The raising of the pride flag as a call for ‘tolerance’ and acceptance

Russ Gordon raises a pride flag on a Jos. Campau flagpole Sunday afternoon in defiance of a city council resolution prohibiting that flag from being on display on public property. Gordon, the Chairman of the Hamtramck Human Relations Commission, was removed from the commission because of this act.

By Charles Sercombe
The LGTBQ pride flag flew once again on a Jos. Campau flagpole.
But that lasted for just a short while before a city crew, including at least four officers providing security, took it down.
Last Sunday, a group of about 20 LGBTQ-rights supporters gathered at 3 p.m., in a demonstration of sorts, and watched Russ Gordon, the chairman of the Hamtramck Human Relations Commission, raise the pride flag.
It was a moment of defiance in the aftermath of the city council and mayor backing a ban on flying pride flags on city-owned property.
The Jos. Campau flagpoles, all 18 of them, are city-owned. In the past, just one pride flag has been flown.
The council’s decision has caused nationwide media coverage, and spurred a debate on whether communities should allow pride flags – and there is more than one design, but most incorporate rainbow colors — to be flown on government property.
Gordon has previously caused friction with the current council and mayor, who are all-Muslim and all-male, when he put up a pride flag over a year ago.
This latest act, Gordon predicted, will likely result in Mayor Amer Ghalib removing him from the commission he chairs. The mayor appoints Human Relations Commission members.
As for why he did it, Gordon read from a prepared statement to those gathered on Sunday.
“For me, the raising of this flag is less about defiance and more about protest, and a plea for tolerance,” he said.
Gordon added that the resolution to ban the pride flag stems from religious “bigotry,” and that “ordering the removal of this flag will just fan the flames.”
The flag was indeed removed – about two-and-a-half hours after it was raised.
City Manager Max Garbarino said the mayor and councilmembers demanded it come down, and so a city crew was dispatched to remove it.
The city also removed two other flags that do not fit the definition of acceptable flags – the pan-African flag and one representing the Cherokee nation.
The council’s resolution permits only the American flag, the state flag, city flag, prisoner of war flag and the flags of nations that represent where Hamtramck residents come from to be flown — all in an effort to remain neutral when it comes any other flag.
Also speaking to those gathered was Catrina Stackpoole, a former city councilmember and a member of the Hamtramck Human Relations Commission.
Stackpoole was recently appointed to the commission by the mayor.
“This flag represents people in this community that, for years, were unable to be openly gay without harassment and worse,” Stackpoole said.
Stackpoole continued: “We now can be open and proud to be gay or trans, or whatever we want. We are able to be who we are and be proud. We are free to be ourselves without religious beliefs telling us to go back into the closet. We will not.
“Hamtramck is a diverse, multi-cultural and welcoming city to all who move here. We need to remind our neighbors that its diversity is its strength, and that we stand for love, not hate. Hamtramck has welcomed many waves of new immigrants.
“We have helped with English and citizen(ship) classes, and formed social service agencies to help with food, clothing and housing for many waves of new immigrants. Many of us defended the call to prayer because we believe in welcoming everyone to our town.
“Our city slogan is ‘The World in Two Square Miles’
“And queer Hamtramckans are members of the world and this community. And we are here to stay.”

Human Relations Commission member Catrina Stackpoole spoke against the city council’s recent resolution banning pride flags. She, too, was removed from the commission this week.

Earlier in the week, The Review contacted Mayor Ghalib about his reaction to the raising of the flag, and whether he will remove either, or both, Gordon and Stackpoole from the Human Relations Commission.
“It was a very irresponsible action by a militia that has zero respect for law and order and that once used to lead the city. I haven’t decided yet on what way to terminate them,” Ghalib said.
As it turned out, the city council voted at Tuesday’s council meeting to remove Gordon and Stackpoole from the commission, and that the commission will no longer be in charge of flying flags.
In the resolution, Gordon and Stackpoole were accused of “blatantly violat(ing) the laws of the City of Hamtramck by flying a flag in contravention of the law designating that no flags of any religious, ethnic, racial, political, or sexual orientation group may be flown on City property. …”
What law exactly that was broken is unclear.
City Manager Max Garbarino, who has a law degree, said that a council resolution is basically the same as a law.
“Resolution, law, what’s the difference?” he said.
However, he admitted that Gordon’s action “doesn’t carry a criminal penalty.”
No matter what, Garbarino stressed that no one will be charged with a crime.
Mayor Ghalib said at Tuesday’s council meeting that “we expect people to follow law and order.”
Garbarino further said that the city is in the process of purchasing American flags to replace the international flags, which will be taken down this year.
As for the future, Garbarino said that unless the council says otherwise, he will fly just the American flags.
Gracie Cadieux, who helped organize a recent rally in Zussman Park to protest the city’s ban on flying a pride flag, said the city and police department shouldn’t spend their time taking down the pride flag, but should instead pursue recent incidents of pride flags being torn down at residences.
“People feel emboldened to harass people,” Cadieux said.
Up until this time, Gordon has been privately collecting donations for the Jos. Campau flags, and has also spent money himself on them. He has been the only one raising and taking down the flags each year for the last several years.
Gordon told The Review that the latest matter marks “an end of an era.”

Prior the raising of a pride flag on Sunday, a number of people wrote pro-LGBTQ messages in chalk on a sidewalk near the flag raising.

There were those on some Hamtramck-based Facebook pages who applauded the removal of the pride flag, which some called the “shame flag.”
“It is good to see the disgusting flag removed very quickly, but the people who did it must be held accountable,” said a person on the Facebook page “Hamtramck Square” who identifies by the name Fares Alhalemi.
“This law violation by the gang of the former mayor should be doubled or tripled sentence,” Alhalemi added.
The former mayor being referenced is Karen Majewski, who supported LGBTQ rights as well as flying the pride flag. Majewski was also at Sunday’s pride flag raising.
After serving for 16 years, she lost to the current mayor, Amer Ghalib, who was against flying the pride flag.
Ghalib, a licensed nurse, is an immigrant from Yemen, and is the first Yemeni-American to serve as mayor of Hamtramck.
Ghalib has said that, although he is opposed to displaying pride flags on city property, he has no problem with people flying them at their homes.
Prior to the flag raising, several people gathered to draw and write pro-LGTBQ messages in chalk on the sidewalk.
Some of the messages were:
“Hamtramck will always be gay”
“Queers fight back”
“We have always been here”
“Our existence is resistance”
Sources have told The Review that there is a possibility that the ACLU will step in and take legal action. This issue appears to be far from over.
Posted July 14, 2023