Huntington Beach City Council votes to ban Pride flag

After a tense and often heated public comment and debate segment the City Council Tuesday night approved an ordinance/policy to restrict display of flags on cityowned property to only flying the city, state and national flags, along with occasionally flying the county flag and flags supporting prisoners of war and each branch of the military.

The council voted 4-3 approving the ordinance/policy along party lines with Democratic council members Dan Kalmick, Natalie Moser and Rhonda Bolton voting against it.

for the ordinance. “The City of Huntington Beach should avoid actions that could easily or mistakenly be perceived as divisive. [We] are one community with many different cultures and people. All are equally valued members of our community, and none are to be treated differently or discriminated against.”

“People have asked if we can fly other flags, whatever they may be, and I don’t believe that we should fly any other flags but equal flags that represent us all,” Burns added.

During the public comments session several individuals who spoke in favor of banning the flag echoed Burns telling city council members along with LGBTQ people and supporters in the audience that display of the Pride flag should not be given preferential treatment.

Former Huntington Beach Mayor and City Councilmember Connie Boardman argued that the proposed ordinance/policy item would prevent the city from flying the Olympic flag, which she pointed out as the City is hoping to host the Olympic surfing competition for the Los Angeles games in 2028 would look bad.

“The Olympics stress diversity and inclusion,” Boardman said. “This item is the opposite of that.”

Councilmember Moser told the council and the audience removal of the Pride flag sends out a negative message and would reinforce the city’s reputation as the “Florida of California.”

“It makes us look like the city everybody expects us to be. I don’t believe we are that city, I believe we’re better than that,” Moser said.

Republican Councilman Pat Burns, a former Long Beach Police Department Lieutenant, and a publicly proclaimed proponent of “family values” said “Special flags or recognition flags of some sort that aren’t governmental or representative of the community, as one, I don’t believe has a space on our government flag poles.”

Burns stated in a staff report explaining his reasoning

Last year far-right media outlet OAN contributor Alison Steinberg had ranted on social media attacking the display of the Pride Flag after returning home to Huntington Beach to find the city flying it.

In their report to the council the city staff noted that over 275 plus people had sent letters to on the issue of the flag, with 228 in support of the Pride flag remaining up while 46 endorsed the shift in the flag ordinance/policy.

Voice of OC reporter Noah Biesiada noted Councilmember Kalmick pointed out how the city already had a flag policy, and that if the concern was over the Pride flag then the council members should just vote against flying that flag but leave the overall policy unchanged.

“Creating this as an ordinance removes our ability as council members to make decisions,” Kalmick said. “We already have the ability to fly these flags. If you don’t want to fly the Pride flag, just make a motion…to eliminate the previous resolution to fly the Pride flag.”

“The Greater Los Angeles area is for everyone and yet Huntington Beach officials landed on a cliche and reductive approach to making headlines: marginalizing queer Californians (and potentially, millions of tourists) in one fell swoop. It’s alarming and embarrassing that in 2023, on the heels of 150+ anti-LGBTQ legislations ravaging the country, this is what municipal employees are focusing on– not the unhoused, gun safety or the care of our seniors,” said Joe Hollendoner, CEO of the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “For a city that prides itself on exercising its rights, it’s abhorrently inexcusable to infringe upon the First Amendment rights of the LGBTQ tax-payers; they’re sending us a clear message of hate and shamelessly putting young, queer lives at stake. Huntington Beach’s officials are taking a cue from the political playbooks of extremist politicians across the country—using their hatred of queer and trans people as launching pads for their careers. We will not be relegated to a closeted existence as those days are long behind us, and our people will always find a way to fly our flag loud and proud. I hope the elected officials who voted in favor of the flag ban remember that representation matters, and that the LGBTQ+ community will work tirelessly to elect representatives who champion our rights.

The new rules for display of flags on city property are set to come back at the council’s February 21 meeting for official adoption. BRODY LEVESQUE