Thank you for a better article on this. The IT just has no desire, or maybe ability, to convey the tensions in the room that night, or the actual debate that has been going on.
Trustee Bell either has not researched this, as you said he was “testing” different ideas, and maybe did not have the opportunity to study the Constitution in High School about the separation of Church and State… many of us know what that means. That is one reason for the surprise/gasps in the room… difficult to stomach.
I was surprised to find the Superintendent and the Board President thinking flying a “Christian” flag would somehow be legal, or even appropriate. We had a Christian there who spoke during comments that the Rainbow Pride flag “indoctrinates” other non-LGBTQ+ students into blasphemy.
We live in 2026, not 1650, Christians are not marginalized by any means.
Article snippet is good detail:
“He argued that Christian students might want to have a flag supporting Christianity. That issue prompted a question to Superintendent Sutter, who responded it was his understanding that allowing religious flags would be considered problematic, but not necessarily illegal.
That statement ignores clearly articulated federal and state law holding that religious flags on government buildings violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from endorsing a specific religion. Frequently cited on this issue is the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shurtleff v. City of Boston, that determined flags flown on government flagpoles are considered “government speech.”
— James Westly (via Facebook)
The solution is to fly the flag of the only group still denied legal equality.
It is a false equivalence to compare the gay equal rights flag to flags of groups that already enjoy equal protections of the laws. It is verifiably false that all flags are equal.
The bias, is ignoring that no other groups are denied legal equality. Ignoring that documented legal inequality, is bias.
Religious beliefs are specifically protected from denial of equal rights. Their equal rights are enshrined in the Constitution. There is no comparison between those who enjoy such legal protections, and those who have been denied those equal protections their entire lives.
Comparing religious groups to gay equal rights, is an example of giving one group opportunities that the other group does not get. Christians are privileged in the law, while gay people are stigmatized and degraded by denial of equal legal protections. The comparison demeans, devalues, and disrespects the equal rights of lgbt+ people.
The push to “fly all flags” is coming from the board, and intended to remove the Pride flag and possibly replace it with others that already enjoy equal protections of the laws and safety on campus, or simply to remove it entirely.
The Pride flag should fly every day that full equal protections of the laws continue to be denied.