Two officials on the Hamtramck Human Relations Commission have been removed after the city council said they violated a city ordinance banning the display of LGBT Pride flags on city property.
The removal came after the all-Muslim city council voted last month to ban the display of LGBT Pride flags on all city properties. In a unanimous vote this week, Russ Gordon and Cathy Stackpoole were kicked off of the human relations commission after the council said the pair were responsible for flying a Pride flag on government property.
“This Council believes in fairness, neutrality towards our residents, and the rule of law, amongst other things for this community. We passed a resolution recently to do just that, and two of our sworn commissioners outright defied it, and did what they wanted,” Council member Khalil Refai told Fox News in a statement.
Refai added that the council considered the flying of the LGBT flag a violation of the city’s trust.
“We were elected by the people of the community to make these decisions, and they not only violated the resolution but the trust of the whole community by doing this. For this reason, Council felt the appropriate response was to remove them from their public positions of trust,” he said.
The human relations commission is supposed to encourage “tolerance,” “multiculturalism,” and “constructive communication.”
The city of about 28,000 near Detroit has a history of conflicts over LGBT ideology. As far back as 2008, conservative Christians in the community joined with the local Muslim community to oppose a city ordinance that would include the LGBT community as a protected group.
The resolution to ban ideological flags from the Michigan city’s property was introduced in June by Councilman Mohammed Hassan.
“The City of Hamtramck does not allow any religious, ethnic, racial, political, or sexual orientation group flags to be flown on the City’s public properties, and that only, the American flag, the flag of the State of Michigan, the Hamtramck Flag, the Prisoner of War flag on City property,” the resolution said.
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The issue of the “Pride” flag has divided communities across the country, especially in some school districts where teachers have been found to be promoting gender ideology and encouraging students to “transition.”
A county board of education in Maryland narrowly rejected a proposal this week that would have banned the display of all non-governmental flags, which would include Pride and Black Lives Matter (BLM) flags.
On Wednesday, the Anne Arundel County Board of Education voted 4-3 to reject a policy banning the display of all non-governmental flags on school property.