Run this one up the old flag pole and see if anyone salutes.
Posted on 06/08/2005 12:10:41 PM PDT by andyk
A federal judge is siding with homosexual activists in America's oldest city, ordering the city of St. Augustine, Fla., to fly 49 "gay-pride" flags on its Bridge of Lions.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. says the rainbow banners are to be flown for six days starting today.
"Permitting a group to fly their flag from the Bridge of Lions enables that group to say 'We exist and this is what we stand for,'" said Karen Doering, staff attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights. "By denying this application, these city administrators are denying my clients their constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of speech and equal access under the law. That violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments."
The judicial mandate comes in connection with a lawsuit filed by Rev. Ruth Jensen and Vicki Waldren of the St. Augustine Pride Committee and other pro-homosexual groups, after the city rejected a request to display the banners for a week during June, which is "gay pride" month.
Adams' decision was based in part on First Amendment violations and "irreparable harm and loss if they are prohibited from flying their rainbow flags during the week of the annual gay pride celebration," according to the Florida Times-Union.
The Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine
Jensen, a homosexual-rights activist, had been told by the city the flags could not fly on the bridge, as the structure was reserved for groups of historical significance.
"It goes to affirm for us the importance of following through and not accepting a decision that we don't believe is right," Jensen told the paper. "All too often, groups, particularly minority groups, listen to the decisions that are handed down and accept them without attempting to remedy them."
Attorney Sonya Hoener, who represented the city, said the plaintiffs did not have legal standing to file the suit and suffered no injuries by St. Augustine's rejection.
"Plaintiffs are trying to attribute bad motives to the city when there are none on the record," Hoener said.
She pointed out that the group was allowed last year to carry the flags across the bridge, and allowing the banners might prompt others, such as anti-homosexual groups, to request to fly flags.
The "gay-pride" flag, designed by Gilbert Baker, debuted in 1978 at San Francisco's Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade, with the colors said to represent life, healing, the sun, harmony and spirit.
According to the city's website, St. Augustine, founded in 1565, is the "oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the United States. Forty-two years before the English colonized Jamestown and fifty-five years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the Spanish established at St. Augustine this nation's first enduring settlement."
I know who wears the pants in her house.
Ewwww.....there isn't enough beer in the world for me to even consider it.....
Ordered to fly the fag flag?
Run this one up the old flag pole and see if anyone salutes.
They should just ignore this guy.
Force them to send in Federal Troops to raise a Queer flag.
I don't see Bush II doing that.
Man oh man. Every time I see a real lesbian, I can't help but think that all the porno movies I've ever seen have been made by liars.
The Fag Flag is Flapping in the Breeze!
More proof of legislation from the bench - Is anyone keeping a notebook? I would imagine it's getting pretty thick by now!
REMEMBER THIS WHEN JUDGE HENRY LEE ADAMS JR. comes before the voters to be reelected.
Judge appointed in 1993, silly, you know he'd rule in favor of gay "rights."
The City of Saint Augustines website is factually incorrect when it say's it's the oldest city in America.
The oldest city in America is Pensacola, Florida, http://www.pensacolahistory.org/
Founded in 1559 by the Spaniards.
Secondly, the City of Saint Augustine could legitamately claim to be a city of five flags, so maybe Saint Augustine should fly the Battle Flag from the bridge too.
the whole idea is just pathetic.
Libertarian Ping! I'd like to see more information on what groups have flown flags in the past here etc... IMO, the biggest issue coming out of this is that if Government didn't own the bridge then there wouldn't be this dispute! (the same thing happens in public skrewls and any other 'public' property)
They'd figure some way around this ruling if some group wanted to fly a Nazi swastica or confederate flag. Just my opinion of course.
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Your opinion doesn't count. What the heck do you know? After all, you are only a mere citizen... /sarcasm :)
State a moral case to a plowman and a professor. The former will decide it as well, and often better than the latter, because he has not been led astray by artificial rules.
-Thomas Jefferson
B.S.......but I expect nothing BUT such nonsense from the courts any more.
"This is not my fault."
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