City of Newcastle opts out of raising pride flag

The Newcastle City Council voted against raising a pride flag during Pride Month, claiming the flag wasn't inclusive enough.

NEWSCASTLE, Wash. - June is Pride Month. For the 12th year, the city of Seattle raised the LGBTQ+ pride flag in front of city hall.

"This is something our entire city takes pride in," Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said. "When we talk about pride, it’s a pride in the pain we overcome as a community."

This is also the 50th anniversary of Seattle Pride. But as Seattle celebrates pride, in Newcastle, the city council voted against raising the pride flag at its city hall.

The move comes after the City of Newcastle has raised the pride flag for Pride Month (June) over the past several years. Each color of the pride flag reflects the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community, but for some, the flag is colored with controversy.

Featured

Downtown Poulsbo pride flags slashed, police looking for info

article

Downtown Poulsbo pride flags slashed, police looking for info

Pride flags in downtown Poulsbo were slashed just hours after they were installed this weekend, according to police.

"I move that city council direct city staff to raise the pride flag in front of city hall for the duration of the month of June, also widely known as Pride Month," motioned Newcastle councilmember Paul Charbonneau at a city council meeting on June 4.

While some supported raising the flag, others did not.

"If we start raising flags, we got to raise everybody - we want a Hamas flag flying over, you know, the city of Newcastle, or MAGA flag? How about a Trump flag or an Antifa flag? We're not going there folks, not while I’m the mayor, I’m sorry. So this is already an inclusive city with an inclusive flag that flies 24/7 over our city, we include everybody," said Mayor Robert Clark during the June 4 city council meeting.

Charbonneau grew up in Newcastle and was in disbelief when he heard those comments.

"It was jarring to me, I was really surprised to hear it, I think a lot of people were surprised to hear it," Charbonneau said.

He adds, the part that really hurt him was that he brought this forward to recognize a group of people.

"I was terrified that I exposed these folks to more harm because they had to listen to that and that hurt," Charbonneau said.

After a 4-to-3 vote, the city council chose not to raise the flag in front of city hall this Pride Month.

FOX 13 reached out to Mayor Clark. He sent us this statement:

"My position is that government should be very limited. The first amendment was created for a reason. To allow freedom of assembly, speech and religion. The government has no right to tell people what to say, what to think or what to do. Provided, of course that people are exercising their rights peacefully and legally. Raising a flag or issuing a statement says this is what the government believes and since the government represents all the people the clear inference is that everyone in the community also believes it. This is false on every issue, no matter how harmless.
My position would not change no matter the social or cultural issue at hand. There is no possible way to achieve unanimity of thought and belief. Pride month has nothing to do with my view, it just happens to be the catalyst for objection. I have avoided proclamations on a variety of subjects since January and nobody has voiced a concern.
I encourage anyone who has a belief, custom or tradition to honor and respect that and to peacefully celebrate it. Nobody from Newcastle will object, least of all me. I spent 10 years in the military to protect the rights in the constitution and 80 years ago thousands died and were wounded in Normandy to do the same thing. I would not disrespect their memory by stifling personal rights as a public official.
If people want to celebrate pride month in their own way, I will cheer them on. I will not however, tell the rest of the community that they also must cheer them on and the government raising the flag would say that.
I am aware that many people cannot (or will not) agree with me but I am firm in my beliefs."

A community pride event is scheduled for 5 p.m. Lake Boren Park in Newcastle on Tuesday, June 18th, Charbonneau told FOX 13.