What story put me on my local map today?

     As a queer person myself, topics that affect my sexuality and others who are also under the LGBTG+ umbrella garner my interest greatly, especially when it happens at a local level. I believe that to spark change at the national government level we must first start at the city level, that it will be a slow but sure process that we must each take part in.

     I am an advocate for queer and trans rights, and I am not afraid to start a conversation about it in my local town. When I was hunting around for a scoop for my next story, I read a news article saying that some individuals in my town had severe issues with flying a gay pride flag during national pride month I felt a strong urge to learn the different sides of the story, and what exactly happened. I went out and interviewed the prominent people that lead the protests, and I interviewed my City Manager. One of the people I interviewed is libertarian, and the one that threatened a lawsuit against the flag being flown (I later went on his radio show, what an icky situation!) The other is a trans woman by the name of Kamyrn Stringfield who I actually knew from one of the pro-choice rallies I attended. The result was a news article that people from both sides of the political spectrum loved. The libertarian, Rob Taylor, raved about it, and another woman by the name Tracy Hodson, who is a great LGBTQ+ ally in my area cited it in her own article that was published in my local newspaper, The World, that it "did a good job" of recapping the story. 

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 Oregon state flag. This move comes from community backlash after the city council allowed a gay pride flag to be flown during June of last year in honour of national pride month.

     “I wanted to go back to the normal flag policy or to allow all flags to fly,” said Rob 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 a flagpole near the Coos Bay boardwalk, and which would not make the cut. A short time after they updated the policy, a citizen named Kamyrn Stringfield sent a request to fly a pride flag in June of 2021, among other individuals who wanted a flag with 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-wing Libertarian flag by the name Gadsden, and the Christian flag along with the LGBTQ+ flag.

     “I believe in equality, not equity,” said Rob Taylor.

     With many people on either side 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 poles. City Manager Rodger Craddock was among those 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 taxpayer’s dollars on a lawsuit where it could go to funding our firefighters and police.” said Craddock. “If we took this to court, it would spend too much time and money, and right now our tax spending 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.”

Now here is some of the photos I took to include in this particular article.