Gay Flag

Judge orders city: Fly the 'gay' flag 

Federal jurist sides with homosexuals  seeking 49 rainbow banners on bridge 

A federal judge is siding with homosexual activists in America's oldest city, ordering St. Augustine, Fla., to fly 49 "gay-pride" flags on its Bridge of Lions. 

The ruling from U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. says the rainbow banners are to be flown for six days starting [June 8]. 

"Permitting a group to fly their flag from the Bridge of Lions enables that group to say 'We exist and this is what we stand for,'" said Karen Doering, staff attorney with the NationalCenter for Lesbian Rights. "By denying this application, these city administrators are denying my clients their constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of speech and equal access under the law. That violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments." 

The judicial mandate comes in connection with a lawsuit filed by Rev. Ruth Jensen and Vicki Waldren of the St. Augustine Pride Committee and other pro-homosexual groups, after the city rejected a request to display the banners for a week during June, which is "gay pride" month. 

Jensen, a homosexual-rights activist, had been told by the city the flags could not fly on the bridge, as the structure was reserved for groups of historical significance. 

"It goes to affirm for us the importance of following through and not accepting a decision that we don't believe is right," Jensen told the paper. "All too often, groups, particularly minority groups, listen to the decisions that are handed down and accept them without attempting to remedy them." 

She pointed out that the group was allowed last year to carry the flags across the bridge, and allowing the banners might prompt others, such as anti-homosexual groups, to request to fly flags. 

The "gay-pride" flag, designed by Gilbert Baker, debuted in 1978 at San Francisco's Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade, with the colors said to represent life, healing, the sun, harmony and spirit (WorldNetDaily.com, June 8, 2005).