A community divided over flag regulations
In early January, the Coos Bay City Council decided to limit flags flown on city flagpoles to nationally recognized ones, such as the American flag and the flag of the state of Oregon. This move comes from community backlash after the city council allowed a gay pride flag to be flown during June of last year in honor of national pride month.
Rob Taylor, of the local radio show Rob Taylor Report, was one of these individuals who were vehemently against this new policy of limiting the types of flags flown on city flagpoles.
“I wanted to go back to the normal flag policy or to allow all flags to fly,” said Taylor. “All groups should be recognized. If you only allow certain groups then that spills over to other policies.”
The city council established a policy that states that they would take flag recommendations from community members, review them as a group, and then decide which flags could be flown on the flagpole near the Coos Bay boardwalk, and which would not make the cut. A short time after they updated this policy, a citizen named Kamryn Stringfield sent a request to fly a pride flag in June of 2021, among other individuals who wanted a flag of the same meaning to fly during that particular month. It passed a unanimous vote to recognize the LGBTQ+ community as part of the reconciliation movement seen across the country.
Shortly thereafter, more requests came in, notable among those the right-ring libertarian flag by the name Gagsden, the Christian flag, and the U.K. flag. Taylor then threatened legal action to sue the City of Coos Bay if it would not fly a Christian flag along with the LGBTQ+ flag.
“I believe in equality, not equity,” said Rob Taylor.
With many people on either sides of the political spectrum in Coos County, it isn’t hard to spark a debate concerning these matters.
“I recognized that there were a few progressive moments in our city,” said Stringfield. “I found that there was progress, which is a good first step for reconciliation in our community.”
After much debate on what flags should and shouldn’t fly, the city council decided to hold a moratorium on the flag policy. For now it will limit what flags can fly on city flagpoles. City Manager Rodger Craddock was among those who were in support of the flag policy at first, but later chose to revoke it due to threatened legal action.
“The reality of the matter is that we were faced with legal action, and we did not feel it was wise to spend our taxpayers’ money on a lawsuit where it could better go to funding our police and firefighters,” said Craddock. “If we took this to court, it would spend too much time and money, and right now our tax funding is tight.”
Many disagreed with the reasoning, citing that we desperately need to bring awareness to this matter.
“The city council was wrong in their decision,” said Stringfield. “They based their reasoning on an outdated supreme court ruling. By doing this, the city council members distanced themselves from their community. The pride flag was decisive for the right reasons.”
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TRACY E HODSON • Mar 13, 2023 at 2:41 am
I applaud the journalistic efforts at the Marshfield Times, but there is more to say than just this brief recap.
The Coos Bay City Council made the decision to display the Pride flag during the month of June–Pride Month–because it was something they wished to support, to say, in essence, “We support our Queer residents.” Their policy was that the only flags displayed (besides government flags) would be those that they themselves felt strongly supportive of. They never had a policy of considering the suggestions of others when petitioned. The Gadsden flag, which originated in Charleston, SC, is flown there for historical reasons, but elsewhere is associated with Far-Right political groups, including those who are openly White Supremacists. It was also carried quite proudly, it seems, by the insurrectionists at the Capitol on January 6th 2021 as they stormed the building. There is no way the Coos Bay City Council can entertain as reasonable the idea of flying that flag on the boardwalk. It would, at this point, be declaring solidarity with those who tried to stop the peaceful transition of power after a free and fair election, so let’s dismiss that idea as transparently absurd.
The other request–the flying of the so-called Christian flag–is by no means universally accepted as representative of all Christians, for one thing. The other relevant factor in discussions of this particular flag, is that there are well in excess of 30 churches in Coos Bay alone, making it very clear that Christianity, in all its forms, is more than represented in the city. Despite the constant claims about “the war on Christianity” heard on the Right, this is about one church in CB per 500 citizens. It is hardly necessary for government to validate the presence of this religion in Coos Bay.
The LGBT/Queer community, on the other hand, IS experiencing a war right now–one that gets more intense every day with, according to the ACLU, 399 bills currently in state legislations (all proffered by Republicans) designed to end or severely curtail the rights of this population. These laws range from making it illegal to give counseling to young people who request it, to making it legal to turn away LGBT people from hospitals. The state of Tennessee just made it illegal for drag performers to be seen in public, or in any place where they might be seen by children, because there’s no greater danger to 6 year-olds than catching a glimpse of a cabaret performer parking his car; it might make them late for their Active Shooter Preparedness Training sessions.
My point is, showing active support to the Queer residents of Coos Bay/Coos County couldn’t be more important, or more timely. Flying the Pride flag on the boardwalk says “It’s okay to be here–you don’t have to grow up and move away anymore. We see you. We accept you.” It’s how Coos Bay says “Welcome!” to those whom the Right wants to make invisible, or otherwise mysteriously gone. At CPAC this past week, Michael Knowles (The Daily Wire) said to the audience, “For the good of society … transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely — the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.” In this environment, the city should think about how it wants to be seen.
Transgender people are people, not an “ideology,” and they exist in the real world, including right here in God and Guns Coos County. For the city of Coos Bay to lower its metaphorical and literal flag right now is the worst thing it can do. Loudmouthed, professional bigots like Rob Taylor, who use threats of lawsuits and other threats to get their way, need to be sent packing. Commissioner Bob Main got the “I’ll sue you!” holler from Taylor about a month ago, when Main eliminated from commissioner meetings the Public Comments portion of the morning as it had become an unruly free-for-all with Taylor and the rest of the Citizens Restoring Liberty crowd regularly hijacking the meetings. They had also organized a work-around when the commission voted against opening with prayer, by having someone simply get up during the next meeting and pray out loud. Main’s response to Rob Taylor’s threat of a lawsuit was, “I don’t care about that.”
If only the city would stand so firm.
Rob Taylor • Mar 11, 2023 at 11:01 pm
Good article, the student reporter did a better job than what The World newspaper offered its readers.