Town leaders to mull public flag restrictions

Proposed policy would give control to Manchester board

MANCHESTER — A proposed policy in Manchester that rose from the display of the Rainbow Flag, a symbol of LGBTQpride, says only town leaders can decide which banners to raise on public ground.

The board of directors will consider the proposal at its meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Issues that the board sought to clarify, according to Assistant Town Attorney John Sullivan, centered on the three flag poles at Center and Main Streets, which typically fly the American, state and townflags. TheRainbow flag has been raised on the pole usually reserved for the town flag.

No individual or organization has complained that the town rejected their flag, General ManagerScott Shanley said Monday,

“but rather we are anticipating that somebody might ask and we need to be sure that we’re all on the same page as far as the policy is concerned.”

Sullivan cited a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that government speech is different from private speech — that while the Constitution restricts government regulation of private speech, it does not regulate government speech. The proposed policy says the town flag pole represents a “non-public forum” controlled by the local government’s legislative body, the board of directors.

“Consequently, the Manchester town government can say whatever it wants through its flag display without having to give equal time to an opposing side,” Sullivan wrote.

Commemorative or organizational flags that would not be allowed under the policy include banners “of a particular religious movement or creed,” political party flags and flags “that enable violence, discrimination, prejudice, or racism.”

Protesters have demanded removal of the Thin Blue Line flag outside Manchester police headquarters, calling it a racist response to the Black Lives Matter movement, but Sullivan said the board of directors would have to makethe final decision on that flag as well.

The issue of flags on public property recently arose in NewBritain as well, where the city administration approved a local organization’s request to raise a Christian banner at Central Park. The ACLU of Connecticut said the flag raising was entirely Constitutional as long as the city offered the same accommodation to any other group.

Mayor Erin Stewart did not respond to questions last week about whether the city was prepared to fly flags of other religions or of atheist groups, or whether it has received such requests before. Instead, her staff issued a statement saying the flag raising had been requested by an alliance of Latino ministers in the city to celebrate Easter weekend.

Boston officials in 2017 denied a request from a religious group called Camp Constitution to fly a Christian flag outside city hall. Only after rejecting the request, however, did city officials draft formal rules on displaying flags deemed “inappropriate or offensive in nature or those supporting discrimination, prejudice, or religious movements,” The Boston Globe reported last year.

The city’s stance is the same as the one Sullivan laid out in the proposed Manchester policy — that publicly-owned flagpoles are the government’s dominion and the governmentcannot be compelled to display any flag.

The case is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court after the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the city’s position, according to Camp Constitution. The organization says the city had denied no other flag displays, including the Rainbow Flag and banners of communist nations, before rejecting the Christian flag.