By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — In the short-term, at least, there will be no changes to the town’s Flag Policy with respect to allowing flags other than the United States flag to be flown on flagpoles around town.
There will be no new flagpoles purchased either, but Wakefield Human Rights Commission (WHRC) is reaching out to the Board of Library Trustees to request permission to display its Pride and Juneteenth flags from a presently unused pole in front of the Beebe Library building.
All of this came out of last night’s Town Council meeting as a continuation of a discussion from its last meeting. The WHRC had requested for an expansion of the town’s Flag Policy, which since 2019 has allowed the Pride Flag to be flown on the Americal Civic Center flagpole in connection with Pride Month.
At the April 12 Town Council meeting, Human Rights Commission Chair Benny Wheat had claimed that the HRC had been hearing from members of the community who wanted the Pride and Juneteenth flags to be displayed in more visible locations. She also explained that, since Pride Week and Juneteenth both occur in June, being limited to one flag pole presented scheduling problems. Having more pole options would allow both flags to be flown simultaneously on separate poles.
Wheat had requested that all public flag poles in town be available for displaying other flags in addition to the US flag, with the exception of the flag pole on Veterans Memorial Common and those at the schools. At minimum, she wanted the flag poles at the Civic Center, Town Hall and Veterans Field to be available for other flags besides just the American flag.
At their April 12 meeting, a majority of the Town Council appeared to agree with Wheat’s request and Town Counsel Thomas Mullen was assigned to revise the Flag Policy accordingly.
But the issue raised concerns among members of the Veterans Advisory Board, and WHRC chair Benny Wheat was invited to last week’s VAB meeting to discuss the matter.
At that meeting, members of the Veterans Advisory Board expressed support for the flying of the Pride and Juneteenth flags, but members voiced unified opposition to any flag other than the POW-MIA flag flying on the same public flagpole as the United States flag.
A suggestion came out of that meeting that the WHRC could request that the town purchase and install additional flagpoles from which the Pride, Juneteenth and possibly other flags could be flown.
At last night’s Town Council meeting councilors liked the idea of additional flagpoles, but Councilor Edward Dombroski cautioned against making any decision on the policy or purchasing new flagpoles pending the disposition of a case currently before the United States Supreme Court.
The case stems from a First Amendment challenge that began in 2017, when the group Camp Constitution asked to fly a Christian flag with a Latin cross on city of Boston property to celebrate Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.
The request was denied by the city, which said that it had not allowed religious banners to be flown on its flagpoles in the past. The city has, however, flown “gay pride” flags on its public flagpoles.
The city of Boston allows private groups to celebrate events and fly flags on City Hall’s flagpoles, making them a public forum. Groups need to obtain permission to display their flags.
Dombroski said that the Supreme Court case would be “determinative” when it comes to whether municipalities can “pick and choose” what flags can and cannot be flown.
He said that he supported the library flagpole idea as a solution for getting through the short term.
Town Counsel Mullen said that his concern was that the town might be forced to raise the Confederate or Nazi flag, if such a request were ever made.
“If we create a public forum,” Mullen warned, “we have to allow anyone to speak and can’t have viewpoint discrimination.”
Town Councilor Ann Santos agreed, saying that the Supreme Court case worried her. She didn’t think the town should make any changes or purchase any new flagpoles until after that case is decided.
There was some discussion of various ways to parse the policy so that it would pass muster.
But Mullen warned that a group could still challenge the town. He said that someone could argue that if the WHRC gets to fly its Pride and Juneteenth flags on public property, other groups should get to fly theirs as well.
Mullen recommended leaving the Flag Policy alone for the time being.
Dombroski made a motion to endorse the WHRC’s request to use the library’s second flagpole to fly the Pride and Juneteenth flags this coming June.
