Hamtramck Council Bans LGBTQ Flags From City Property After Months of Intense Debate
After three hours of public comments and months of intense debate, the Hamtramck City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to ban LGBTQ Pride flags from being displayed on all city properties.
Introduced by Mayor Pro Tem and Councilman Mohammed Hassan, the resolution also prohibited the display and flying of flags with racist and political views.
Before the vote, Hassan gave a fiery speech blasting critics of the resolution for not respecting the views of Hamtramck residents, quoting from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address about how government should be of the people, by the people, for the people.
The clashes represented diverging views about the future of Hamtramck, whose population jumped 27% from 2010 to 2020, one of the biggest spikes among older cities in Michigan.
Hassan and other members of the council said LGBTQ people and others are welcome in Hamtramck, but need to respect religious freedom. Some proponents of the resolution said the Pride flag clashes with their faith.
Several speakers from Dearborn who were leaders in protests last year against LGBTQ books spoke at the Hamtramck meeting, saying American soldiers sacrificed for the U.S. flag, not the Pride flag.
Source:Detroit Free Press
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