Three years after first flying the LGBTQ+ Delight flag from Metropolis Corridor, the Downey Metropolis Council narrowly voted Tuesday throughout a six-hour assembly in favor of enacting a “impartial flag” coverage that strikes down such shows.
The three-2 affirmative vote amended town’s coverage to permit solely the flying of the USA flag, the state flag, town flag and the prisoner of warfare flag.
Mayor Professional Tem Hector Sosa motioned and voted for the coverage change, as did Metropolis Councilmembers Dorothy Pemberton and Claudia Frometa. Downey Mayor Mario Trujillo and Councilmember Horacio Ortiz voted in opposition to.
Sosa mentioned his vote to place ahead the coverage was motivated by requests he mentioned he’s obtained from residents since he was elected into workplace two years in the past to hoist a wide range of flags, together with Christian, Blue Lives Matter, skinny blue line and Israeli flags.
“I don’t assume it’s our position as elected officers to choose and select which teams get to fly their flags,” Sosa mentioned. “Our position is to easily govern and govern for the residents of Downey.”
Trujillo, who was was elected in April to the board of administrators for the brand new Los Angeles County LGBTQ+ Elected Officers Assn., mentioned he was upset within the vote. He additionally issued a warning to council members who’ve LGBTQ+ members of the family however voted in favor of the coverage. “You may relaxation assured that after tonight, they won’t think about you an ally,” he mentioned.
Trujillo referred to as the transfer “a step backward for our metropolis.” He mentioned the problem was solely caused due to a three-year marketing campaign from the Downey chapter of the Massachusetts-based Mass Resistance, which refers to itself as a “pro-family activist group.” The Southern Poverty Legislation Heart labeled the group as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group.
The group has additionally protested the close by well-being facilities, which supply remedy, wellness workshops, substance abuse training and protected areas to deal with nervousness on the metropolis’s excessive colleges as a result of they believed Deliberate Parenthood was concerned.
Huntington Seaside equally voted to eradicate Delight flags from flying on metropolis property and permitting solely a choose few banners in March. Like Downey, Huntington Seaside additionally first flew its Delight flag in 2021.
In April, San Gabriel disbanded its fairness fee, which some council members noticed as pointless, regardless of pleas from LGBTQ+ activists.
Trujillo had a message to some members of the packed viewers that crammed the assembly.
“To the straight folks, as a substitute of questioning why an LGBT flag is flying, be grateful that you just don’t want a straight flag since you haven’t been persecuted,” he mentioned.
Frometa countered that the vote was “not an assault on anybody neighborhood” and that “we’re one nation and we salute our flag and that flag represents all of us.”
“I don’t need this message to be misconstrued and for the mayor’s feedback that this council’s determination is a direct assault to the LGBTQ neighborhood,” she mentioned. “That’s unfaithful.”
The council’s earlier coverage was adopted in August 2022 and referred to as for the flying of the 4 accredited flags at metropolis -owned or -operated services. Extra “commemorative flags” might solely be displayed by Metropolis Council approval.
The town outlined commemorative flags as flags that “symbolize a historic occasion, trigger, nation, or group of those that town council chooses to honor or commemorate.”
That coverage happened after the council voted to show the Delight flag for June 2021.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose space covers Downey, issued an announcement on Wednesday afternoon, partly saying she “was upset within the Downey Metropolis Council’s determination, and I fear concerning the message it sends to LGBTQ+ residents in Downey.”
She mentioned the flag wouldn’t disappear from town, nevertheless, and could possibly be seen on county property throughout the metropolis, together with on the Los Angeles County Workplace of Schooling, the county’s library headquarters and Los Amigos Golf Course.
“Fortunately, the Delight Flag will nonetheless fly over Downey this June,” she mentioned. “My colleagues and I put in place a brand new coverage final 12 months to fly the Delight flag in any respect county services each June — together with our eight county services in Downey.”
Final 12 months, Hahn and the board additionally voted to fly the Delight flag on the Kenneth Hahn Corridor of Administration constructing in downtown Los Angeles.
