTQ violence and discrimination, and advising U.N. member states on how to better protect LGBTQ communities.
The current independent expert, South African scholar Graeme Reid, will continue in the role for another three years. Reid is the third person to hold the position since it was established in 2016.
An unknown vandal smashed the plexiglass sign outside Washington Plaza Baptist Church in Reston, Virginia, sometime before Sunday, June 15, targeting a message that read "God is Love. Love is Love. Celebrate Pride."
A member of the congregation was the first to notice the shattered singn and missing letters.
"Whatever was used to break the plexiglass on the sign was right over the word pride," Michelle Nickens, pastor of Washington Plaza Baptist Church, told the Reston edition of local news site Patch. "They actually damaged it so that the little track that the letters slid into was damaged. We could not even put the letters back up."
Police in Bogor, Indonesia, say they arrested 75 people for attending what they called a "gay party" at a villa in the Puncak area on June 22.
According to Amnesty International, 74 of those arrested were men and one was a woman.
Teguh Kumura, head of the Bogor Police's Criminal Investigation Unit, told the Jakarta Globe that a joint task force of Bogor and Megamendung police raided the villa after receiving public reports of “suspicious activity” at the gathering.
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