In an unprecedented move in Hamtramck, Michigan, two members of the city’s Human Relations Commission have been dismissed due to a violation of a city ordinance restricting the display of LGBT Pride flags on public grounds.
This decision comes in the wake of the city council’s decision to prohibit such displays on all city properties.
The decision to enforce this ban came last month when the city council, comprised entirely of Muslim members, cast their unanimous votes.
As a consequence, Russ Gordon and Cathy Stackpoole, were discharged from their roles in the Human Relations Commission.
The council attributed their removal to their involvement in hoisting a Pride flag on government property, an action deemed in defiance of the council’s mandate.
Council member Khalil Refai provided a statement to Fox News elucidating the council’s stance: “This Council believes in fairness, neutrality towards our residents, and the rule of law, amongst other things for this community. We passed a resolution recently to do just that, and two of our sworn commissioners outright defied it, and did what they wanted.”
Refai expanded on the matter, emphasizing that the council viewed the flag’s display as a breach of the city’s trust.
He continued, “We were elected by the people of the community to make these decisions, and they not only violated the resolution but the trust of the whole community by doing this. For this reason, Council felt the appropriate response was to remove them from their public positions of trust.”
In Hamtramck, the Human Relations Commission is mandated to foster “tolerance,” “multiculturalism,” and “constructive communication.”
This small city, with a population of around 28,000 and located near Detroit, has witnessed a history of clashes over LGBT ideologies.
Dating back to 2008, conservative Christians in the community allied with the local Muslim community to push back against a city ordinance that proposed extending protected group status to the LGBT community.
The move to exclude ideological flags from public property in this Michigan city was initially put forward in June by Councilman Mohammed Hassan.
He delineated in the resolution, “The City of Hamtramck does not allow any religious, ethnic, racial, political, or sexual orientation group flags to be flown on the City’s public properties, and that only, the American flag, the flag of the State of Michigan, the Hamtramck Flag, the Prisoner of War flag on City property.”
Controversies surrounding the display of the “Pride” flag have stirred up conflicts in various communities nationwide.
This is particularly notable in certain school districts where instances of teachers promoting gender ideology and nudging students towards “transition” have been reported.
In a related development this week, a county board of education in Maryland narrowly voted down a proposal that aimed to ban all non-governmental flags, encompassing Pride and Black Lives Matter (BLM) flags, on school properties.
The Anne Arundel County Board of Education voted 4-3, turning down the proposed policy to ban all non-governmental flags on school property.
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