Federal court puts an end to lawsuit over pride flag

A federal court has ruled that the city has the right to ban the display of a pride flag on public property, which would now include what these residents were doing a few years ago in Zussman Park, located across from city hall.

By Charles Sercombe
Hamtramck’s pride flag dispute has been settled – at least, legally.
This week, Federal Court Judge David M. Lawson dismissed a lawsuit, filed by two former members of the Hamtramck Human Relations Commission, who were seeking to overturn the city’s ban on displaying a pride flag on public property.
In the 12-page opinion, the judge basically ruled that the city has the right to control what flags are displayed.
City Attorney Odey Meroueh said the ruling “confirms that Hamtramck has the right to decide what it communicates on its own property.”
He added: “The Court’s decision vindicates Mayor Amer Ghalib and the City Council for adopting a neutral policy that treats every group and every viewpoint the same. …This case was about neutral rules, fair enforcement, and responsible city governance, not about suppressing anyone’s speech.”
Former Human Relations Chairman Russ Gordon could not be reached for comment.
Gordon and fellow commissioner Catrina Stackpoole defied a city council resolution banning the display of pride flags by raising one on one of the Jos. Campau flagpoles, which are city property.
They were then fired from their non-paid volunteer roles on the commission.
Stackpoole said that, while the lawsuit is over, the debate will continue.
“Disappointed and sad that the court refused to see the underlying motive was religion,” Stackpoole said. “The case may be over in the court but not over in the court of public opinion.”
The all-male and all-Muslim city council and mayor took issue with the pride flag display because it offended some in the community, claiming the flag promoted homosexuality.
The pride flag represents gay pride.
The flag had been flown in Zussman Park during Pride Month in June, and also on one Jos. Campau flagpole for two years prior to the ban.
The city council and mayor, in response to Hamtramck’s conservative community, took an official action against the pride flag in a resolution passed in 2022, which stated, in part, that the ban was an act of showing “neutrality.”
Hamtramck’s council resolution allows only the American, state, city and Prisoner of War flags, as well as the flags that represent the international character of the city’s residents – many of whom are immigrants, or sons and daughters of immigrants, from various countries in the world.
The ban on pride flags prompted a protest in Zussman Park, across from city hall, where the state’s top law enforcer, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, spoke out in protest.
Nessel, who is gay, called the ban a “national embarrassment.”
During a three-hour council meeting that led to the pride flag ban, then-city-councilmember Nayeem Choudhury, who is seeking to return to service on council in this November’s election, didn’t hide that the resolution was based, in part, on religion.
“…We have to respect the religions. We have to respect the people around here. Schools, mosques, churches,” Choudhury said.
Choudhury also said that the LGBTQ community, which the pride flags represent, is welcomed in other ways.
“You guys are welcome to the community. You guys (are) welcome to walk to the restaurants, walk to the grocery store,” Choudhury said.
“Why do we have to have a flag flown in the city property to be represented? You’re already represented. We already know who you are, and we don’t have any hate or any discrimination against that. We get along very well.”
Back in 2024, Mayor Amer Ghalib dismissed the lawsuit and the fuss about pride flags as coming from supporters of former mayor Karen Majewski and the prior administration.
He said that this is “another unnecessary distraction by the former power structure that doesn’t like to see the city moving forward. Good things are happening for the first time in decades, such as budget surplus and infrastructure repair.”
“This exposes the former egregious leadership’s failure; therefore they want to constantly create obstacles on our way.”
Posted Sept. 12, 2025