A Connecticut town council voted to ban the LGBTQ+ pride flag in government buildings almost immediately after coming under Republican control.

The Enfield Town Council voted in a meeting Monday to ban all flags from flying at government buildings save for the United States, Connecticut state, and military flags. The new policy, which went through with a vote of 6-5, replaces a 2022 policy that allowed the rainbow flag to fly during Pride Month in June.

While some the council members pushing the policy claimed to do so as a way to remain “neutral,” Councilor At-Large Gina Cekala, who voted against the measure, accused them of directly targeting the LGBTQ+ community and Pride flag.

“I think the real reason is you don’t want that Pride flag up on this town hall,” she said, “which is absolutely disgusting."

Tom Tyler, the interim town attorney, claimed at one point that if the the Pride flag was allowed to be flown, “ISIS could come in and want to display one, the IRA…basically anybody. You’d have to be content neutral and let everybody." He then went off-topic to accuse schools of trying to indoctrinate students with “transgender ideology.”

The decision came as a betrayal to many of the town’s residents, including Brandon Jewell of PFLAG Enfield, who noted that two of the Republicans voting to ban flags previously voted in favor of the 2022 policy that allowed the Pride displays.

read more: https://www.advocate.com/news/connecticut-pride-flag-ban-isis

    • NIB@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Supporting Palestine’s right to exist and palestinians not getting ethnic cleansed is not rioting for Hamas.

      • fosforus
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        6 months ago

        This is partially true, yes. Partially false due to Hamas being the official ruling body of Gaza, and the riots benefitting them directly.

        • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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          6 months ago

          Just as how criticising the Israeli government is not criticising the Israeli people (and therefore not antisemitic), supporting the Palestinians and their right to not suffer a genocide is not the same as supporting their government.

          To claim otherwise is fucking racist.

        • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          6 months ago

          Hamas is one of several Palestinian groups fighting Israel. They are just the most prominent, in part due to the Israeli government’s long term funding of them. People ‘rioting’ are supporting military action against Israel, not any particular militant group. If Hamas wasn’t there, you would be saying they are supporting a different group.

    • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      Virtually no LGBT folk support Hamas

      You can be in favor of the Palestinian people without being in favor of the terrorist organization that claims to own them

      • fosforus
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        6 months ago

        Virtually no LGBT folk support Hamas

        In the same way I don’t support Israel’s extreme right while fully supporting their right to fight back against Hamas and other religious extremists?

        • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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          6 months ago

          Sure, I would support Israel’s fight against Hamas too, but unfortunately they aren’t so much fighting Hamas as they are indiscriminately killing Palestinians

          • fosforus
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            6 months ago

            I would argue that this is the main reason why fighting wars without proper army and uniforms is frowned upon. Because civilians and Hamas are indistinguishable, IDF is forced to regard everyone (including israeli hostages, as we saw before) in Gaza strip as potential enemy. Then again, I suppose it would require a proper state to get a proper army.

            • starman2112@sh.itjust.works
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              6 months ago

              Yes, this is also why police should just shoot hostages. You never know which ones are actually robbing the bank, so better to just kill all of them

              • fosforus
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                6 months ago

                That sorta tracks, but I think it’s different insofar that the goal of Hamas is to kill whereas the goal of bank robbers usually is to get away with the money. The risk is not the same.