Huntington Beach votes to ban Pride flag at city buildings

Three years after the last city council unanimously passed a resolution to fly the Pride flag during June, the new council initiated a successful ballot movement to ban the flag. Photo courtesy of Unsplash

Over half of Huntington Beach voters chose to support a ban on the display of Pride flags at city buildings, according to ballot results from the March primary election.

This decision comes after the appointment of four conservative council members, who all voted in favor of the amendment to Huntington Beach’s charter, according to the ballot measure. Huntington Beach City Council is currently comprised of seven council members in total.

The flag ban is the latest in a series of events that have had the right-leaning council choosing to move things in a more conservative direction. Other actions include adopting an ordinance that bans minors from accessing certain books containing sexual content, limiting who should give the opening prayers at meetings and discussing border control at council meetings. 

The measure states that the only flags that are permitted to be flown outside of city buildings are those of the United States, the State of California, the County of Orange, the City of Huntington Beach, the POW-MIA, the six Armed Forces and the Olympic Flag. 

Residents — and council members — have seen this measure as a political move to undo past actions promoting the presence of the Pride flag at city establishments.

“It’s a chickenshit way of banning the pride flag,” councilmember Dan Kalmick told The Panther.

Kalmick, along with Natalie Moser and Rhonda Bolton, was one of the three council members who were against the motion. 
“They could’ve just come out and said it, but they didn’t want to stand up for what they believed in. They wanted to hide behind process,” Kalmick said. “And the majority of the people that came out to speak in favor of the flags were against the LGBTQ+ flag.”

In 2021, the previous council unanimously approved — with one member absent — a resolution to fly the Pride flag in front of City Hall throughout the month of June. 

Now, 57% of voters supported the flag-banning amendment while 43% were not in support, according to the Orange County Registrar of Voters. 

Sophomore Isaac Persky, a double major in economics and public relations, advertising and entertainment marketing, expressed his disappointment with the city’s leaders. 

“Honestly [the ban is] just a stupid rule,” said Persky, who identifies as gay. “Let people fly whatever flag they want. It’s a free country.”

Council member Pat Burns, who was in favor of the ban, told The LA Times that he believes it is “demeaning” to the LGBTQ+ community to fly the flag. 

Students at Chapman disagree. They feel that this sort of legislation is harmful to Huntington Beach residents. 

Huntington Beach native Sarah Hart said that she was upset to see the ballot measure pass. Her younger sibling, who goes to Huntington Beach High School, is nonbinary and already faces a lot of bullying from peers at school.

“It’s hard enough to be a queer kid in Huntington Beach,” said Hart, a sophomore double majoring in journalism and dance. “It just makes me really sad. A lot of people close to me and my family, and people in my family, are affected by hateful, homophobic legislation like this.”

Hart pointed out that Huntington Beach has had a problematic history regarding its treatment of the LGBTQ+ community. 

Last year, a video surfaced of students at Edison High School booing in response to a Pride month video clip. The following week, anti-LGBTQ+ flyers were found on the driveways of houses near the school. 

“I just feel really bad for a lot of the kids who probably feel really unsafe right now in their own community,” added Hart.