Town refuses to fly rainbow pride flag
By MICHAEL LIGHTSTONE Staff Reporter | 4:41 AM
Truro town hall won’t be flying a gay-rights flag when the community’s inaugural gay-pride celebration begins Monday.
Mayor Bill Mills said Friday that town council decided recently the town would not hoist a rainbow-coloured banner on municipal property, turning down a formal request from the local gay-pride group to do so.
He said the politicians held an informal vote — it wasn’t done during an official council session — and decided 6-1 against raising the symbolic flag.
"On this given week, in Truro, Nova Scotia, council saw fit to say: ‘No, we don’t think we’ll do this,’ " the mayor said.
Mr. Mills said that as a practising Christian, he personally doesn’t condone homosexuality or support same-sex marriage. He acknowledged gay rights have been "sort of a lightning-rod issue" for him during his political career. Mr. Mills has been mayor for 10 years and a member of Truro council for 20.
"I do happen to believe what’s in the Scriptures, and on that basis it puts me in kind of a hard spot to support same-sex marriage or gay pride," he told The Chronicle Herald. "It comes down to what you believe."
Mr. Mills said he knew the time would come when a gay-rights event would be floated by council and he would have to offer his personal views against a request for support from the local homosexual and lesbian community.
"I’ve been expecting this for 10 years," he said of the issue finally surfacing on his watch.
Residents commenting on a televised newscast blasted the mayor, saying his views smack of intolerance. One said it harks back to the pre-civil rights days of the American South in the 1950s.
But another, Frances Morrison, told CBC-TV she felt that Mr. Mills and council did the right thing.
"He’s expressed the point of view of a large silent minority," she said.
Al McNutt, a well-known gay-rights activist in Truro, said town hall’s decision not to let the flag fly is disappointing, to say the least.
"We’ve come so far in the last few years," said the gay father of two, who used to teach at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Bible Hill. He told the CBC that it’s a blow to the gay community for something like the flag denial to happen now.
The Town of Truro’s position is in contrast with that of other Canadian cities and towns, including Halifax. In metro, a Pride Week flag is raised outside city hall, the mayor signs a proclamation, councillors ride on a Halifax Regional Municipality float and city police officers and firefighters march in the annual gay-pride parade.
Mayor Peter Kelly took part in the parade in Halifax last month for the first time since he was elected in 2000.
Mr. Mills said the Town of Truro employs gay workers and he’s hoping councillors’ refusal to fly the rainbow flag won’t jeopardize the "good working relationship" he’s had with them. "They have the same rights and provisions (under human rights legislation) that everybody else has."
Asked whether he’s worried Truro’s reputation might be damaged because people could perceive it to be an unwelcoming place, Mr. Mills said he certainly is.
"That’s always the fear," Mr. Mills said of the potential negative impact. But he said he reckons a majority of local residents support council’s decision.
"When you put the flag up, then what you’re doing in one sense is you’re endorsing gay pride," Mr. Mills said. "Is that the position the Town of Truro should be in?"
A Truro newspaper Friday pub-lished 25 comments relating to an article it ran about the flag flap. Five comments were in support of town council, eight were neutral (or unclear) and 12 opposed council’s decision.
The mayor said the town won’t raise a flag simply because some group asks it to.
"There has to be some kind of standard," Mr. Mills said.
But he noted that council has approved a request to fly an AIDS awareness flag in the fall.
"It’s not just a gay disease," he said. "It affects many people."
Mr. Mills didn’t rule out a future debate in the council chamber — in public — about the gay-rights flag issue.
’When you put the flag up, then what you’re doing in one sense is you’re endorsing gay pride. . . . Is that the position the Town of Truro should be in?’
Truro mayor bill millsTown council voted 6-1 against flying rainbow flag at town hall for gay-pride week
Town refuses to fly rainbow pride flag
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