Huron East Council votes to fly Pride flag

BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN

With little discussion or controversy, Huron East Council voted to fly the Pride flag at its municipal office and declare June as Pride Month.

 

At its May 16 meeting, council received a request from Huron County Pride to fly the flag and make the declaration, two moves that have stirred emotions and found varying levels of support from councillors in Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh and North Huron and were turned down in Central Huron.

 

Mayor Bernie MacLellan voiced a concern about setting a precedent, wondering if, by agreeing to fly the Pride flag, that the municipality would then be bombarded with requests to fly other flags. Deputy-Mayor Alvin McLellan echoed the mayor, though both noted they were very supportive of inclusion.

 

Councillor Larry McGrath said councillors should apply their own judgment when requests such as the one from Huron County Pride come in and make decisions on a case-by-case basis. He said he was supportive of flying the flag and, if council were to get another flag request that was less than agreeable - using a request to fly a Nazi flag as an example of a clear situation in which council would say no - council could have that discussion at the time. As for the Pride flag, however, he didn’t see a reason not to fly it.

 

He also added that he didn’t see the floodgates opening up for flag requests as a result of this decision. The mayor, however, wondered aloud if the situation might have been different had the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup, which elicited chuckles from around the council table.

 

Council voted to fly the Pride flag at the municipal office in Seaforth and declare June as being Pride Month in the municipality.