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The city opted to not increase the flag final yr after Danzinger claimed it might open a Pandora’s field of comparable requests from non secular teams, political advocates, and self-proclaimed Satanists. The mayor of the beachside enclave justified his stance by citing a May 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that discovered the City of Boston couldn’t reject a gaggle’s request to lift a Christian flag at metropolis corridor after town allowed tons of of different flag-flying requests to maneuver ahead.
In August, after Surfside residents protested the city’s resolution, the city fee voted 3-2 to acknowledge Pride Month 2023 and fly the rainbow flag, which can be raised on the Surfside Community Center on Collins Avenue.
“Pride Month is all about acceptance and inclusion,” city supervisor Hector Gomez said in a press launch. “This image of solidarity for the neighborhood demonstrates what a welcoming and numerous place Surfside actually is.”
The mayor maintains his stance that town-owned flagpoles ought to be reserved for presidency flags except and till the fee adopts a flag-raising coverage that can information the city in dealing with future requests.
“During our city fee assembly final June, I expressed my help for Pride Month, Juneteenth, and emphasised the significance of tolerance whereas condemning bigotry and racism in my opening remarks to the neighborhood,” Danzinger tells New Times in an announcement. “I totally endorsed a decision for Pride Month. However, what I didn’t help was using our authorities flagpole to advertise a selected message with no city coverage in place that might grant equal alternatives to all organizations.”
Though the flag-flying concern was voted on final yr, the talk continued in month-to-month fee conferences over how deeply concerned Surfside ought to be in satisfaction celebrations. For this yr’s flag elevating, resident Brian Bey proposed that the city plan a homosexual satisfaction occasion and wrap a police automobile in colours highlighting variety and inclusion.
“On this specific concern, there is no straddling of the fence,” Bey stated on the March fee assembly. “The query at hand right here: Is Surfside a city of variety and inclusion or not? I believe the reply [to] that query is in every of your fingers.”
Neither a Pride parade nor Bey’s urged pride-themed police automobile will materialize, in line with Danzinger, who says he is against utilizing taxpayer cash on an occasion that “caters to 1 group.”
“As a small city, our dedication to inclusivity and equality is that each one town-sponsored occasions ought to be all-inclusive and never catered to any particular group or nationality,” the mayor says in his assertion, including that the city has not hosted Hispanic or Jewish parades regardless of being residence to a large inhabitants of these demographics.
At the March fee assembly, Bey countered the mayor’s stance by giving examples of the city’s promotion of cultural occasions on Thursdays and Saturdays, together with one occasion to spotlight Hawaiian tradition with a luau night time that included performances by a Polynesian band and dancers.
The 2022 Supreme Court ruling that precipitated Danzinger’s angst tackled whether or not Boston engaged in “authorities speech” when it allowed exterior teams and organizations’ flags to be raised at metropolis corridor. Municipal officers had turned down Camp Constitution’s request to fly a Christian flag, claiming Boston did not wish to give the looks that it was talking out in favor of a faith in violation of the First Amendment’s so-called Establishment Clause’s separation of church and state.
The courtroom dominated unanimously in opposition to the City of Boston, with Justice Stephen Breyer, a Bill Clinton appointee, indicating that town had “no written insurance policies or clear inside steerage” on flag-flying and had beforehand maintained a “come-one-come-all angle” to elevating flags. Accordingly, Boston can be neither partaking in authorities speech nor endorsing a faith by permitting the Camp Constitution flag to fly, however reasonably offering a public discussion board for a non-public group to precise free speech, Breyer wrote.
After the drama in Surfside performed out in 2022, Republican legislators within the statehouse aimed to make Florida’s authorities flag-flying debates a moot level.
A invoice to ban the show of all however a handful of flags at Florida authorities buildings was launched in February by Republican Florida Rep. David Borrero of Sweetwater. HB 1011 would have allowed authorities buildings within the Sunshine State to fly solely the Florida flag, the American flag, the state’s official Firefighter Memorial flag, and the U.S. navy’s POW-MIA flag, which honors prisoners of conflict and those that went lacking in motion.
HB 1011 died within the Constitutional Rights, Rule of Law & Government Operations subcommittee on May 5. So satisfaction flags and different cultural symbols can nonetheless fly at Florida authorities buildings relying on every native authorities or municipality’s insurance policies.
The Town of Surfside’s press launch notes that elected officers will attend and communicate on the LGBTQ flag-raising ceremony subsequent month.
Danzinger says he’ll be unable to attend as a result of he’ll be out of city on the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
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