A Connecticut town council voted to ban the LGBTQ+ pride flag in government buildings almost immediately after coming under Republican control.
The Enfield Town Council voted in a meeting Monday to ban all flags from flying at government buildings save for the United States, Connecticut state, and military flags. The new policy, which went through with a vote of 6-5, replaces a 2022 policy that allowed the rainbow flag to fly during Pride Month in June.
While some the council members pushing the policy claimed to do so as a way to remain “neutral,” Councilor At-Large Gina Cekala, who voted against the measure, accused them of directly targeting the LGBTQ+ community and Pride flag.
“I think the real reason is you don’t want that Pride flag up on this town hall,” she said, “which is absolutely disgusting."
Tom Tyler, the interim town attorney, claimed at one point that if the the Pride flag was allowed to be flown, “ISIS could come in and want to display one, the IRA…basically anybody. You’d have to be content neutral and let everybody." He then went off-topic to accuse schools of trying to indoctrinate students with “transgender ideology.”
The decision came as a betrayal to many of the town’s residents, including Brandon Jewell of PFLAG Enfield, who noted that two of the Republicans voting to ban flags previously voted in favor of the 2022 policy that allowed the Pride displays.
read more: https://www.advocate.com/news/connecticut-pride-flag-ban-isis
Fox, OAN, NewsMax, etc. Those are gateways to the Christian Taliban… I mean ISIS. Same thing.
Y’all Qaeda is a bigger threat to the world than any Afghanis ever were.
Y’all Qaeda
That got me laughing to the point of having a coughing fit.
retards of a feather flock together
its ironic that vanilla isis is talking shit about original flavor isis, trying to imply that their shared boogie man wants anything to do with either kind of crazy religious right wingnuts
The most amazing part is that they’ve resolved all of the more important issues and have the time to consider what flags should be allowed to fly at government buildings.
Right? I mean how negligent would it be to prioritize passing an approved flags list while issues that affect their constituents still need attention.
Plus, notice the absolute freedom these people are enforcing. Republicans, truly the people who still take freedom and self-determination serious! Not like those Democrafts who always want to legislate everything and have rules and bans and shit! Just let people do what they personally want, the republican way.
(Can we please just shove them all into the ocean already? Nothing of any value will be lost and we also reduce the carbon footprint a little bit.)
Oh, the carbon footprint will be drastic.
I suspect those are the people who shun any climate science, and instead will do the opposite of anything told to do.
“ISIS could come in and want to display one, the IRA…basically anybody. You’d have to be content neutral and let everybody.” He then went off-topic to accuse schools of trying to indoctrinate students with ‘transgender ideology.’
Yep, that sounds like a typical conservative. Mind is just a jumble of terrified nightmare-fantasies about the big bad de jour that wanders off into total nonsense without any notice.
ISIS could come in and want to display one
I don’t think ISIS supports LGBTQ+…
What are we supposed to do with these conservatives? They can’t be debated with, they don’t have the concept of logic.
Rethink what you mean by “what are we supposed to do?”
You’re not going to convince them, you’re not going to change their mind, you’re not going to find the one flaw that shakes them from their delusion. Because conservativism is not founded on principles. A conservative is a narcissist, and should be treated as such. Ignore their tantrums, protect yourself and your interests, set boundaries and stick to them. Their arguments are flotsam flung from whatever position they think will help them most. Ignore them, it’s all bullshit. Their priorities are lines in the sand drawn around where they stand. Ignore them and do what you know to be right. Do not compromise, do not waver, do not negotiate. That’s a losing strategy every time, because their appetite for self interest is never sated. Their lust for power will grow with every inch you cede.
They are not an enemy to be vanquished with thoughtful debate, they are an obstacle to be overcome with tireless devotion to doing good.
Also do not seek revenge. Do not say “they have hurt me, I must hurt them.” The conservative craves your attention and will feel validated by your wrath. “See?” they will say, “I knew you were as bad as me. You criticize me, but we are the same.” Forgive them, and move on with your life. A conservative may learn that being kinder to others benefits themselves. This doesn’t mean they are cured of their conservativism, merely that they have adapted to the new normal where you aren’t playing their games. They will pretend they were on your side all along. They will claim to have been confused or lost or fooled, but they are merely deflecting blame for their willful ignorance. You can enjoy the time they spend feigning compassion, but be vigilant against the selfish gremlin inside waiting to latch onto any advantage they can find for themselves. If you give a mouse a cookie…
Or just fucking punch 'em… a lot less work.
It’s not about issis supporting lgbt+ but about having to allow any flag if you allow one.
What fucking country do they think they’re in?
How is this different than a city saying “if we allow you to fly a flag for the Steelers, what’s next, a Nazi German flag?” Any reasonable person can see that there is a clear line between something like a flag that supports an innocuous mainstream idea and a flag representing a terrorist organization, it’s ridiculous and clearly motivated by bigotry. Cities and towns have been displaying rainbows in various forms for years during pride month and I haven’t seen any inch of progression towards right-wing Islamic terror groups being supported also.
The post is about flagging in public buildings. I can’t imagine public buildings setting up a flag for the steelers and not doing so for any other team.
I expect the issue is, that you can’t expect reason especially when it’s in up to the public. People and organisations will find ways to exploit this.
It must be great to live in a place that has so few real problems that the town can waste time with bullshit culture war distractions.
Oh I’m sure they have plenty of problems, but it’s probably only minorities and poor people who experience them so who cares!
Noisy “news” like this are actually really good at hiding a lot of real problems. Especially chronic ones that are “old news”.
I hope no one emails or calls him about this issue by going to this link
https://www.enfield-ct.gov/directory.aspx?EID=699
Please please no one use *67 before dialing. Please no one go to the million or so temporary email boxes and email him. Please please don’t make your voice heard and stand up for a minority being attacked in our midst. Remember to say nothing about the oppression of x unless you are a member of x. Please do not set an alarm on your phone as a reminder to call once a day. Please go gently into that good night and let the fascists win by a million cuts.
I’m doing my part!
Thank you for that. It is so important that small evil people are allowed to quitely harm the world without being called out on it.
Also no one go to his person website and do it
“ISIS is gay.”
Proceeds to hoist a military flag
Is this town a modern warfare 2 lobby?
ban all flags from flying at government buildings save for the United States, Connecticut state, and military flags
Ah yes, military flags, very neutral. It’s great that conservatives are super neutral and yet they shit on people’s desire to not promote war, imperialism and genocide.
But people died for those flags! /s
Pretty silly to die for a piece of cloth.
The party of freedom to take away everyone else’s freedom!
The word for people who care about individual liberties is “liberal”.
The right tells us they are not liberal. Believe them.
Anyone that goes through that much effort to ban something that doesn’t harm them is hiding something.
We need to start bounties on this, maybe via Kickstarter. Anyone who can get pictures of Tom Tyler getting head at a truck stop glory hole wins money. Cold hard cash.
The irony is thick.
Lets all just settle on the satan flag 😁
So that is a violation of the first amendment
Not necessarily, since this is a government building it would be the government’s speech, and they clearly don’t want to fly it. They aren’t preventing people from flying it on their personal property.
That said, there’s a clear likelihood that this is purely anti-lgbtq sentiment in action.
Ugggh, so I really don’t want to be on their side with this, but… I kind of agree that the only flags that should fly in government buildings is US, state, and military flags. There also shouldn’t be religious wall decorations like the Ten Commandments or crosses. There shouldn’t be Confederate flags. There shouldn’t be state university flags. It’s a government building, and it should represent everyone equally, and not promote any cause, group, or religion except explicitly what is part of the government.
I reeeeeeally don’t like the reason they want to ban it, but I think it would be great for every government building to adopt those standards.
I think the government has an obligation to represent oppressed minorities, including their symbology when appropriate.There is no such thing as neutrality, and even if it wasn’t for regressive reasons it would still be a regressive policy.
IMHO, the crucial difference is that the LGBTQ pride flag isn’t saying the gays are the best. It’s merely asking for equal treatment, for human rights. A government which does not agree with those goals, which does not work for the equal treatment and human rights of all its citizen, is being partial in precisely the way you describe.
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I’m figuring out how you come with these words together. I don’t know. It’s a new level of intellectual gymnastics.
It’s really easy if you rtfa
Tom Tyler, the interim town attorney, claimed at one point that if the the Pride flag was allowed to be flown, “ISIS could come in and want to display one, the IRA…basically anybody. You’d have to be content neutral and let everybody."
I don’t agree with him in the slightest, but it’s not like he’s saying that being gay makes you a terrorist or something
The ideologies of terrorist organizations are incompatible with the U.S. Constitution, the ideology of the Pride Flag is not. His logic is flawed. And no, there isn’t any room for “someone else’s freedom fighter” etc. under the Constitution. The law has room for interpretation, but not to the degree that Tyler is arguing that it does. Secondly, debates on hypothetical scenarios have no bearings on the law or how it’s applied. This is why that town clerk who refused a marriage license has to pay a fine now. The town should be sued to allow flying the Pride Flag.
100% agreed. I’m just saying, it’s just flawed logic. Well, really it’s homophobia, but the claim that allowing one flag means you have to allow all flags is just flawed logic, not mental gymnastics.
debates on hypothetical scenarios have no bearings on the law or how it’s applied
This isn’t true though, tons of hypotheticals showing up in and being relevant to the outcome of court decisions. Not sure the general “compatibility” of an ideology to the constitution is very relevant here either since afaik there isn’t anything in there limiting what flags local governments can fly at government buildings, sounds like the deciding factor is whether the town council votes to allow a particular flag. Which would mean that what this guy is saying doesn’t make sense either, if ISIS got elected in that town they could vote to put their flag up regardless of the previous policy.
To be clear, I meant hypotheticals debated outside of the courtrooms have no bearing.
