Dublin Reverses Its Decision, Allows Pride Flag to Fly Over City Hall

After a decision last month not to fly the Pride flag over City Hall, the Dublin City Council reversed itself at a meeting Tuesday night and immediately raised the flag to sit under the city flag. It will stay up until July 3 to celebrate Pride month.

The controversy started after Councilman Shawn Kumagai, Dublin's first openly gay council member, brought forward a proposal at the May 21 City Council meeting asking for a city resolution to recognize June as Pride Month and for the city to fly the rainbow flag for the duration of the month. While the resolution recognizing Pride Month passed, the flag proposal prompted debate. The council ultimately voted down even an amended proposal to fly the flag for just one day.

Council members said they were primarily concerned about a lack of a policy regarding non-official flags and wanted to formalize a policy first. Mayor David Haubert, who initially voted against flying the flag, wrote in a letter, "Our city has flown the U.S., California and Dublin City flags exclusively for as long as anyone can remember. The decision to move toward a policy, which would allow the Pride Flag, and other flags, is what I supported...This should not be interpreted as lack of support for the LGBTQ community and nobody should tell you otherwise."

However, some of the public comments during the discussion were seen as offensive and misinformed — with two people arguing that the flag supported pedophilia, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Kumagai, who brought the resolution, said in his own open letter that he was concerned about the comments that were made and what they mean for other LGBT members of the Dublin community.

"However, the sad truth is that I wasn't surprised by the homophobic and transphobic remarks. I have been hearing these types of comments my entire adult life, and generally believe they are relegated to the fringes," he wrote.

The original decision prompted a petition to encourage the city to fly the flag, which garnered over 800 signatures. A couple of dozen people also gathered outside City Hall on June 1, the start of Pride Month, to protest the initial vote.

"My goal was to raise awareness about the progress our LGBTQ community has made and about the important work still unfinished. The subsequent debate — and the decision not to fly the LGBTQ Pride flag in Dublin — are strong evidence that there is much more work to do," wrote Kumagai in his letter.

On Tuesday night the City Council both adopted an official policy about commemorative flags and unanimously voted to begin flying the rainbow flag immediately. Mayor Haubert, who donned a rainbow sash for Tuesday's meeting, also told KTVU he was wrong for remaining silent when homophobic comments were made during the initial discussion. "I’m sorry from the bottom of my heart for not sticking up and standing up," he said.